Top Gun Importers and Volume

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) “Firearms Commerce in the United States, Annual Statistical Update 2019,” provides a variety of information on firearm production domestically, but also includes precisely how many guns each nation imports into the United States for the commercial market. Here’s a look at some of the numbers from the most recent year’s numbers, 2018, and their national source.

Austria produced the most guns that came to the United States that year, 933,574 in all. More than 927,000 of them were pistols, with rifles accounting for only 4,786 and shotguns 1,264.

Running a close second was Brazil at 864,886. Of that total, 664,698 were handguns, 138,931 rifles and 61,257 shotguns.

Turkey took third with 423,455 firearms imported in all, with the vast majority (343,392) being shotguns. Only 2,037 rifles came in from the country and 78,026 handguns.

Italy is next with 354,031. Its various manufacturers shipped 168,455 shotguns to the U.S. in 2018, 167,011 handguns and 18,565 rifles. Rounding out the top 10 in volume, in descending order, was Croatia, the Czech Republic, Canada, Philippines, China and Spain.

China imported 111,696 shotguns that year. According to the ATF report, “On May 26, 1994, the United States instituted a firearms imports embargo against China. Sporting shotguns, however, are exempt from the embargo.”

Broken down by type of firearm imported, the top three leaders in handguns (in descending order) were Austria, Brazil and Germany. In rifles the list was Canada, Brazil and Japan and for shotguns the top trio was Turkey, China and Italy.

The total number of firearms imported into the United States in 2018 was 4,305,851, down from the previous year’s figure of 4,492,256. Imported firearm figures peaked in 2013 at 5,539,539, more than half of the 10,844,792 U.S.-based manufacturers produced the same year.