Gun Industry $ Size?

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DonP

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I did a quick search and came up empty.

Has anybody seen a credible source for how big the "Gun Industry" is in actual annual dollar sales?

For instance the foodservice industry (from McDonald's to the Ritz) accounts for over $450 Billion in sales each year. I'm always kind of amazed at people that think the US Gun Industry is some giant industry that pushes around politicians with huge donations and threats.

I have to think that it's actual size is relatively small compared to many other industries. I could be wrong, but I'd love to find a source I can use on our lobby day in Springfield in March.

Over the years I've found politicians (and newspaper people) need nice simple, small sound bytes of information. I'd like to have a nice simple size comparison they can actually grasp.
 
$2-3 billion isn't much when I think about the relatively small health care organization I work for here in Illinois that has over $1 billion in annual revenues. And my guess is that much of the money spent on guns and ammo leaves the USA for foreign vendors.
 
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) publishes annual data for the industry. I don't have it at my fingertip, but I'll see what I can find. As I recall, it is in the low billions. Not much for an entire industry. Keep in mind, that is firearms only, not non-firearm accessories.
 
A while back I researched this very thing, and the figure I got from some gun industry publication was 2 billion dollars (this would be like 2001 numbers).

The same year, McDonald's alone did 12 billion dollars in business.


I can't find my notes, but I'd like to see a real accurate accounting of this because I'm tired of antis claiming that guns are kept legal so that a bunch of fatcats in the firearms industry can rake in trillions.
 
If you go to the Ruger and Smith site they should have a link to Investor Relations. That will give you their numbers and will account for a good part of the American industry.

Or, if you buy stock in either company they mail you their annual reports (at least I know Ruger does). Pretty cool read if you're into stocks and firearms.

All that said, you're right, they really are very small in the big picture. I think that's part of the reason they tried to BS lawsuits hoping to push them out of business since they don't have deep pockets like many others.
 
Any idea what the number would grow to if you added in ammo, reloading accessories, etc.?

I can't I'm surprised. Think about how many gun shops are around versus McDonald's, BK, Arby's, Wendy's, etc. I live in a small rural town and we have 3 fast food burger joints. No gun shops for 25 miles.

The other thing is, think about how often most people (i.e., non-THR members) buy a firearm. An avid hunter may have a half-dozen long arms, but chances are some were inherited or accumulated over 50+ years of hunting. The average putz who buys a 4" revolver or Mossberg 500 for home defense lets it sit and rot. So, most people who buy firearms do it rarely. Ever see a McDonald's at lunch time? And people do that EVERY DAY.

How much money do you spend on food, your car, or entertainment compared to firearms?
 
Firearms (for the most part) are one of the few products still designed to last a long time. No "planned obsolescence" for your Ruger GP100. If guns were replaced at the same rate as cell phones and iPods, the industry would be a lot bigger. This is one reason neocons and pro-corporate DLC Democrats oppose gun ownership; it allows for increased social control and helps them look like good guys without making enemies in the CEO community.
 
Porn is a billion dollar industry. I dont' know what that has to do with guns, but I just thought I would mention it. :cool: I dont' know how many billions it produces, but its 100x more "noticable" than the gun industry IMO.
 
Firearms (for the most part) are one of the few products still designed to last a long time. No "planned obsolescence" for your Ruger GP100. If guns were replaced at the same rate as cell phones and iPods, the industry would be a lot bigger.
Click to expand...
What do you mean? Haven't you been reading the marketing? That GP-100 is outdated. You need the latest Browning-design descendant or something with a rail on it so you can attach 30 different things from it. Otherwise it's useless.:rolleyes:
 
I have a post up here about a study I did. I found no specific source (though the NSSF site did help, and will explain how to do it) for more then a couple specific years. I found the best info for calculating this type of number is from the BATF excise tax numbers (which include ammo). I didn't bother trying to break it out as I was only looking for general trends. There are also Firearm Manufacturing and Export reports that cover all companies (as a group, not individually). I do NOT know how imports would be calculated, i.e. are they a part of the excise tax info?.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=251746
 
DonP

Have you tried calling the manufacturers in Illinois? Or, if they don't know you, perhaps Todd Vandermyde (or some other, known pro-gunner)could call?

Ruger did $132.8 million in firearm-only sales in CY 2005.
Firearm-only sales of 40.8, 29.2 and 34.3 million in the first 3 quarters of 2006. Net income of 3.8 million over the same period.

Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation did $160 million total sales thru FY April 2006. Net was 8.7 million.

ATK (Alliant Techsystems) did approx. $1.1 billion in ammunition segment sales in 2006. This includes RCBS, Weaver, Redfield, Simmons, Outers, Federal, CCI, Speer...as well as DoD: 1.3 billion rounds for small arms, 20/25/30mm chain gun ammo, TNT, Nitrocellulose, propellants for 120 and 155mm guns, etc. DoD isn't broken out from commercial sales however.
 
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