Firearms Manufactured in the U.S.
The ATF, through its new Open Data initiative has published a lot of data and statistics about the firearms industry. Although much of this information can be found in other sources (largely because the ATF already published some of the data regularly), it is nice to see all of the data organized in one area. The first data that caught my eye was the breakdown of each type of firearm manufactured by year. I have included two graphs and one table with the available information.
The number and type of U.S. firearms manufactured by year is gathered by the ATF each year as part of the Annual Firearm Manufacturing and Export Report (AFMER). Licensed firearm manufacturers (FFLs) must submit this report, by law, to the ATF each year. The ATF then publishes the number of firearms made each year with a slight delay so that there isn’t an issue with manufacturers gaining real-time information on their competitors.
In the first graph below, I stacked each type of firearm on top of each other. This way, you can see the proportional make up of each type of firearm manufactured each year and you can also see the total number of firearms manufactured. Note the peak in 2013 and the sharp increase in pistols.
This next graph makes it easier to compare one type of firearm manufactured each year to another. Although the total number isn’t easily seen in this graph, it is a good comparison from one type to another. Again, look at the increase in pistols. They went from half of rifles in 2005 to more than rifles in 2013 even while rifles had a sharp increase of their own.
Here is a table with the published information of firearms manufactured each year from 1987 to 2014.
[table id=1 /]