GrabAGun, an online gun retailer known on Wall Street as “PEW,” went public Wednesday morning as newly minted board member Donald Trump Jr. rang the New York Stock Exchange’s opening bell.
Don Jr. joined the board of GrabAGun Tuesday, ahead of the online gun retailer’s debut on the NYSE. GrabAGun, which sells firearms and accessories online, is backed by 1789 Capital, a private equity firm where Trump Jr. is a partner.
The venture capital firm has a focus on investing in conservative, MAGA-aligned companies, including the Tucker Carlson Network, XA, and SpaceX.
GrabAGun’s shares will trade on the NYSE under the symbol “PEW,” which Trump Jr. says represents the sound of shooting a gun, according to NBC News.
1789 Capital founder and President Omeed Malik’s company, Colombier II, acquired GrabAGun, and after a SPAC merger, the company expects more than $179 million in gross proceeds at the closing bell Wednesday, Malik and Trump Jr. told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo.
“To be able to come back to the New York Stock Exchange and actually take a gun company public, feels like such a vindication of all the insanity, all the woke nonsense that we’ve been watching and facing for the last decade in America,” Trump Jr. said.
Trump Jr. said the company intends to use the technology platform to open up the firearm space and allow more people to gain access to firearms.
“It’s a $25 billion TAM (Total Addressable Market) and it’s been suppressed. So what we’re doing here with this transaction is unleashing the desire for people that already exists,” Malik said.
“You have one out of every two households in America that has a firearm. We have a Second Amendment right. You have private actors, often at the behest of the federal government, have been suppressing that right,” he continued.
“So what Don and I have done is circumvented those gatekeepers, who are self-appointed, and allowed an industry to grow the way it should be able to.”
