Talking About the Essentials of Today’s Gun Industry

By Chris Eger

The American firearms industry employs over 300,000 and provides an economic impact that is felt in every community. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
With so much afoot in the American gun industry in the past couple of months, we called up the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry trade association, and spoke with Joseph Bartozzi, NSSF’s President and Chief Executive Officer, to get some information on how the industry has responded to the COVID-19 crisis.
Guns.com: The American firearms industry ranges from the largest publicly-traded gunmakers to the smallest mom and pop local gun stores, which is something that a lot of people who are outside of gun culture just don’t get it. It’s a huge economic impact. Could you speak to that?
A: Well we know from recent studies that the economic impact of the industry itself is nearly $60 billion dollars and that includes, of course, the direct jobs in the industry itself. We’re looking at over 300,000 people that work directly in the industry. And again generating $60 billion dollars of economic activity for the country.

The total number of full-time equivalent jobs in the firearms industry rose from approximately 166,000 in 2008 to almost 310,000 in 2017, an 87 percent increase.

Source: Guns.com