published Mar 26, 2018, 3:43:58 PM, by Polly Mosendz
(Bloomberg) —
As U.S. equities surged more than 2.7 percent Monday, shares in publicly traded firearms companies dropped in the wake of fresh bankruptcy news for Remington Outdoor Co. and weekend rallies in favor of gun control that drew hundreds of thousands of demonstrators.

At market close, American Outdoor Brands Corp., formerly Smith & Wesson, was down 2.3 percent. Vista Outdoor Inc. had dropped by about 3.8 percent, while Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. had fallen by less than 1 percent.

These declines, on a day when the S&P 500 saw its biggest one-day jump since August 2015, came on the heels of mounting frustrations for the firearms industry. Beyond Remington’s bankruptcy filing and the nationwide protests, last week also brought a proposal by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to ban bump stocks as well as passage of a $1.3 trillion spending bill with provisions to bolster federal background checks for gun purchases and to conduct research on gun violence.

Remington Outdoor Co. filed for bankruptcy Sunday evening. The 200-year-old firearms company was controlled by Cerberus Capital Management and was saddled with nearly $1 billion in debt. Remington announced it would file for bankruptcy on Feb. 12, two days before the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting that left 17 dead. Activists from that high school led the the March For Our Lives rally over the weekend.

To contact the author of this story: Polly Mosendz in New York at pmosendz@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Aaron Rutkoff at arutkoff@bloomberg.net
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