Firearm Manufacturers

Firearm Manufacturers: An Overview of the U.S. Gun Industry

The United States has the world’s largest civilian firearms market, and most guns sold here are made here. American manufacturers range from century-old names to young companies built around a single rifle or pistol design, along with U.S. factories of foreign brands such as Beretta, Glock and SIG Sauer. The timeline below this section traces some of the oldest names; this overview explains how big the industry is today and where its numbers come from.

The most reliable production figures come from the ATF’s Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Exportation Report (AFMER), which every licensed manufacturer must file. Because ATF releases AFMER data with a built-in delay to protect business information, the 2024 report, published in spring 2026, is the latest available. Industry trackers tallied roughly 9.5 million firearms made in the U.S. in 2024 (published totals range from about 9.47 to 9.55 million), down slightly from about 9.8 million in 2023 and well below the 2021 peak of nearly 13.8 million. Pistols made up the largest share, more than 4 million. About 400,000 U.S.-made firearms were exported.

The industry’s economic weight is also measured by NSSF, the industry trade association. Its 2025 report put the total economic impact at about $91.7 billion in 2024, with nearly 383,000 jobs and about $886.5 million in federal excise taxes that fund wildlife conservation.

Table of 2024 U.S. firearm production by category with top manufacturer in each

Key Facts

  • Top U.S. producers by total units in 2024 (AFMER): Sturm, Ruger (about 1.36 million), Smith & Wesson (about 970,000) and SIG Sauer (about 945,000), followed by Anderson Manufacturing and Palmetto State Armory.
  • Category leaders in 2024 included SIG Sauer in pistols, Ruger in rifles, Heritage Manufacturing in revolvers and Mossberg in shotguns.
  • The historic Springfield Armory was a federal arsenal (closed in 1968); today’s Springfield Armory, Inc. of Geneseo, Illinois, is a private company that adopted the name in 1974.
  • After a 2020 bankruptcy, Remington’s firearms business became RemArms, now headquartered in LaGrange, Georgia, while the ammunition brand was sold separately.

What Gun Owners Should Know

  • AFMER counts guns made, not guns sold; NICS background-check figures are a separate, indirect measure of sales.
  • “Made in USA” and a U.S. address are not the same thing; check where a specific model is built.
  • Industry consolidation is common; brand ownership can change warranty and parts support.

Related Pages

Across the Gun Websites Network

Sources

 

  • 1526 – Beretta Firearms founded
    crossbow company
    Sold Arquebus barrels to the Arsenal of Venice
    – 1550 In Italy the Beretta family branched into guns

  • Whitney Arms Company
    – applied mass production to rifle manufacture

  • 1777 – Springfield Armory founded
    – first U.S. federal armory to manufacture firearms

  • 1816  Remington Arms Company