Six States Cranked Out 5 Million Guns Last Year—Half of America’s Total in Just 12% of the Country

The United States is the only country in the world home to more civilian-owned guns than people — and demand for firearms among American consumers is fueling a multi-billion-dollar industry. There are thousands of federally licensed gunmakers in the U.S. that collectively manufactured over 9.7 million firearms across the 50 states in 2023 alone. These companies are foundational to the U.S. arms and ammunition industry, which, both directly and indirectly, generates over $90 billion in economic output every year, and employs over 380,000 Americans.