According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), gun manufacturers produced over 9.4 million firearms domestically in 2024, a 3% decrease from the 9.7 million guns made in 2023 and a 31% decrease from the 13.8 million made in 2021, a record high set during the pandemic. The latest Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Export Report (AFMER) published by the ATF also shows that the gun industry significantly reduced its firearm exports in 2024, down 36% from 2022.
The new data is important because it provides a snapshot of the state of the gun industry at the end of the Biden administration, which had adopted several measures designed to crack down on gun trafficking and certain dangerous weapons among other lifesaving initiatives. It also shows that, unlike previous election cycles, the gun industry did not increase its output in anticipation of greater demand ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Instead, the data — paired with other reports of sluggish gun sales — reflects an industry in a slump. Heeding calls from gun groups, the Trump administration has prioritized several deregulatory efforts to reverse that trend, including most recently by announcing 32 rules designed to help the gun industry sell more guns to more people with less red tape.
TOTAL FIREARMS MANUFACTURED IN THE U.S.
UNDERSTANDING THE AFMER
The AFMER provides totals for all of the pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns, and “miscellaneous” frames and receivers (the basic building blocks of firearms) manufactured and exported by licensed gun makers in a given year. But the data has some limitations. For example, it does not indicate how many guns Americans purchased in a given year. Further, the AFMER breaks pistols and revolvers down by caliber, but not rifles or shotguns. It also does not differentiate between semi-automatic and manually operated rifles and shotguns, and many companies produce both types of weapons. In other words, on its own, the AFMER cannot be used to estimate how many assault weapons are in circulation, despite industry claims.
The AFMER also does not include any data on imported firearms, and thus does not provide a complete picture of how many guns enter the commercial U.S. market each year. For example, the latest AFMER shows that Glock produced over 419,000 pistols in the U.S. in 2024, but the ATF does not disclose how many guns the company imported from its Austrian headquarters. (The agency only publishes total imports broken down by country, not manufacturer.) The same can be said for other international gun manufacturers, such as Beretta, Taurus, and FN.
A Closer look at the 2024 data
While the full 2024 data is available here, production figures from the top 10 domestic manufacturers and exporters can be found in the tables below. Here are some key highlights:
- The top 10 gun makers of 2024 produced 66.7% of all the guns manufactured domestically in 2024, reflecting that the gun industry is highly concentrated.
- Seven of the top 10 manufacturers produced fewer firearms in 2024 than the previous year, as shown in the table below.
- Ruger produced more firearms domestically in 2024 than any other manufacturer with 1.33 million guns, up 2.3% from the 1.30 million it manufactured in 2023. The company has also produced more firearms than any other manufacturer since 2022, when it surpassed Smith & Wesson in output.
- Anderson Manufacturing, which produced AR-style assault weapons and components, nearly doubled its production in 2024 before Ruger acquired it in July 2025. The acquisition likely made Ruger the country’s largest manufacturer of ARs in terms of production volume.
- Smith & Wesson manufactured over 970,000 firearms in 2024. Of those guns, over 967,000 (or 99.8%) were produced at the company’s headquarters in Maryville, Tennessee, which opened in October 2023, and only 2,348 (0.2%) were made at Smith & Wesson’s former headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts. The 2024 AFMER provides the first full-year data for the Maryville factory.
- Savage Arms, a company known for its rifles and shotguns, saw the biggest dropoff in production — a 34.6% decrease — between 2023 and 2024.
- Over 4 million of the firearms produced in 2024 were pistols (42%), followed by rifles (30%), frames and receivers (15%), revolvers (7%), shotguns (6%). Nearly 60% of the pistols were in 9mm caliber.
TOp gun manufacturers of 2024
| Manufacturer | Pistols | Revolvers | Rifles | Shotguns | Misc. | 2024 Total | 2023 Total | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruger | 541,268 | 114,711 | 679,197 | 6 | 571 | 1,335,753 | 1,305,615 | 2.3% |
| Smith & Wesson | 625,616 | 151,369 | 186,639 | 1,506 | 5,030 | 970,160 | 991,847 | -2.2% |
| Sig Sauer | 874,707 | 0 | 54,652 | 0 | 15,078 | 944,437 | 1,020,755 | -7.5% |
| Anderson Manufacturing | 4,170 | 0 | 72,069 | 0 | 535,638 | 611,877 | 337,658 | 81.2% |
| Palmetto State Armory | 146,585 | 0 | 101,196 | 0 | 312,579 | 560,360 | 581,769 | -3.7% |
| Savage Arms | 4,330 | 0 | 397,404 | 73,091 | 0 | 474,825 | 725,644 | -34.6% |
| Glock | 419,510 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 419,510 | 345,119 | 21.6% |
| Henry Repeating Arms | 7,161 | 11,050 | 350,718 | 10,070 | 4,473 | 383,472 | 411,786 | -6.9% |
| Mossberg | 1,826 | 0 | 64,356 | 252,780 | 51,325 | 370,287 | 397,922 | -6.9% |
| Taurus | 81,879 | 170,705 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 252,584 | 275,456 | -8.3% |
| Total | 6,323,265 | 6,393,571 | -1.1% | |||||
The DROP IN FIREARMS EXPORTS
The latest AFMER shows that American gun makers exported 399,902 firearms in 2024, a 17% decrease from 2023 and a 36% decrease from 2022. This is notable given that the Biden administration finalized a rule to increase vetting procedures for firearms exported to high-risk countries in April 2024. That change came after reports that the Department of Commerce had previously helped American gun makers export semi-automatic weapons to “some of the most violent countries in the world” by easing export requirements under the first Trump administration.
The drop in firearms exports may explain why the gun industry pushed the Trump administration to rescind the rule, which it did last September. With that move, the Trump administration also repealed another 2022 rule that required the Department of Commerce to notify Congress of any semi-automatic firearms export applications exceeding $4 million.
TOP FIREARMS EXPORTERS OF 2024
| Manufacturer | Pistols | Revolvers | Rifles | Shotguns | Misc. | 2024 Total | 2023 Total | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruger | 8,584 | 2,360 | 46,320 | 0 | 32 | 57,296 | 66,925 | -14.4% |
| Glock | 54,932 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 54,932 | 64,832 | -15.3% |
| Sig Sauer | 48,302 | 0 | 2,647 | 0 | 44 | 50,993 | 78,265 | -34.8% |
| Smith & Wesson | 26,647 | 6,848 | 16,129 | 166 | 1 | 49,791 | 41,402 | 20.3% |
| Mossberg | 7,533 | 0 | 4,370 | 19,081 | 1,845 | 32,829 | 44,679 | -26.5% |
| Savage Arms | 24 | 0 | 25,223 | 2,599 | 0 | 27,846 | 56,718 | -50.9% |
| Henry Repeating Arms | 1,013 | 0 | 22,034 | 653 | 109 | 23,809 | 14,021 | 69.8% |
| Colt | 858 | 25 | 360 | 21,184 | 17 | 22,444 | 1,845 | 1116.5% |
| Axon | 7,645 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7,645 | 1,546 | 394.5% |
| KelTec | 1,048 | 0 | 5,295 | 808 | 0 | 7,151 | 10,520 | -32.0% |
| Total | 334,736 | 380,753 | -12.1% | |||||
total firearms exports
