We'd heard a few times lately that the gun stocks (mostly Ruger and Smith & Wesson) had been surging lately, thanks to strong gun sales, but we have to thank Eddy Elfenbein for alerting us to how extreme the moves have been lately.

Ruger is up 14% from the Wednesday close after the gun company announced that it literally could not keep up with demand.

Since last summer, the stock has nearly tripled.

So what's going on? Apparently it has something to do with fears that in a second Obama term -- which appears more likely than it did several months ago -- that stricter firearm controls would be put in place, and so the time to get guns ss now.

From FoxNews:

Gun shop owners around the nation told FoxNews.com that sales, brisk ever since President Obama was elected, have spiked upward in recent months. And manufacturers are having so much trouble keeping up with the demand that one, Sturm, Ruger & Co., can’t keep up with demand. The Southport, Conn.-based company has had to suspend new orders after taking orders for more than 1 million guns in the first three months of the year. Smith & Wesson sales are way up, as well.

“Sales usually increase this time of year with tax returns, but this year has been higher than most,” Mike Weeks, owner of Georgia Gun Store in Gainesville told FoxNews.com. “People are scared their gun rights are going to be curtailed after the election.

Fear that Obama would curtail gun rights prompted similar stories in 2008/2009. At the time, also, it looked like there was a non-trivial chance that the whole economy would collapse, another thing that makes holding guns appealing.

Anyway, the Obama era has clearly been good for gun investors.

As you can see here, Ruger is up nearly 10x since Obama took office.

Click to enlarge.