Manufacturing Guns in America - A Statistical Summary

While the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, 2022 which took the lives of 22 individuals, received 24 hour a day covering from the media, mass shootings in the United States are far from rare as shown on these screen captures from gunviolencearchive.org which show mass shooting events in the month prior to the Uvalde shooting:

In this posting, we'll look at some interesting firearms data from a recent report released by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives:

 

1.) Under the Gun Control Act (GCA) of 1968 and its amendments, any individual or entity engaged in the business of manufacturing firearms or ammunition must obtain a federal firearms licence of which there are eleven types as follows:

 

2.) All manufacturers must complete an annual Firearms manufacturing and Exportation Report or AMFER.  Here is a graphic showing the growing number of active licensed manufacturers between 2016 and 2020 noting that there is significant underreporting (29.9 percent over five years):

 

3.) Here is a graphic showing the growth in the total number of licensed domestic Gun Control Act firearms  manufactured over the period between 2000 and 2020:

 

Between 2000 and 2020, manufacturing of licensed domestic GCA firearms grew by 187 percent and between 2010 and 2020, grew by 103 percent with the most significant growth taking place between 2010 and 2013.  

  

4.) When measured on a per 100,000 persons in the United States basis, we find the following:

 

Over the twenty years between 2000 and 2020, the American population grew by 18 percent. The number of domestically manufactured firearms per 100,000 persons in the United States basis grew by 187 percent between 2000 and 2020  and by 89 percent over the ten year period between 2010 and 2020.

 

5.) Here is a table showing the top ten parent companies of licensed GCA manufacturers of all types of firearms between 2016 and 2020:

 

The top ten firearms manufacturers produced 69.7 percent of all domestic firearms manufactured between 2016 and 2020.

 

6.) Here is a graphic showing how the types of firearms manufactured has changed over the past two decades:

 

Pistols became the dominant firearm manufactured in the United States in 2010 (with the exception of 2015).  In 2000, the total number of rifles manufactured was 59 percent more than the number of pistols manufactured.  In 2020, 100 percent more pistols than rifles were produced and distributed.  In 2000, pistols constituted 26 percent of all GCA firearms manufactured which grew to 50 percent in 2020.

 

7.) Here is a table showing the top ten parent companies of licensed pistol manufacturers:

 

The top ten pistol manufacturers produced 89.4 percent of all pistols produced between 2016 and 2020.

 

8.) Here is a table showing the top ten parent companies of licensed rifle manufacturers:

 

The top ten rifle manufacturers produced 74.6 percent of all rifles produced between 2016 and 2020.

 

Let's close with this graphic from Visual Capitalist's Nick Routley which very nicely summarizes some of the data in this posting:

 

I hope that this information helps all of us to better understand the manufacturing aspect of America's gun culture.