Shares of gunmaker Sturm, Ruger & Co. (NYSE:RGR) are trading higher today apparently boosted by a surge in sales of handguns in Arizona following the weekend massacre in Tucson by Jared Lee Loughner.

Shares of Sturm were up about 1.40 percent as of 2 p.m. (EDT).

Loughner murdered six people with a Glock and wounded more than a dozen others, including ArizonaCongresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Bloomberg reported that sales of the $499 semi-automatic pistols are surging at Glockmeister stores in Mesa and Phoenix in Arizona. Sales of handguns in other states have also risen, according to federal law enforcement data.

One-day sales of handguns in Arizona jumped 60 percent on January 10, Bloomberg said, compared with the corresponding Monday a year ago, the second-biggest increase of any state in the country, according to the FBI.

From a year earlier, handgun sales rose yesterday by 65 percent in Ohio, 16 percent in California, 38 percent in Illinois and 33 percent in New York, the FBI data revealed, and rose nationally about 5 percent.

However, shares of another prominent U.S. gunmaker, Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:SWHC), are flat.

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