The ultimate in risk mitigation

Not exactly a conventional insurance trend, but it's tough to deny their risk mitigation value. Wine was the un-conventional investment of choice in the last downturn. This time, it's guns. Let's just hope they don't combine the two.

With violence attributed to the economic downturn on the rise, it's with trepidation that we report on a surge in gun sales. With no corresponding increase in the sale of canned goods, we doubt its survivalist nuts. More likely, according to media reports, many see them as solid investments.

The comforting theory is that some gun enthusiasts feel the Obama Administration and a Democratic congress will re-impose a version of an expired federal ban on the sale of assault weapons. If it comes to pass, the value of such weapons could triple in value, according to the Wall Street Journal. Less comforting is the theory sales are fueled by worries about deteriorating public safety as the economy worsens. Strange times indeed.