Smith and Wesson is firing on all cylinders.

I have a friend on social media who, for years, has constantly raged against guns.

Despite having a wife and two young daughters, he’s posted things such as, “Only a pathetic person would need a gun to defend himself.”

I haven’t seen any such posts in a while.

And that makes me wonder if he — like surely many others — has converted.

Perhaps he’s been transformed by the news, by videos of crowds in the streets committing violence. Maybe he’s had a change of heart amid brutal mobs making chaos en masse.

Such conversions have no doubt helped fuel the nearly 5 million gun sales transpiring over the last few months. And as we near November, there’s no sign of stopping.

As I covered Wednesday, August saw a record number of firearm purchases — at least 1.6 million.

It makes sense — after all, agents of change on television and the web are laying it out: Submit or get rolled over; we’re coming for you.

Take a peek (Language Warning):

.#BlackLivesMatter activist in Chicago: “We have demands and they need to be met … we’re not asking you anything. We’re telling you what’s about to happen with your permission or not. … You can listen to us or you can get ran over.” pic.twitter.com/yEXFT4LOv9

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 22, 2020

Public Disturbance in Portland – The protesters have vowed to wake up the entire neighborhood as they march through tonight, an act of non-violent civil disobedience #Portland #PortlandProtests pic.twitter.com/56UtEQ3Vxn

— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) August 21, 2020

It's truly sick@ParaleeAC pic.twitter.com/ddOEAsTFsX

— 🎬☣️Spurgly Durglish☣️🎬 (@SpurglyD) August 30, 2020

“I am not sad that a f—ing fascist died tonight,” says a woman at the antifa gathering in downtown Portland. The crowd laughs and cheers. The ID of the deceased is not confirmed but he is believed to be a Trump & blue lives supporter. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/XV6471FSuF

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 30, 2020

Rochester, N.Y.: #BLM rioters swarm a restaurant and knock over the dining tables. pic.twitter.com/lxa0b5hHeh

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) September 5, 2020

https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1302076668052299777

It’s no surprise an American gun-making behemoth had an unprecedentedly great first quarter of the year.

As reported by The Washington Free Beacon, Smith & Wesson — one of just two publicly-traded firearms manufacturers in the U.S. — experienced a 140% increase in sales from May through July, during which it sold 584,000 blasters.

However, the demand’s overwhelmingly exceeded the supply. So the company’s beefing up its efforts.

During a Thursday call with investors, CEO Mark Smith explained:

“As we’ve seen before during these surge periods, these results reflect that despite our record numbers in market share growth, consumer demand for our products during the quarter still exceeded our internal manufacturing capacity levels. We’re continuing to ramp up…. We’re going to go to maximum capacity.”

That’s a good idea. In fact, even in Los Angeles — land of the liberal — some gun stores have resorted to by-appointment-only.

As it turns out, when the world burns, everyone wants to be a fireman.

And boy, are we ablaze.

From the Beacon:

The move comes as Americans have rushed to gun stores at a record pace since March. The first eight months of 2020 have already seen more gun sales than all of 2019. Smith echoed remarks made in July by the CEO of Sturm, Ruger & Co., the other publicly traded American gun company, when he said demand was beyond anything he had previously encountered.

“When we get into these surge environments like this, and as you can see from the [gun background check numbers] we’ve never seen one quite this high, the demand in the industry just outstrips the industry’s ability to supply,” Smith said. “And we’re no different. You can look at the inventory numbers from us and from some of the other firearms retailers, and manufacturers, and I think we’re just out of inventory.”

National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) spokesman Mark Oliva agrees — people are coo-coo for hand-cannons. But if companies overstock their employment roster, they’ll eventually crash along with the demand:

“It’s a demand issue. It’s not a supply issue. Materials are there, the labor force is there, but before [a] manufacturer is going to invest on hiring more people, adding another shift, buying more machinery, they want to be sure. I mean, that’s a very costly thing to do. And nobody wants to lay people off when things go down and eventually this will settle out. The question is where will it settle out and when?”

Well, thanks to lax Democratic leadership in major cities, the chaos looks primed to continue.

So will, no doubt, the drive of Americans to find ways to defend those they love.

And that’ll take us to November, where I don’t imagine Democrats will prosper from the anarchy in perhaps the way they’ve hoped.

After all, they haven’t exactly discouraged it:

Whoa, brutal ad for Democrats…

pic.twitter.com/JfOkMHD21G

— Molly Prince 🍂 (@mollyfprince) September 3, 2020

The most important video of 2020
pic.twitter.com/3nMNlxl5Q8

— ELIJAH RIOT (@ElijahSchaffer) August 31, 2020

I don’t imagine gun sales dropping any time soon, unless it’s forcibly via Democrat governing. Perhaps measures would be taken toward that if Biden were to triumph, which would only amplify purchases more.

And if Trump wins, let’s just say a few rioters might have something to say about it.

So if you’re a Smith & Wesson stockholder, congratulations. 

The same goes for those who are safer than before. And for any who aren’t: Consider yourself and your family, and determine measures to make your lives more secure.

Presently — and foreseeably — it’s a dangerous world.

-ALEX

See more pieces from me:

Fox Contributor Filets Biden and Harris Over Riotous Silence at the DNC

Van Jones Shanks Dems Over Riot Response, but for the Wrong Reason

Minnesota School Superintendent Welcomes Back Teachers, Tells Them to ‘Examine’ Their ‘Whiteness’

Find all my RedState work here.

And please follow Alex Parker on Twitter and Facebook.

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