Texas Is a Hub of American Gun Manufacturing

This post includes affiliate links. If you purchase anything through these affiliated links, 247wallst.com may earn a commission.

24/7 Wall St. Insights

• The United States is the largest consumer market for firearms in the world, and to meet demand, there are thousands of federally licensed gunmakers across the 50 states.
• Due to the presence of a handful of companies, more firearms are manufactured in Texas  than in most other states.
• Also : 2 Dividend Legends to Hold Forever

The United States is home to less than 5% of the global population and more than 45% of the world's civilian owned guns. The only country with more firearms than people -- according to the Geneva based public policy research organization, Small Arms Survey -- the U.S. has a gun culture like nowhere else on Earth, and demand from American consumers is fueling a multi-billion dollar industry. (Here is a look at the best-selling firearms in the United State s.)

As of 2023, the arms and ammunition industry generated more than $90 billion in economic output, according to the industry trade association National Shooting Sports Foundation . Foundational to America's arms and ammunition industry are the more than 3,700 active gunmakers that were operating in the U.S. in 2022, the most recent year of available data. Records from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives show that these manufacturers produced nearly 13.4 million firearms that same year.

While there are gunmakers operating in each of the 50 states, Texas stands out as a hub for small-arms manufacturing. A reported 1,711,726 firearms were manufactured in Texas in 2022, the second most among the 50 states, and equal to about 12.8% of all domestic firearm production that year.

Miscellaneous firearms, an ATF category that includes any other unclassified firearm or firearm component, including frames and receivers, accounted for 62.2% of Texas's total output in 2022. Shotguns accounted for the second largest share of firearm production in Texas at about 15.6%. Meanwhile, approximately 11.1% of firearms manufactured in the state were rifles, 11.0% were pistols, and fewer than 1% were revolvers.

While there were more than 460 federally licensed gunmakers operating in Texas in 2022, the state's firearm industry is dominated by just a small handful of companies. Only 26 manufacturing facilities in the state produced at least 200 firearms in 2022. Among them, the largest, as measured by total output, is a plant in Eagle Pass, Texas, operated by Maverick Arms.

Maverick is a subsidiary of O.F. Mossberg & Sons, a gunmaker that was founded over 100 years ago in New Haven, Connecticut. In the last decade, Mossberg expanded its production facility in Eagle Pass by 116,000 square feet, and today, the vast majority of firearms bearing the Mossberg or Maverick brand names are made there. A reported 1,404,446 firearms were manufactured in this plant alone in 2022, equal to about 82.0% of all firearms produced in the state that year. (Here is a look at the largest firearm company in every state .)

Texas's firearm industry has a meaningful economic impact. Both directly and indirectly, arms and ammunition generated $6.5 billion in output and supported an estimated 29,653 jobs in 2023, according to the NSSF. Additionally, through property, sales, and income taxes, the state and federal government collected a combined $677.4 million in revenue from Texas's arms and ammunition industry.

These are the leading firearm manufacturers in Texas. It is important to note that this list is a ranking of federally licensed production facilities, and as a result, a company can appear more than once. Similarly, some brands on this list may be manufacturing firearms within the same facility as another, but are listed separately. Gunmakers who are federally licensed under their first and last name, rather than a company or brand name, were excluded from this list.

Why It Matters

The United States is the world's largest consumer market for firearms, and partially as a result, there are thousands of federally licensed gunmakers across the 50 states. Due to the presence of a small handful of companies, most notably Maverick, more guns are manufactured in Texas than nearly anywhere else in the country.

Smart Investors Are Quietly Loading Up on These “Dividend Legends”

If you want your portfolio to pay you cash like clockwork, it’s time to stop blindly following conventional wisdom like relying on Dividend Aristocrats. There’s a better option , and we want to show you. We’re offering a brand-new report on 2 stocks we believe offer the rare combination of a high dividend yield and significant stock appreciation upside. If you’re tired of feeling one step behind in this market, this free report is a must-read for you.

Click here to download your FREE copy of “2 Dividend Legends to Hold Forever” and start improving your portfolio today.