States with the biggest gun industries

Canva In 1934, Congress ratified the National Firearms Act, legislation requiring guns to be registered and taxed. On the surface, the act’s goal was to take a cut of the money the burgeoning industry was bringing in. But there was also a secondary motive: to restrict the sale of guns, subsequently being used in crimes, by charging gun buyers a $200 fee. In the decades since, the NFA has essentially remained unchanged. Many still look to it as a way for the United States to regulate how many guns make it to the market and into citizens’ hands. While the NFA’s creators undoubtedly designed it to check on the gun industry’s growth, it has, unfortunately, failed to do so. This is partly because the $200 tax has never gone up, and while that fee was once prohibitive, many people can afford the one-time payment today. The significance of the gun industry, fueled by an ever-increasing demand for guns, has only intensified in the decades since Congress ratified the act. An estimated 393 million firearms are presently in private ownership in the U.S.–that’s more guns than the country’s entire population. In 2016, the U.S. manufactured an all-time high of 11.49 million firearms. This figure has decreased in the intervening years (to roughly 7 million), yet it remains more than twice that of 1986. Firearm imports have also increased, with Turkey, Austria, and Brazil sending upwards of 3.78 million guns to the U.S. in 2020 alone. Gun ownership and industry, like gun culture itself, vary. The degree to which the gun industry is entrenched in a given state is not merely a matter of how many firearms people purchase. It also has to do with the number of dealers and if manufacturing occurs in the state. Stacker analyzed firearms commerce data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to rank states based on their total number of tax-paying occupational entities related to the manufacturing and distribution of firearms. In short, this data allows us to see which states have the most gun owners and largest gun industries. Read on to see where your state falls in the rankings. You may also like: Biggest Native American tribes in the U.S. today #50. Washington DC (tie) Anadolu Agency // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 1 — Manufacturers: 0 — Dealers: 0 — Importers: 1 – Registered weapons: 74,315 (110.9 per 1K residents, #2 overall) #50. Hawaii (tie) image_vulture // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 1 — Manufacturers: 0 — Dealers: 1 — Importers: 0 – Registered weapons: 9,280 (6.4 per 1K residents, #48 overall) #49. Rhode Island Boston Globe // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 2 — Manufacturers: 0 — Dealers: 1 — Importers: 1 – Registered weapons: 4,887 (4.5 per 1K residents, #51 overall) #48. Delaware Patrick Smith // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 3 — Manufacturers: 0 — Dealers: 3 — Importers: 0 – Registered weapons: 6,092 (6.1 per 1K residents, #49 overall) #47. New Jersey Anadolu Agency // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 29 — Manufacturers: 7 — Dealers: 21 — Importers: 1 – Registered weapons: 102,228 (11.0 per 1K residents, #44 overall) You may also like: States with the most homelessness #46. Vermont UniversalImagesGroup // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 101 — Manufacturers: 26 — Dealers: 71 — Importers: 4 – Registered weapons: 9,451 (14.6 per 1K residents, #42 overall) #45. New York Jeff Schear // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 144 — Manufacturers: 96 — Dealers: 37 — Importers: 11 – Registered weapons: 144,749 (11.4 per 1K residents, #43 overall) #41. Alaska (tie) Andrew Burton // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 146 — Manufacturers: 33 — Dealers: 112 — Importers: 1 – Registered weapons: 28,237 (38.5 per 1K residents, #11 overall) You may also like: 20 influential Indigenous Americans you might not know about #41. Maine (tie) Portland Press Herald // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 146 — Manufacturers: 48 — Dealers: 95 — Importers: 3 – Registered weapons: 21,396 (15.6 per 1K residents, #41 overall) #40. Massachusetts Boston Globe // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 150 — Manufacturers: 118 — Dealers: 27 — Importers: 5 – Registered weapons: 45,138 (6.5 per 1K residents, #47 overall) #39. South Dakota Jacob Boomsma // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 162 — Manufacturers: 31 — Dealers: 131 — Importers: 0 – Registered weapons: 64,666 (72.2 per 1K residents, #3 overall) #38. Nebraska Andrew Burton // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 165 — Manufacturers: 33 — Dealers: 132 — Importers: 0 – Registered weapons: 43,261 (22.0 per 1K residents, #32 overall) #37. Wyoming Jim Whitney // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 168 — Manufacturers: 47 — Dealers: 119 — Importers: 2 – Registered weapons: 142,247 (245.8 per 1K residents, #1 overall) You may also like: From Stonewall to today: 50+ years of modern LGBTQ+ history #36. West Virginia MICHAEL MATHES // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 190 — Manufacturers: 43 — Dealers: 140 — Importers: 7 – Registered weapons: 50,963 (28.6 per 1K residents, #18 overall) #35. Connecticut Andrew Lichtenstein // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 205 — Manufacturers: 88 — Dealers: 114 — Importers: 3 – Registered weapons: 74,874 (20.8 per 1K residents, #36 overall) #34. New Mexico VW Pics // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 213 — Manufacturers: 70 — Dealers: 133 — Importers: 10 – Registered weapons: 122,968 (58.1 per 1K residents, #4 overall) #33. California Matthew Corley // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 222 — Manufacturers: 122 — Dealers: 86 — Importers: 14 – Registered weapons: 406,360 (10.4 per 1K residents, #46 overall) #32. Montana Cheri Alguire // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 224 — Manufacturers: 72 — Dealers: 148 — Importers: 4 – Registered weapons: 36,678 (33.2 per 1K residents, #16 overall) You may also like: States with the highest marriage rates–and how they’ve changed #31. New Hampshire ED JONES // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 228 — Manufacturers: 101 — Dealers: 121 — Importers: 6 – Registered weapons: 72,433 (52.1 per 1K residents, #5 overall) #30. Maryland Erick Gibson // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 237 — Manufacturers: 77 — Dealers: 152 — Importers: 800 – Registered weapons: 136,257 (22.1 per 1K residents, #31 overall) #29. Mississippi CHANDAN KHANNA // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 260 — Manufacturers: 77 — Dealers: 172 — Importers: 11 – Registered weapons: 80,712 (27.4 per 1K residents, #20 overall) #28. Idaho Kozup Photography // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 287 — Manufacturers: 130 — Dealers: 155 — Importers: 2 – Registered weapons: 76,425 (40.2 per 1K residents, #8 overall) #27. Iowa FESTUS_BSQRT // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 292 — Manufacturers: 65 — Dealers: 226 — Importers: 1 – Registered weapons: 54,178 (17.0 per 1K residents, #39 overall) You may also like: America’s ambitious bet on wildlife crossings #26. Utah GEORGE FREY // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 304 — Manufacturers: 148 — Dealers: 151 — Importers: 5 – Registered weapons: 118,408 (35.5 per 1K residents, #14 overall) #25. Louisiana WKanadpon // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 307 — Manufacturers: 85 — Dealers: 220 — Importers: 23 – Registered weapons: 152,061 (32.9 per 1K residents, #17 overall) #24. Arkansas Ana Hollan // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 315 — Manufacturers: 132 — Dealers: 168 — Importers: 15 – Registered weapons: 133,981 (44.3 per 1K residents, #7 overall) #23. Nevada Christopher Sibert // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 320 — Manufacturers: 173 — Dealers: 135 — Importers: 12 – Registered weapons: 119,007 (37.9 per 1K residents, #12 overall) #21. Oregon (tie) Alexander Oganezov // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 321 — Manufacturers: 110 — Dealers: 210 — Importers: 1 – Registered weapons: 97,474 (23.0 per 1K residents, #29 overall) You may also like: 50 facts about food insecurity in America #21. Washington (tie) Karen Ducey // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 321 — Manufacturers: 140 — Dealers: 176 — Importers: 5 – Registered weapons: 165,534 (21.4 per 1K residents, #34 overall) #19. Oklahoma (tie) damann // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 350 — Manufacturers: 138 — Dealers: 211 — Importers: 1 – Registered weapons: 103,368 (25.9 per 1K residents, #22 overall) #19. Minnesota (tie) Sheena_Waldron // Shutterstock – Total weapons industry entities: 350 — Manufacturers: 109 — Dealers: 228 — Importers: 13 – Registered weapons: 129,825 (22.7 per 1K residents, #30 overall) #18. Kansas John Moore // Getty Images – Total weapons industry entities: 352 — Manufacturers: 80 — Dealers: 268 — Importers: 4 – Registered weapons: 69,850 (23.8 per 1K residents, #26 overall) #17. South Carolina