So questions that were asked to me is what im going to college for and that is cyber defense.
I know you wanted to keep this positive, but don't give up a career in cyber security for one in the gun industry. And definitely don't drop out of college to go to gunsmithig school. You will make a hell of a lot more money with a LOT less time and stress in tech than you will as a gunsmith. Money isn't everything, but it makes things a lot easier... like starting your own business.
On that note, look into a minor in business while you're in school, or an MBA when you finish up with undergrad. There's a lot more to running a business than just selecting and making a good product. And just a side note, the ATF licenses and paperwork isn't that difficult if you already run the business correctly.
You should decide what your ultimate goal of starting the business is. Do you want to be the only employee just working for yourself, do you want to have a small shop with a couple of employees, or do you want to grow the business as large as you can with multiple departments and layers of management?
If you only want to work by yourself, you need to be an expert at everything - you have to be great at designing/making whatever product you make, but you also have to be great at the business side too because your livelihood depends not only on how well you make the product, but how you control costs, logistics, suppliers, billing, marketing, customer service, and collections. The larger your business, the more you need to focus on management, costs, marketing, and logistics and the less you need to focus on the manual production side. You still need to know it obviously, but you don't have to be the best machinist because you can hire the best and let him do his thing while you run the company.
Before you put a bunch of time and money into something, put together a real business plan with a good breakdown of product costs (including depreciation on your machines, time/pay for yourself, utilities, etc) and a realistic view of competitors. Know what kind of capital you need, and don't cut it close. A lot of businesses fail because they were undercapitalized when they started. Also start working on your credit now. When banks make loans to small businesses, a large part of their decisioning process (approval/rejection and rate/terms) is based off of your personal (consumer) credit score, not just the company. It will be hard to get a loan as both a recent graduate (short credit history) and a new business, so do what you can to get the best terms possible.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that because you're the only person who makes X, you have no competition. Competitors are anything that might be used for the same purpose. For a gun related example, Sig has recently discontinued support for the p239 meaning that they don't make parts or mags anymore. If you decide to make p239 mags in 9mm, you would be the only one. But 9mm p225 A1 mags also work in the p239 (albeit with a slight gap at the baseplate unless you replace it with the p239 baseplate), so that would be one of your competitors even though no one else is making the same thing you are.
As an aside, look into making parts for the Sig p239... they're getting difficult to find. But as a recent purchaser of a p239, I'm a little biased
A business that might be less difficult from a startup point might be reselling gun accessories like mags, sights, parts, etc. the general buy in bulk when you can find a good deal and then sell individually at market value, making a profit. It's not as cool as designing and building your own part, or building a gun from scratch, but it is something that you can start while you're in college and scale as you have time, capital, and storage space. Most parts shouldn't be too large, but you'll want to have good organization. Make sure you also have the business correctly set up. This type of business also should require less insurance than a gun or part manufacturer.
