The Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund has published an updated version of its “Who is Manufacturing the Guns Used in Crimes?” report, which provides new insights into the gun industry and its role in arming criminals using crime gun recovery data obtained from 52 U.S. cities over the past five years. As with the prior two versions of the report published in January 2023 and September 2024, Glock was once again identified as the top manufacturer of crime guns, followed by Taurus, Smith & Wesson, and Ruger.
For years, the public had little access to information about which gun manufacturers’ products were most frequently used in crimes. But Everytown’s city-level reports — alongside federal data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) — have shown that a small group of manufacturers produces a large share of the guns recovered at crime scenes.
To learn more about the firearm supply chain and how gun makers deny knowledge about their guns’ use in crimes, click here.
key findings about crime guns
Everytown’s updated “Who Is Manufacturing the Guns Used in Crimes?” report draws on data collected through its partnership with Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The most recent dataset includes 349,322 crime guns recovered in 52 U.S. cities in 27 states, with 49 cities providing full data for 2024, and 43 providing data covering the past five years.
- Of the over 20,000 licensed gun manufacturers in the U.S., four of them accounted for 55 percent of the guns recovered in crimes in 2024: Glock (24.3%), Taurus (13.2%), Smith & Wesson (11.5%), and Ruger (6.5%).
- The previous report found that the same four manufacturers accounted for over 40% of the guns recovered in crimes in 2023: Glock (18.4%), Taurus (9.3%), Smith & Wesson (9.2%), and Ruger (4.7%).
- Glock pistols were recovered at crime scenes nearly twice as often as guns made by the second-leading manufacturer, Taurus.
- Glock’s share has increased steadily, rising from 18 percent of crime guns in 2019 to 24 percent in 2024, making it by far the most frequently recovered firearm brand at crime scenes.
- A report from the ATF named Glock as the top manufacturer of crime guns recovered nationwide between 2017 and 2021, and Glocks were recovered from more crime scenes in California than any other gun from 2022 to 2024.
- The number of Polymer80 ghost guns recovered by law enforcement decreased for the second straight year in 2024. Polymer80, once the largest manufacturer of ghost gun kits, shuttered in 2024 after facing a wave of litigation, new state laws regulating ghost guns, and the ATF ghost gun rule finalized under the Biden administration.
- In 2024, 28 U.S. cities reported recovering more than 1,100 “Glock switches,” which convert Glock-style pistols into fully automatic weapons capable of firing at a rate of up to 1,200 rounds per minute. In the 17 cities that tracked the devices over five years, recoveries increased seven-fold since 2020.
- In the past five years, 3D-printed gun recoveries in 20 cities have increased 1,000 percent. Such homemade, untraceable firearms have become weapons of choice for those prohibited from purchasing firearms, gun traffickers, and others who want to avoid background checks.
- Even as overall crime gun recoveries decline, the number of assault weapons recovered by police continues to grow, increasing by 27 percent since 2020. These military-style weapons are designed for rapid firing, use high-capacity magazines, and can fire rounds at four times the muzzle velocity of a typical handgun round, causing significantly more damage to the human body.
- Most cities that shared data do not distinguish between assault weapons and other crime gun recoveries. Just 17 out of 52 cities provided consistent assault weapon data, so these recoveries could be much higher.
report recommendations
The report outlines a series of steps gun manufacturers could take to reduce the flow of their guns into illegal markets. These include requiring dealers to follow codes of conduct, ending relationships with dealers who sell a high number of crime guns, monitoring ATF crime gun tracing requests, and designing firearms that cannot be converted into machine guns.
The report also urges federal, state, and local governments to strengthen oversight of the gun industry by improving crime gun tracing, regulating ghost guns and machine gun conversion devices (MCDs), prohibiting assault weapons that can be easily converted into DIY machine guns, and addressing the spread of 3D-printed firearms. The report also stresses that cities should collect and make public the names of manufacturers of recovered crime guns and the number of MCDs, assault weapons, and 3D printed guns recovered in their communities, take legal action against irresponsible manufacturers, and leverage law enforcement purchasing power to demand that manufacturers who frequently sell guns to law enforcement, like Glock, secure their supply chains to help reduce criminal use of their weapons.
Finally, the report ends with a dire warning: “The data is clear: A small number of firearm manufacturers are responsible for making most of the weapons recovered in gun crimes in U.S. cities. But the industry can no longer pretend that it has no knowledge of or responsibility for how its products are sold and used. These companies must change their practices to reduce the use of guns in crime and prioritize the safety of our communities.”