ATF Restored: Firearms Commerce in the United States, 2024

 

The ATF has restarted publication of Firearms Commerce in the United States. The report for 2024 has been published in May of 2025. This is the “normal” time for the report to be published. One of the insidious actions during the Biden administration was the deliberate hiding of information from the American Public.

The Firearms Commerce in the United States  Statistical Update had been continually published from 2011 to 2021.

Then publication stopped. There was no announcement. When questioned about it, staff from the ATF claimed there was no change. The report would be published as normal. The report never was published. No report was published in 2022, 2023, or 2024.  The publication of the 2024 report in May of 2025 is a welcome return to normalcy.

The 2021 report showed total firearms manufactured from 1986 – 2019. The 2024 report shows firearms manufactured from 2013 – 2023. The number of firearms manufactured lags other reports because the information is considered sensitive, and could be used for competitive advantage. Therefore it is withheld for a year.

Somewhere, a decision was made to show only the previous 11 years of data, from 2013 to 2023. The data overlaps data from previous reports, so it is all available. The 2024 report shows a drop of firearms manufactured in the United States from 2022 to 2023. In 2022 the number was reported as 13,395,031. In 2023 the total was reported as 9,772,259, a drop of 27%!

There are some areas which deserve further attention. The 2024 report shows a total number of registered silencers as 3,536,623 as of May of 2024. In May of 2021, the number was reported as 2,664,774. Less than a million additional silencers registered over those three years seems to contradict some other reporting.  The NSSF obtained information showing 4.8 million silencers registered to Americans as of July of 2024, with 2,193,123 added from May of 2021 to July of 2024. It is probably a reporting glitch.  This correspondent suspects the number of registered silencers is over 5 million at present.

The number of short barreled shotguns registered with the ATF increased from 162,267 to 165,180 from the 2021 report to the 2024 report. It is a very small increase. This is explained with the ATF ruling that pistol grip firearms over 26.1 inches long, chambered for shotgun shells, are not technically “shotguns”, but are simply firearms. Bullpup shotguns such as the Keltec KSG, KS7, and KS410, have significant magazine capacities, are just over 26 inches long, and have shoulder stocks. They do not require payment of a $200 tax and all the intrusive National Firearms Act (NFA) paperwork. The Taurus Judge and Smith & Wesson Governor revolvers which fire both .45 Colt and .410 cartridges are available. There is little reason to manufacture and register NFA short barreled shotguns when those alternatives can be acquired without the $200 tax.

Analysis:

The Biden administration was one of the least transparent in history. While talking to radio show host Russ Clark, this correspondent traded anecdotes on the difficulty of obtaining information from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the FBI, and the ATF. The information was previously easily available over the Internet.

The return of the Firearms Commerce in the United States is a welcome example of the return to transparency with the Trump administration. So far, reports which would normally have been published in 2022, 2023, and 2024 remain missing. They may never be reconstructed. This correspondent would like to see the missing reports published for historical continuity, and as a check on accuracy. Mistakes which would be caught in annual reports can be missed when a span of three years is unreported.

©2025 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch 

 

 

Firearms Commerce in the United States 2024

pretty good numbers. 

Source: http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2025/06/atf-restored-firearms-commerce-in.html