Even nearly two years before the coronovirus (COVID-19) swept around the world and touching off panic buying, United States firearms companies were experiencing a ramping up of production.
The Newtown, Connecticut-based National Shooting Sports Foundation – the firearms industry’s actual lobbying and chief spokesman group – reports that for 2018, 11.4 million firearms were produced or else imported in the United States, less those “guns” that were exported.
All of the Shooting Sports Foundation’s figures came from data complied by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Export Report,” as well as the U.S. International Trade Commission. There is always a one-year lag in compiling and releasing the numbers.
The data also notes that 48 percent of all rifles produced and imported (again, less exports) in 2018 were Modern Sporting Rifles. In other words, AR- and AK-platform rifles, which the ill-informed often erroneously refer to as being assault weapons.
To illustrate even further the remarkable sales figures for AR- and AK-platform rifles, the Shooting Sports organization says that since 1990, there are an estimated 19.8 million of these firearms in circulation today.
Likewise, notes the Shooting Sports Foundation organization, an interim 2019 estimate showed a total of six million total firearms were produced in the United States for that year. Of that figure, 3.6 million were pistols and revolvers, two million were rifles and 480,000 were shotguns.
These interim figures will be updated when complete and final data becomes available from the ATF, the Shooting Sports Foundation says as well.
As for the number of firearms imported, the ATF says there were approximately 3.3 million such firearms. This combined figure included 2.3 million pistols and revolvers, 301,000 rifles and more than twice that number of imported shotguns: 678,000 to be exact, the Shooting Sports Foundation said, and based upon the ATF figures.
And for the 28-year period between 1991 and 2019, nearly 214 million firearms have been made available to the U.S. market, the Shooting Sports Foundation said also
Related to firearms production, the Shooting Sports Foundation says there are approximately 71.2 million pistol magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds, and 79.2 million rifle magazines capable of holding 30 or more rounds in circulation.
Both numbers are significant given that gun-control advocates have their eye on enacting magazine capacity limitations as much as they are on firearms buying and ownership restrictions, particularly when associated with AR- and AK-platform rifles.
The Shooting Sports Foundation organization hastens to add as well how economically important the combined firearms and ammunition industry is on the country.
To illustrate, the Shooting Sports Foundation says that the industry “accounted for nearly 12,000 employees producing over $3.9 billion n goods shipped in 2018. “
“An estimated 8.7 billion rounds of all calibers and gauges were produced in 2018 for the U.S. market,” the Shooting Sports Foundation says.
“These figures - combined with the record-breaking 17.2 million NSSF-adjusted background checks for the sale or transfer of a firearm in the first ten months of 2020, demonstrates that Americans have a strong desire to continue purchasing firearms for lawful purposes,” said Joe Bartozzi, NSSF’s President and CEO.
Bartozzi said also in a prepared statement that the AR- and AK-platform rifles continue “...to be the most popular rifle sold in America today, and with nearly 20 million in circulation, is clearly a commonly-owned firearm that is being used for lawful purposes every day in America.”
“The continued popularity of handguns demonstrates a strong interest by Americans to protect themselves, their family and homes, as well as to participate in the recreational shooting sports,” Bartozzi said in his remarks.
On the flip side of the gun ownership coin, Bartozzi says that while the lawful firearm ownership in America “continues to grow, criminal and unintentional misuse of firearms is falling.”
“During the 28-year period covered by this report, the violent crime rate has decreased by 51.3 percent and unintentional firearm-related fatalities have declined by 68.2 percent,” Bartozzi said.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com
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