The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has released a finalized version of the Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Export Report (AFMER) for 2022, which provides a better idea of how many firearms gun makers produced and exported that calendar year. According to the ATF, gun manufacturers produced over 13.4 million firearms domestically in 2022 — down slightly from the pandemic high of 13.8 million firearms in 2021 but nearly double the 7 million produced in 2019.
The AFMER compiles the total number of pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns, and “miscellaneous” frames and receivers (the basic building blocks of firearms) produced and exported by gun makers in a given year. The report breaks the pistols and revolvers down by caliber, but not the rifles or shotguns. Nor does it differentiate between the various types of rifles and shotguns, including semi-automatic and manually operated models.
It’s also important to note that the AFMER 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 465,000 pistols in the U.S. in 2022, but the ATF does not disclose how many guns the company imported from its Austrian headquarters. (The ATF only provides total imports broken down by country, not company.) The same can be said for other international gun companies like Taurus and Beretta.
Crunching the numbers
While the full ATF data is available here, the top 10 domestic manufacturers and exporters can be found in the tables below. Here are some key highlights:
- Six of the top 10 gun makers produced fewer firearms in 2022 than the previous year, and Smith & Wesson saw the biggest dropoff in production — a 58% decrease — between 2021 and 2022. This could reflect Smith & Wesson scaling back to meet demand (the company produced just over 739,000 firearms in 2019) or possibly beginning its move to Maryville, Tennessee, which was announced in September 2021 and completed in October 2023.
- Ruger produced more firearms domestically in 2022 than any other manufacturer with 1.6 million guns — down 25% from the 2.1 million it manufactured in 2021.
- Mossberg, a company known for its shotguns, rifles, and more recently, pistols, produced 1.4 million guns in 2022 — a 185% increase from the 492,444 it produced in 2021. Much of this growth appears to be the company’s production of firearm frames and receivers.
- Sig Sauer and Springfield Armory both saw 5% decreases in production between 2021 and 2022. Taurus decreased its production by 25% in that time frame.
- Palmetto State Armory produced over 551,000 guns in 2022, up 45% from nearly 380,000 in 2020. (The company does not appear in the 2021 AFMER, though gun makers are required to report their production figures to the ATF each year.)
- The top 10 manufacturers produced over 8.4 million guns in 2022, or roughly 63% of all firearms produced that year.
TOP 10 GUN MANUFACTURERS of 2022
| Manufacturer | Pistols | Revolvers | Rifles | Shotguns | Misc. | 2022 Total | 2021 Total | % Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ruger | 692,655 | 174,947 | 694,397 | 15 | 3,729 | 1,565,743 | 2,078,013 | -25% |
| 2 | Mossberg | 5,547 | 0 | 74,309 | 266,382 | 1,058,459 | 1,404,697 | 492,444 | 185% |
| 3 | Sig Sauer | 1,139,837 | 0 | 72,197 | 0 | 14,154 | 1,226,188 | 1,294,185 | -5% |
| 4 | Smith & Wesson | 626,461 | 208,737 | 130,681 | 7,389 | 726 | 973,994 | 2,317,792 | -58% |
| 5 | Savage Arms | 8,774 | 0 | 608,579 | 102,288 | 0 | 719,641 | 406,867 | 77% |
| 6 | Taurus | 287,650 | 287,283 | 20,757 | 0 | 0 | 595,690 | 796,381 | -25% |
| 7 | Springfield Armory | 258,101 | 0 | 304,365 | 0 | 0 | 562,466 | 590,750 | -5% |
| 8 | Palmetto State Armory | 137,105 | 0 | 101,358 | 0 | 312,985 | 551,448 | 379,594* | 45% |
| 9 | Glock | 465,117 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 465,117 | 581,944 | -20% |
| 10 | Henry Repeating Arms | 5,347 | 8 | 334,805 | 20,039 | 5,668 | 365,867 | 320,603 | 14% |
| Total | 8,430,851 | 9,258,573 | -9% | ||||||
| *This data for Palmetto State Armory is from the 2020 AFMER. | |||||||||
The new data indicates American gun makers exported 629,163 firearms in 2022, a 37% increase compared to 458,684 firearms in 2021. This news comes after reports that the U.S. Department of Commerce had helped gun makers export tens of thousands of semi-automatic weapons to “some of the most violent countries in the world” by easing export restrictions, forcing the department to freeze gun exports to many countries while it reviewed its policies.
While Glock produced just over 465,000 pistols in the U.S. in 2022 — down 20% from the nearly 582,000 it manufactured in 2021 — it was also the top exporter that year with almost 124,000 pistols, followed by Ruger and Sig Sauer with approximately 86,000 and 76,000 firearms, respectively.
TOP 10 GUN EXPORTERS of 2022
| Manufacturer | Pistols | Revolvers | Rifles | Shotguns | Misc. | 2022 Total | 2021 Total | % Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Glock | 123,907 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 123,907 | 67,106 | 85% |
| 2 | Ruger | 9,807 | 7,051 | 68,808 | 0 | 0 | 85,666 | 78,232 | 10% |
| 3 | Sig Sauer | 71,047 | 0 | 4,693 | 0 | 54 | 75,794 | 102,467 | -26% |
| 4 | Savage Arms | 190 | 0 | 53,887 | 14,453 | 0 | 68,530 | 43,094 | 59% |
| 5 | Smith & Wesson | 19,646 | 11,802 | 10,524 | 838 | 221 | 43,031 | 36,928 | 17% |
| 6 | Mossberg | 1,426 | 0 | 4,438 | 22,811 | 3,148 | 31,823 | 35,540 | -10% |
| 7 | Springfield Armory | 8,494 | 0 | 5,957 | 0 | 0 | 14,451 | 5,992 | 141% |
| 8 | Henry Repeating Arms | 167 | 0 | 13,547 | 520 | 75 | 14,309 | 8,768 | 63% |
| 9 | Beretta | 9,495 | 0 | 0 | 2,735 | 0 | 12,230 | 8,015 | 53% |
| 10 | Colt | 5,366 | 5,511 | 1,150 | 0 | 45 | 12,072 | 4,889 | 147% |
| Total | 196,446 | 143,226 | 37% | ||||||