Obama's Vendetta With Gun Makers: Smith & Wesson Shares Plunge After Call For SEC Investigation

With last week's news of record sales of firearms, the gun control kooks are using the power of government to threaten gun makers. Smith and Wesson shares took a dive when government cronies announced they were going after them. Not the IRS this time, instead the SEC. They are also "applying leveraging" on employee retirement funds to dump stock portfolios that the leftest don't agree with.



www.nytimes.com...

Shareholders would want to know whether Smith & Wesson faced heightened regulatory scrutiny or significant litigation risk, Ms. James said in the letter.

Ms. James is opening a new avenue in her fight against gun sellers and makers. Earlier this month, she called on TD Bank, a big lender, to stop financing Smith & Wesson. This summer, she convinced the New York City Employee Retirement System, the city’s largest pension fund, to explore divesting itself of its holdings of gun retailers like Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

www.blacklistednews.com...'s_Vendetta_With_Gun_Makers_Gets_Personal%3A_Smith_%26_Wesson_Shares_Plunge_After_Call_For_SEC_Investigation/47834 /0/38

www.zerohedge.com...

The irony in all this, of course, was that just last Friday the stock price of Smith & Wesson hit an all time high on expectations gun sales are about to hit even greater all time highs in the coming weeks.

Alas, as it turns out, Obama is not a fan of efficient market irony and instead of letting the chips on gun control fall where they may especially if it means record stock prices for the shareholders of SWHC and RGR, the president - in pulling a page straight out of the "US Government vs Exxon" in which the company will soon be prosecuted over its Global Warming denials as reported previously - has decided to take his vendetta with US gun makers to the next level and as the NYT reported overnight, "the New York City public advocate on Monday asked federal regulators to investigate whether the gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson had made adequate disclosures in its financial statements."

One would think that being in compliance with all existing SEC regulatory requirements would be sufficient, but when one is on Obama's black list there are additional requirements for "adequate disclosure" one must follow, especially the ones that one does not know about because they appear only after the fact.


The NYT continues:
In an eight-page letter, the public advocate, Letitia James, said the Securities and Exchange Commission should examine whether Smith & Wesson misrepresented or omitted information about how often its products are involved in crimes and what it has done to keep its guns out of the hands of criminals.

In the letter "public advocate" Letitia James says that "with the increase in mass shootings, public concern about the proliferation of firearms has animated a national dialogue about gun control measures, interstate gun trafficking, and whether gun manufacturers should take additional steps to ensure that their products do not end up in the hands of criminals," the letter says. “Smith & Wesson knows that it is at risk of grave reputational harm.”

It probably also did not know that the US government is capable of extortion when it does not get its way; it will be quite aware of that now.

Ms. James' punchline: "shareholders would want to know whether Smith & Wesson faced heightened regulatory scrutiny or significant litigation risk."

They would, especially now that the administration of the world's biggest democracy is taking a "negotiating tactic" page right out of Stalinist Russia.

To be sure, this is merely the latest escalation in Obama's witch hunt against gunmakers, of which Lelita James has tasked herself with being the mouthpiece for the administration's relentless attempt to crush the US gun industry.

Finally, if it was Obama's intention to force the shareholders of Smith & Wesson into selling their shares from record high levels, he succeeded, if only for the time being.

Ms. James is opening a new avenue in her fight against gun sellers and makers. Earlier this month, she called on TD Bank, a big lender, to stop financing Smith & Wesson. This summer, she convinced the New York City Employee Retirement System, the city’s largest pension fund, to explore divesting itself of its holdings of gun retailers like Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Why??

What laws have S&W broken?

How much of this can be attributed to the Obama admin, or to the shareholders?

Large United States pension funds have used similar tactics to push big energy companies to disclose more about their climate change-related risks, including spending on Arctic drilling and Canadian oil sands projects. Exxon Mobil is facing new legal challenges by those who argue it should have acted earlier to address the risks of climate change.

Guns could be the next focus of such shareholder efforts, though there were no new gun-related proposals submitted for the 2015 annual shareholder proxies last spring, nor any yet for 2016, according to Institutional Shareholder Services.

Is this being pushed by the shareholders in any way?

In an eight-page letter, the public advocate, Letitia James, said the Securities and Exchange Commission should examine whether Smith & Wesson misrepresented or omitted information about how often its products are involved in crimes and what it has done to keep its guns out of the hands of criminals.

W...T...F does that have to do with it? Are gun companies now expected to keep track of crap like that? I thought it was the government's responsibility to keep track of crime. Another candy ass move by this administration, when they can't get what they want.
How is the manufacturer supposed to know where it's product eventually goes? Does Ford know where every truck is? Was it involved in a crime? Are they going to go after Ford for that? Oh, no. Just the big bad gun makers, who, according to this, should know where every gun is, what is done with it and who owns it.
The poor gun grabbers are so desperate, they'll make up any excuse to go after those scary guns.

a reply to: introvert

I'd ask you to equate gun manufacturers being strong armed to global warming.

originally posted by: rockintitz
a reply to: introvert

I'd ask you to equate gun manufacturers being strong armed to global warming.

I'd rather have this put in proper context.

Is this action solely pushed by the Obama admin, or is this something the shareholders have done?

a reply to: introvert

Whose shareholders? You didn't clarify.

a reply to: DAVID64

LOLOL! Obama can't even tell us where the Fast and Furious Guns from Holder's botched operation went. Now he expects a company to keep up with statistics on millions of firearms?

You make an excellent point.

Who cares about shareholders and stocks dropping.

If they drop, don't sell, they're making record money as we speak so this isn't the time to sell shares anyways.



& also, as introvert said, what the hell is this all about anyways?

Is it an lefty attack or shareholders' repercussions?


That isn't made clear.



The stock market is too complex for one woman's frivolous letter about crime to have any meaningful effect.

a reply to: introvert

The shareholders had nothing to do with it. The woman who filed the complaint, says she thinks it's something they might want to know. Apparently, she knows the minds of every S&W shareholder.
Basically, she's trying to threaten those shareholders or make them sell their stock, for fear of S&W losing profits. Her filing this has the clear intent to cause just that.

Sounds like a good time to buy some gun mfg stocks.

originally posted by: rockintitz
a reply to: introvert

Whose shareholders? You didn't clarify.

The first link mentions "shareholder's efforts". Are these actions part of an Obama admin witch hunt, or shareholders divesting due to improper reporting?

In an eight-page letter, the public advocate, Letitia James, said the Securities and Exchange Commission should examine whether Smith & Wesson misrepresented or omitted information about how often its products are involved in crimes and what it has done to keep its guns out of the hands of criminals.

Did they divest because of potential liability?

originally posted by: DAVID64
a reply to: introvert

The shareholders had nothing to do with it. The woman who filed the complaint, says she thinks it's something they might want to know. Apparently, she knows the minds of every S&W shareholder.
Basically, she's trying to threaten those shareholders or make them sell their stock, for fear of S&W losing profits. Her filing this has the clear intent to cause just that.

That appears to be how the piece was written, but we need more information before we come to any conclusion.

We're not just going to believe what we are told because it fits our agenda, are we?

How much you wanna bet the same people that initiated this also invested heavily after S&W stocks dropped.

originally posted by: rockintitz

Ms. James is opening a new avenue in her fight against gun sellers and makers. Earlier this month, she called on TD Bank, a big lender, to stop financing Smith & Wesson. This summer, she convinced the New York City Employee Retirement System, the city’s largest pension fund, to explore divesting itself of its holdings of gun retailers like Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Why??

What laws have S&W broken?

The laws that King Odumbo pulled out of his ass with a pen and a phone...

originally posted by: M5xaz

originally posted by: rockintitz

Ms. James is opening a new avenue in her fight against gun sellers and makers. Earlier this month, she called on TD Bank, a big lender, to stop financing Smith & Wesson. This summer, she convinced the New York City Employee Retirement System, the city’s largest pension fund, to explore divesting itself of its holdings of gun retailers like Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Why??

What laws have S&W broken?

The laws that King Odumbo pulled out of his ass with a pen and a phone...

Which laws are those?

Can you specify which laws he put in place that apply to this case?

originally posted by: introvert
How much of this can be attributed to the Obama admin, or to the shareholders?

Large United States pension funds have used similar tactics to push big energy companies to disclose more about their climate change-related risks, including spending on Arctic drilling and Canadian oil sands projects. Exxon Mobil is facing new legal challenges by those who argue it should have acted earlier to address the risks of climate change.

Guns could be the next focus of such shareholder efforts, though there were no new gun-related proposals submitted for the 2015 annual shareholder proxies last spring, nor any yet for 2016, according to Institutional Shareholder Services.

Is this being pushed by the shareholders in any way?

Let us look a little deeper into the background of the "shareholders" mentioned by you. Specifically, Institutional Shareholder Services, which is now owned by Vestar Capital Partners.

Looking at the list of 13 Managing Directors, and their political affiliations and party donations we have the following (8 democrats, 2 Republicans, 3 not documented):

• Norman Alpert (Democrat)
  individual-contributors.insidegov.com...
• James Kelley (Democrat)
  individual-contributors.insidegov.com...
  
• Daniel O’Connell (Republican)
  individual-contributors.insidegov.com...[/ur l]
  
• Robert L. Rosner (no affiliation mentioned)
  
• Andrew J. Cavanna (Democrat)
  [url=http://individual-contributors.insidegov.com/l/10979637/Andrew-Cavanna]http://individual-contributors.insidegov.com/l/10979637/Andrew-Cavanna[/ur l]
  
• Steven Della Rocca (Democrat)
  [url=http://individual-contributors.insidegov.com/l/14142708/Steven-Rocca]http://individual-contributors.insidegov.com/l/14142708/Steven-Rocca
• Chris Durbin (Democrat)
  individual-contributors.insidegov.com...
• James L. Elrod. Jr (Democrat)
  individual-contributors.insidegov.com...
  
• Roger C. Holstein (Democrat)
  individual-contributors.insidegov.com...[/ur l]
  
• Kevin A. Mundt (Republican)
  [url=http://individual-contributors.insidegov.com/l/157613/Kevin-Mundt]http://individual-contributors.insidegov.com/l/157613/Kevin-Mundt
  
• Brian P. O’Connor (Democrat)
  [url=http://individual-contributors.insidegov.com/l/10280058/Brian-O-Connor]http://individual-contributors.insidegov.com/l/10280058/Brian-O-Connor[/ur l]
  
• Kenneth J. O’Keefe (no affiliation mentioned)
  
• John B. Stephens (no affiliation mentioned)
  
  

No left leaning bias here...no....none. < rolls eyes >

edit on 12/16/2015 by Krakatoa because: (no reason given)

www.cnn.com...

There is another Obama special for you...screw Congress...let's just executive order some laws because Obama knows best! It's even worse that it's been "go find me ANYTHING I can use to do whatever I want." I don't remember any time where the President has done so much outside, around, and straight through any checks and balances that are supposed to be in place.