largest firearm manufacturer

taurus4life

New member
just wondering if anyone knew who was the largest firearm company in sheer number of guns produced anually. My three guesses would be beretta, glock, or taurus. Mainly because these manufacturer's not only sell great in America but also have a presence in other country's and they all have contracts with major law enforcment divisions or government agencies.
 
taurus4life just wondering if anyone knew who was the largest firearm company in sheer number of guns produced anually. My three guesses would be beretta, glock, or taurus. Mainly because these manufacturer's not only sell great in America but also have a presence in other country's and they all have contracts with major law enforcment divisions or government agencies.
Remember, Glock only makes handguns, so they are pretty small compared to the likes of FN and Beretta.
 
I'd anticipate FN Herstal, with all their military contracts and their civilian brands. There's a few others who might keep up (Norinco, Izhmash, Beretta, Colt), but that is largely on the strength of government contracts.
 
I think there is a holding company in Europe (based in France IIRC) that owns vfirtually all the Europen arms manufacturers, and some others around the world as well. I cannot recall their name, but one could consider them the "largest" firearms manufacturer, I suppose.
 
Hard to say.

If you break it down by country, Brazil exported more firearms, by a wide margin, to the U.S. than any other country. See page 20 in the report below.

http://www.atf.gov/publications/firearms/121611-firearms-commerce-2011.pdf

At about 740,000, firearm imports from Brazil actually make up over a quarter of the TOTAL firearms imported to the U.S. in 2010. There are at least 3 companies represented in that figure.

Austria's next in line with 15% of the total and Italy and Germany are 3rd and 4th with about 10% and 9% respectively. Croatia comes in 5th with about 8%.

What's interesting about Croatia is that ALL of the imported firearms from there are handguns. I'm betting that they're all headed to Springfield Armory for rebadging as XD pistols.

Austria's firearms imports are nearly all pistols as well.

At any rate, those five countries, together, make up almost 70% of all firearms imported to the U.S.

For comparison, firearms imports in 2010 were about 3 million. Domestic manufacturers make between 3 million and 5.5 million firearms annually and only about 200,000 to 400,000 firearms are exported from the U.S. annually.

In the U.S., the largest firearms manufacturer (based on 2009 figures) is Sturm Ruger, by a runaway. At about 924,000 firearms in 2009, they made about a sixth (17%) of the domestically manufactured firearms in the U.S. that year.

S&W and Remington were virtually tied for second at about 612,000 each with Maverick in fourth at about 425,000 and Marlin and SIG not far apart in fifth (269,000) and sixth (256,000) respectively.

http://www.atf.gov/statistics/download/afmer/2009-firearms-manufacturers-export-report.pdf
 
If it is not FN Herstal, then it is Freedom Group (E-RPC, Owner of Remington and many others). Freedom Group: http://www.freedom-group.com/

FN Herstal has Browning and Winchester which means they are owned by a Belgium Co. Freedom Group is an American firearms manufacturer holding company.

Therefore, some might say Wichester and Browning are under foreign ownership; whereas Remington and the companies under Freedom Group are American owned. :confused:

I bet the NRA would know the correct answer.
 
Last edited:
lamarw, i think you might be right with freedom group.the only other one i see coming close is beretta which also owns uberti, stoeger, benelli, franchi, sak, and tikka.
 
Historically, it'd have to be the Izhevsk arsenal...3.6 MILLION M-44s in 1944. Plus some 91/30 and M-38s. Could well be FOUR MILLION rifles in one year...I can't think of anything else to match that output.
 
In the U.S., I'd have to say that Freedom Group, a subsidiary of Cerberus Capital Management, might be the biggest. World wide, I don't have any information on how they stack up.

In recent years, many top-selling brands — including the 195-year-old Remington Arms, as well as Bushmaster Firearms and DPMS, leading makers of military-style semiautomatics — have quietly passed into the hands of a single private company. It is called the Freedom Group — and it is the most powerful and mysterious force in the American commercial gun industry today.

Link to NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/b...-gun-industrys-giant.html?src=me&ref=business
 
"70% of the small arms used by U.S. Armed Forces around the world bear the FN name."

www.fnherstal.com/index.php?id=653

Then there are the military and police sales to other countries. Add in the worldwide sales of the Browning/Winchester division and total goes up. I haven't found the precise number yet because the dang phone keeps ringing. Haven't these people heard of e-mail?
 
NSSF published stats on US production for 2009 (most recent year available). Combining all handguns and long guns, Ruger is at the top totalling 933,559. S&W is second at 666,670 and Remington third at 612,572
 
Back
Top