Firearms Manufacturers
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 420 firearms manufacturers in the US sell handguns, rifles, and shotguns to distributors, retailers, government agencies, and private individuals. Firms may also manufacture other shooting, hunting, and outdoor products and accessories such as knives and cutting tools, sighting lasers, shooting supplies, and survival gear.
Changes in Federal and State Regulation
Federal and state legislatures frequently consider legislation that may alter the regulation of firearms.
Competition from Used Firearms Sales
Used firearms can often be bought at a savings of 30% or more compared to their new equivalents.
Industry size & Structure
The average firearms manufacturer employs about 45 workers and generates about $15-16 million annually.
- The firearms manufacturing industry consists of about 420 firms that employ 19,000 workers and generate about $6.6 billion annually.
- The industry is concentrated; the top 50 companies account for 89% of industry revenue.
- Large firms include Smith and Wesson; Sturm, Ruger & Company; Remington; Sig Sauer; and O.F. Mossberg.
Industry Forecast
Firearms Manufacturers Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Mar 3, 2023 - Slight Decline in NICS Checks in February 2023
- The February 2023 National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF)-adjusted National Instant Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1.34 million reflected a decline of 0.6% compared to the previous year’s figure, according to SGB Media. NSSF reported that February 2023 was the 43rd consecutive month to exceed one million adjusted background checks in a single month. The firearm background checks in January 2023 grew by 6.5% on an adjusted basis. The 2022 adjusted NICS checks declined 11% in 2022 to 16.43 million from 18.5 million in 2021. The 2022 checks were down 22% from 2020’s record high.
- About 63% of Americans are not satisfied with US gun laws, seven points higher than the previous year and the highest amount by one percentage point in Gallup’s 23-year trend. As viewed through political parties, 54% of Republications are satisfied with the gun laws (a decrease of five points from the previous year), and 14% of Democrats are satisfied (a drop of nine points from the previous year). Historically, Americans were only slightly more satisfied with US gun laws in 2001 and were evenly divided in 2002 and 2003. Americans were more satisfied than dissatisfied from 2004 to 2012, but attitudes shifted after a mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. Since 2013, the majority of US adults have been dissatisfied with gun laws.
- More than 1 million firearms were reported stolen between 2017 and 2021, of which 96% were from private individuals, according to a recently released gun report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reported by USA Today. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the numbers reveal an epidemic of stolen guns. The report also found that more than half of the guns recovered by police at crime scenes in 2021 had been purchased within three years, a double-digit increase since 2019. The rapid turnover can be an indication of illegal gun trafficking. The ATF also showed an increase in the seizure of “ghost guns,” which are firearms put together by users that are difficult to trace because they do not have serial numbers. The ATF traced some 19,000 privately made firearms in 2021, a gain of more than double compared to the previous year.
- New gun ownership in the US fell to 15 million in 2022, after reaching a record high of 21 million in 2020, according to data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reported by CNBC. In addition to declining sales, gun manufacturers have faced rising material and manufacturing costs. The gun industry benefitted from surging demand after COVID-19 as Americans experienced a growing sense of insecurity and instability from multiple factors. New gun ownership in 2019, as measured by the number of background checks for gun purchases, was 13 million. NSSF, which has tracked background check data since 2000, said background checks are the best barometer of yearly sales trends but are not a perfect measure of new ownership since not all background checks are associated with individual sales of new guns.
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