Markets

30 Years of Gun Manufacturing in America

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1 year ago

May 26, 2022

Nick Routley

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30 Years of Gun Manufacturing in America

While gun sales have been brisk in recent years, the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 was a boon for the gun industry.

From 2010-2019, an average of 13 million guns were sold legally in the U.S. each year. In 2020 and 2021, annual gun sales sharply increased to 20 million.

While the U.S. does import millions of weapons each year, a large amount of firearms sold in the country were produced domestically. Let’s dig into the data behind the multi-billion dollar gun manufacturing industry in America.

Gun Manufacturing in the United States

According to a recent report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the U.S. has produced nearly 170 million firearms over the past three decades, with production increasing sharply in recent years.

firearms per 100000 persons

America’s gunmakers produce a wide variety of firearms, but they’re generally grouped into five categories; pistols, rifles, shotguns, revolvers, and everything else.

Below is a breakdown of firearms manufactured in the country over the past 30 years, by type:

Year	Pistols	Rifles	Revolvers	Shotguns	Misc. Firearms	Total Firearms
1989	1,404,753	1,407,400	628,573	935,541	42,126	4,418,393
1990	1,371,427	1,211,664	470,495	848,948	57,434	3,959,968
1991	1,378,252	883,482	456,966	828,426	15,980	3,563,106
1992	1,669,537	1,001,833	469,413	1,018,204	16,849	4,175,836
1993	2,093,362	1,173,694	562,292	1,144,940	81,349	5,055,637
1994	2,004,298	1,316,607	586,450	1,254,926	10,936	5,173,217
1995	1,195,284	1,411,120	527,664	1,173,645	8,629	4,316,342
1996	987,528	1,424,315	498,944	925,732	17,920	3,854,439
1997	1,036,077	1,251,341	370,428	915,978	19,680	3,593,504
1998	960,365	1,535,690	324,390	868,639	24,506	3,713,590
1999	995,446	1,569,685	335,784	1,106,995	39,837	4,047,747
2000	962,901	1,583,042	318,960	898,442	30,196	3,793,541
2001	626,836	1,284,554	320,143	679,813	21,309	2,932,655
2002	741,514	1,515,286	347,070	741,325	21,700	3,366,895
2003	811,660	1,430,324	309,364	726,078	30,978	3,308,404
2004	728,511	1,325,138	294,099	731,769	19,508	3,099,025
2005	803,425	1,431,372	274,205	709,313	23,179	3,241,494
2006	1,021,260	1,496,505	385,069	714,618	35,872	3,653,324
2007	1,219,664	1,610,923	391,334	645,231	55,461	3,922,613
2008	1,609,381	1,734,536	431,753	630,710	92,564	4,498,944
2009	1,868,258	2,248,851	547,195	752,699	138,815	5,555,818
2010	2,258,450	1,830,556	558,927	743,378	67,929	5,459,240
2011	2,598,133	2,318,088	572,857	862,401	190,407	6,541,886
2012	3,487,883	3,168,206	667,357	949,010	306,154	8,578,610
2013	4,441,726	3,979,570	725,282	1,203,072	495,142	10,844,792
2014	3,633,454	3,379,549	744,047	935,411	358,165	9,050,626
2015	3,557,199	3,691,799	885,259	777,273	447,131	9,358,661
2016	4,720,075	4,239,335	856,291	848,617	833,123	11,497,441
2017	3,691,010	2,504,092	720,917	653,139	758,634	8,327,792
2018	3,881,158	2,880,536	664,835	536,126	1,089,973	9,052,628
2019	3,046,013	1,957,667	580,601	480,735	946,929	7,011,945
Total	60,804,840	59,796,760	15,826,964	26,241,134	6,298,415	168,968,113

Pistols (36%) and rifles (35%) are the dominant categories, and over time, the former has become the most commonly produced firearm type.

In 2001, pistols accounted for 21% of firearms produced. Today, nearly half of all firearms produced are pistols.

Who is Producing America’s Firearms?

There are a wide variety of firearm manufacturing companies in the U.S., but production is dominated by a few key players.

Here are the top 10 gunmakers in America, which collectively make up 70% of production:

Rank	Firearm Manufacturer	Guns Produced (2016-2020)	Share of total
1	Smith & Wesson Corp	8,218,199	17.2%
2	Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc	8,166,448	17.1%
3	Sig Sauer Inc	3,660,629	7.7%
4	Freedom Group	3,045,427	6.4%
5	0 F Mossberg & Sons Inc	2,223,241	4.7%
6	Taurus International Manufacturing	1,996,121	4.2%
7	WM C Anderson Inc	1,816,625	3.8%
8	Glock Inc	1,510,437	3.2%
9	Henry RAC Holding Corp	1,378,544	2.9%
10	JIE Capital Holdings / Enterprises	1,258,969	2.6%
Total		33,274,640	69.7%

One-third of production comes from two publicly-traded parent companies: Smith & Wesson (NASDAQ: SWBI), and Sturm, Ruger & Co. (NYSE: RGR)

Some of these players are especially dominant within certain types of firearms. For example:

58% of pistols were made by Smith & Wesson, Ruger, and SIG SAUER (2008–2018)
45% of rifles were made by Remington*, Ruger, and Smith & Wesson (2008–2018)

*In 2020, Remington filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and its assets were divided and sold to various buyers. The Remington brand name is now owned by Vista Outdoor (NYSE: VSTO)

The Geography of Gun Manufacturing

Companies that manufacture guns hold a Type 07 license from the ATF. As of 2020, there are more than 16,000 Type 07 licensees across the United States.

Below is a state-level look at where the country’s licensees are located:

State	Licenses (2000)	Licenses (2020)	Population	Licenses per 100,000 pop. (2020)
Alaska	8	117	733,391	16.0
Alabama	40	276	5,039,877	5.5
Arkansas	28	302	3,011,524	10.0
Arizona	100	959	7,276,316	13.2
California	159	620	39,237,836	1.6
Colorado	27	481	5,812,069	8.3
Connecticut	71	194	3,605,944	5.4
Delaware	0	10	989,948	1.0
Florida	131	1,009	21,781,128	4.6
Georgia	52	510	10,799,566	4.7
Hawaii	0	11	1,455,271	0.8
Iowa	11	187	3,190,369	5.9
Idaho	38	358	1,839,106	19.5
Illinois	40	263	12,671,469	2.1
Indiana	39	280	6,805,985	4.1
Kansas	17	229	2,937,880	7.8
Kentucky	22	211	4,505,836	4.7
Louisiana	20	258	4,657,757	5.5
Massachusetts	67	263	6,984,723	3.8
Maryland	36	146	6,165,129	2.4
Maine	13	107	1,362,359	7.9
Michigan	43	386	10,050,811	3.8
Minnesota	63	254	5,707,390	4.5
Missouri	62	401	6,168,187	6.5
Mississippi	12	190	2,961,279	6.4
Montana	24	240	1,084,225	22.1
North Carolina	52	628	10,551,162	6.0
North Dakota	3	46	779,094	5.9
Nebraska	15	91	1,961,504	4.6
New Hampshire	25	188	1,377,529	13.6
New Jersey	10	26	9,267,130	0.3
New Mexico	18	179	2,117,522	8.5
Nevada	45	276	3,104,614	8.9
New York	35	299	19,835,913	1.5
Ohio	80	644	11,780,017	5.5
Oklahoma	37	423	3,959,353	10.7
Oregon	55	226	4,237,256	5.3
Pennsylvania	87	519	12,964,056	4.0
Rhode Island	1	20	1,097,379	1.8
South Carolina	25	284	5,190,705	5.5
South Dakota	14	79	886,667	8.9
Tennessee	76	352	6,975,218	5.0
Texas	150	2,022	29,527,941	6.8
Utah	33	478	3,271,616	14.6
Virginia	48	412	8,642,274	4.8
Vermont	15	85	643,077	13.2
Washington	49	351	7,738,692	4.5
Wisconsin	38	306	5,895,908	5.2
West Virginia	20	115	1,793,716	6.4
Wyoming	20	147	576,851	25.5

These manufacturers are located all around the country, so these numbers are somewhat reflective of population. Unsurprisingly, large states like Texas and Florida have the most licensees.

Sorting by the number of licensees per 100,000 people offers a different point of view. By this measure, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho come out on top.

If recent sales and production trends are any indication, these numbers may only continue to grow.

Related Topics:manufacturing guns firearm industry gun production

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From Apple to NVIDIA, megacap stocks are fueling S&P 500 returns. The majority of these firms are also investing heavily in AI.

Creator Program

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Just 20 Stocks Have Driven Most of S&P 500 Returns

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The above graphic from Truman Du shows which stocks are making up the vast majority of S&P 500 returns amid AI market euphoria and broader market headwinds.

Big Tech Stock Rally

Tech and AI stocks have soared as ChatGPT became a household name in 2023.

The below table shows data from last month, highlighting that just a small collection of companies drove most of the action on the U.S. benchmark index.

Company Rank	Name	Contribution to S&P 500 Return	Average Weight
1	Apple	1.49%	6.61%
2	Microsoft	1.15%	5.72%
3	NVIDIA	1.00%	1.62%
4	Meta	0.66%	1.15%
5	Amazon	0.51%	2.56%
6	Tesla	0.50%	1.39%
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8	Alphabet (Class C Shares)	0.31%	1.53%
9	Salesforce	0.19%	0.51%
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14	Intel	0.09%	0.35%
15	Walt Disney	0.08%	0.55%
16	Booking Holdings	0.07%	0.28%
17	Exxon Mobil	0.06%	1.37%
18	Netflix	0.06%	0.44%
19	Oracle	0.06%	0.40%
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*Based on the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF as of April 11, 2023. Source: Vanguard S&P500 ETF, Bloomberg.

Microsoft invested $10 billion into OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT. It has also integrated generative AI into its search engine Bing. This large language model is designed specifically to make search capabilities faster, generate text, and perform other automations.

Also of interest is NVIDIA, which is the most valuable chipmaker in America. It sells $10,000 chips called A100s that allow machine learning models to run. These models perform multiple tasks simultaneously to develop neural networks and train AI systems, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Companies that are developing AI-related services, such as chatbots or image generation, may use up to thousands of these chips.

Despite being the world’s most valuable company and a key driver of returns, Apple is an outlier among tech giants with no major projects announced in AI (so far).

Implications of Market Divergence

The problem with the strong gains seen in a few select AI-related stocks is that it clouds wider stock market performance.

Without the AI-led rally, the S&P 500 would be returning -1.4%. as of May 17, 2023.

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A handful of stocks are spearheading the S&P 500's impressive 9% rally this year.

Here’s the kicker: if you excluded AI stocks, the S&P 500 would be down over 1% (according to Societe Generale). pic.twitter.com/SME1mJVpoW

— Rowan Cheung (@rowancheung) May 22, 2023

This form of steep divergence, known as market breadth, often signals higher risk in the market.

When more companies experience positive returns it is less risky than a small handful seeing the majority of the gains. Today market breadth is very narrow, and these companies make up over 29% of the entire index’s market capitalization.

How long AI-related firms mask the broader performance of the S&P 500 remains to be seen. A growing number of market pressures, from higher interest rates to banking uncertainty could add further challenges.