No, not The University of Texas Longhorns football team being ranked number 1 (though that evidently happened this week as well), but Texas is the number one state for gun manufacturing.
Gun manufacturing in the U.S. has been increasing steadily in recent years, with a significant spike during the pandemic.
According to the Violence Policy Center, there are almost five times as many gun manufacturers as there are colleges in the country.
And these days they’re far less harmful to the Republic than those colleges…
The data comes from the Violence Policy Center and reflects 2022 data.
While most production is concentrated in the hands of a few key players, a majority of gun manufacturers actually don’t operate out of big commercial facilities, but instead, out of homes or offices.
Rank State Number of gun manufacturers Increase (2017-2022)
1 Texas 2,321 78%
2 Florida 1,214 59%
3 Arizona 1,026 55%
I’m snipping the rest of the chart, but I thought it striking that not only was Texas #1, it had more firearms manufacturers than #2 Florida and #3 Arizona combined. I am surprised that California still managed to rank eighth with 580 manufacturers, giving its Democrat-controlled government’s unremitting hostility to both firearms and the Second Amendment, but it’s 6% increase was the lowest of any state. Yes, every state saw an increase in gun manufacturers.
Texas, Florida, and Arizona, the three states with the most gun manufacturers in 2022, all have business-friendly policies including low or no income taxes and fewer regulations, as well as strong gun cultures.
Large firearms companies have also increasingly chosen to move their headquarters and production to red states, especially in the South.
Other Southern red states are capitalizing on this trend. In Oklahoma, just north of Texas, Governor Kevin Stitt has promoted the state’s “pro-Second Amendment” stance to attract more firearms manufacturers.
Out of the top five states with the most manufacturers, four (Texas, Florida, Arizona, and Ohio) have constitutional carry laws. These laws allow individuals to carry a firearm without a permit.
I’m sure a lot of these are small operations, but 78% growth over five years is nothing to sneeze at. The combination of low taxes, low regulation, pro-Second Amendment and lots of available land to build is a power combination.
Tags: Arizona, ATF, California, Florida, Guns, Ohio, Texas, University of Texas
You get a type 7 if you want to reload ammunition and act as a firearms dealer. You don’t have to actually manufacture lower receivers or other firearms parts.
You don’t need an ATF license for reloading your own ammo. My understanding is you need a Type 06 for reloading ammo for sale, and an 01 to deal firearms. I don’t see why you would need a 07 if you’re not manufacturing, but perhaps someone who holds one of those licenses can chime in.
Rookie numbers. We can do better.
You get an 07 if you are reloading ammunition for sale and also dealing firearms out of the same shop. My first 1911 was from a small dealer that sold firearms and ammunition he had “manufactured” by reloading. He had a few progressive reloading stations for pistol, rifle and shotgun. He did buy new brass as well as previously shot brass. I bought 400 rounds of 45ACP from him with the pistol. Mixed previously shot brass, a powder charge and slug that we agreed on. It was a very inexpensive practice ammo. This was in the 80’s. There’s some problem with having two FFLs in the same shop. Might just be duplicating the paperwork, I don’t know as I’ve never tried to get an FFL.
There are gun manufacturers and military gun maufacturers.
California is big primarily with military equipment suppliers, even at the higher operating costs, because they get to pass costs onto the taxpayer.