Weapons Sales Statistics in US 2026 | Key Facts

Weapons Sales in the US 2026

Weapons sales in the United States remain one of the most closely watched economic and policy subjects in the country, touching on public safety, constitutional rights, manufacturing output, and defense diplomacy all at once. The data landscape surrounding US firearms sales draws from several official federal sources — chiefly the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs — each tracking a different slice of this enormous market. As of February 2026, the most recent confirmed government figures point to a firearms market that has moderated somewhat from its pandemic-era highs of 2020–2021, yet continues to operate at historically elevated levels by virtually every metric that existed before 2019.

What makes the 2026 vantage point especially useful for researchers, policymakers, and industry observers is that several major data releases have landed in recent months, giving us the clearest picture yet. The ATF’s 2023 Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Exportation Report (AFMER) — published February 2025 — locked in the domestic production and export figures for calendar year 2023. The FBI’s 2024 NICS Operational Report documented a record-breaking half-billion total background checks processed since the system launched in 1998, hitting that milestone on December 18, 2024. Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department’s FY2024 arms transfer report confirmed record-breaking foreign military sales. Taken together, these sources paint a detailed, verified picture of US weapons sales statistics in 2026 that is presented across every section below.

Key Interesting Facts About Weapons Sales in the US 2026

Sources: FBI NICS 2024 Operational Report (fbi.gov); ATF AFMER 2023 Final Report (atf.gov, published February 3, 2025); ATF FY2024 Fact Sheet (atf.gov); ATF Data & Statistics page (atf.gov); U.S. State Department FY2024 Arms Transfers Report (state.gov, March 2025); NSSF Firearm & Ammunition Industry Economic Impact Report 2025 (nssf.org, April 2025).

The breadth of these facts reveals just how multidimensional the US weapons sales landscape actually is. On the domestic side, the transition from the pandemic surge of 2020–2021 — when annual NICS checks topped 38.8 million in 2021 — to the more measured pace of 26.1 million in 2025 reflects a normalization of demand rather than a collapse. Domestic manufacturing tells a similar story: the 9.77 million firearms produced and entered into commerce in 2023 is dramatically below the 14.58 million manufactured in 2021, yet still substantially above the pre-surge baseline of around 9 million in 2019. On the defense trade side, the numbers move in the opposite direction entirely, with FY2024 setting back-to-back records as U.S. allies sharply accelerated procurement in response to the evolving global security environment. The $318.7 billion combined FMS and DCS total for FY2024 is nearly four times what it was a decade ago, underscoring how dominant the United States remains as the world’s primary arms supplier.

FBI NICS Background Checks for Firearms Sales in the US 2026

Source: FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), Month/Year data table, updated January 31, 2026. Available at fbi.gov/nics. Note: NICS totals include firearm transfers, permits, permit rechecks, pre-pawn checks, redemptions, and other transaction types — they do not represent a one-to-one count of firearms sold.

The FBI NICS background check data is the single most widely cited federal indicator of retail firearms sales activity in the United States, and the trend from 2019 through 2025 tells a clear story. The extraordinary demand spike of 2020 — driven by pandemic uncertainty, civil unrest, and first-time buyers — pushed total checks to 39.7 million, nearly 40% above the 2019 baseline of 28.4 million. The system sustaining that volume without systemic failure was itself remarkable, helped by the NICS E-Check digital platform that by 2024 handled over 92% of all transactions processed directly by the NICS Section. The gradual step-down from 2021 through 2025 — losing roughly 12.75 million checks in four years — represents a return toward pre-surge demand levels, though 2025’s figure of 26.1 million still exceeds most pre-2019 years. The 500 millionth check milestone hit on December 18, 2024 illustrates the cumulative scale of this infrastructure: the system has processed more checks in the five years from 2020 through 2024 than in the prior 17 years combined.

ATF Domestic Firearms Manufacturing Statistics in the US 2026

Source: ATF Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Exportation Report (AFMER) 2023 Final Report, prepared by ATF Law Enforcement Division, published February 3, 2025. Available at atf.gov. Note: “Manufactured” is defined as firearms, including separate frames or receivers, actions or barreled actions, manufactured and disposed of in commerce during the calendar year. AFMER data excludes production for the U.S. military.

Pistols dominated domestic firearms manufacturing in 2023, accounting for 3,939,517 units — more than 40% of total production — a continuation of the trend toward handguns that has defined U.S. manufacturing output for over a decade. Within that category, 9mm pistols alone accounted for 2,375,628 units, making them by far the single most-produced firearm type in the country. Rifles came in second at 3,119,376 units, followed by miscellaneous firearms at 1.3 million, revolvers at 805,054, and shotguns at 602,782. The total production figure of 9,771,259 firearms for 2023 represents a significant pullback from the pandemic peak: licensed domestic GCA firearm manufacturing had surged 279% between 2000 and 2021, reaching 14,581,763 units at its apex, before declining approximately 35% through 2023 (ATF/NFCTA Volume II, 2024). On the export side, 479,033 firearms left the U.S. in 2023, with rifles (198,768) and pistols (217,691) making up the overwhelming majority — collectively representing over 87% of all U.S. civilian firearms exports that year.

ATF Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) in the US 2026

Source: ATF Fact Sheet — Facts and Figures for Fiscal Year 2024, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (atf.gov). FY2024 = October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2024.

The 128,690 active Federal Firearms Licensees on record in FY2024 represent the backbone of the regulated U.S. civilian firearms market — every retail gun store, pawnshop dealing in firearms, manufacturer, and importer operating legally in the United States must hold one of ATF’s nine FFL license types. The 9,696 compliance inspections conducted by ATF industry operations investigators during FY2024 reflect the agency’s ongoing effort to ensure that licensees maintain accurate acquisition and disposition records, which are critical to the success of law enforcement trace requests. With 37 application inspections denied out of 8,815 conducted — a denial rate of less than 0.5% — the data confirms that the overwhelming majority of applicants meet the legal and regulatory standards required to obtain federal firearms licenses, while ATF’s enforcement resources remain focused on detecting record-keeping violations and other compliance failures among the 128,690 existing licensees already in the market.

NICS Firearms Background Check Denials in the US 2026

Source: FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Section 2024 Operational Report, U.S. Department of Justice / Federal Bureau of Investigation, Criminal Justice Information Services Division. Available at fbi.gov/nics.

The 110,505 denials issued by the NICS Section in 2024 offer a direct window into the scale of the federal firearm disqualification system’s day-to-day operations. The fact that felony convictions account for nearly 45% of all denials — with 49,665 individuals blocked on that basis alone — underlines the centrality of prior criminal history as the primary barrier to lawful firearm acquisition. It is worth noting that these 110,505 denials were issued exclusively by the FBI’s own NICS Section, which processed 9,757,644 of the year’s 28,097,205 total checks; the remaining checks were processed by full and partial state point-of-contact (POC) agencies that make their own eligibility determinations and do not report individual denial counts to the NICS Section in the same consolidated format. Of the NICS Section’s denials, 2,758 firearm retrieval referrals were forwarded to ATF — meaning those firearms had already been transferred before the disqualifying information was identified — a figure that represents 2.5% of the section’s denied transactions and is down from the 3.1% five-year average prior to 2024.

U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and Defense Trade Statistics 2026

Source: U.S. Department of State, “Fiscal Year 2024 U.S. Arms Transfers and Defense Trade,” Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, published March 2025. Available at state.gov. FY2024 = October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2024. FMS totals include defense articles, services, and security cooperation activities conducted under the Foreign Military Sales system.

The $117.9 billion in FY2024 Foreign Military Sales represents the single largest annual total ever recorded under the FMS program — surpassing the previous high of $80.9 billion in FY2023 by an extraordinary $37 billion, or 45.7%. To understand what is driving these numbers, the composition matters: $96.9 billion came from direct ally and partner nation funding, $11.8 billion from U.S. government Title 22 Foreign Military Financing grants and loans, and $9.2 billion from Department of Defense and State Department partner capacity programs. The $200.8 billion in Direct Commercial Sales authorizations — covering hardware, services, and technical data licensed to U.S. companies for sale directly to foreign buyers — adds a separate and even larger layer to the picture. Together, the $318.7 billion combined total for FY2024 reflects both the ongoing surge in allied defense procurement driven by global security conditions and the structural position of the United States as the world’s dominant arms supplier. The $845 billion in open FMS case value at year-end FY2024 signals that demand in the pipeline remains exceptionally robust heading into 2026.

U.S. Firearms and Ammunition Industry Economic Impact Statistics 202

Sources: NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation) Firearm and Ammunition Industry Economic Impact Report 2025, published April 2025, prepared by John Dunham & Associates, December 2024. Available at nssf.org. Economic impact data covers direct, supplier, and induced employment in firearms/ammunition manufacturers, distributors, retailers, shooting ranges, and related supply chain firms.

Few economic stories in U.S. manufacturing over the past 16 years match the scale of growth in the firearms and ammunition industry. Starting from a $19.1 billion total economic impact in 2008, the sector has expanded by 379% to reach $91.65 billion in 2024 — a figure that makes it comparable in size to several major U.S. manufacturing sub-sectors. The 383,000 full-time equivalent jobs supported by the industry in 2024 represent a 131% increase from the ~166,000 jobs in 2008, with those positions now paying an average of $68,300 in wages and benefits — well above the U.S. median wage. The $10.97 billion in combined tax contributions paid by the industry and its workforce in 2024 — alongside the $886 million in Pittman-Robertson excise taxes dedicated exclusively to wildlife conservation — demonstrate that the economic footprint of US weapons sales extends far beyond firearms manufacturers themselves, flowing into state and local budgets, conservation programs, and supply chains spanning metal working, optics, printing, retail, and financial services. The addition of an estimated 3.9 million new gun owners in 2024 continues a trend of expanding the market’s customer base that first accelerated sharply during the pandemic years of 2020–2021.

ATF National Firearms Act (NFA) Weapons Data in the US 2026

Sources: ATF Data & Statistics page (atf.gov, updated 2025); FBI NICS 2024 Operational Report (fbi.gov); ATF National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA), Volume II: Firearm Commerce Updates and New Analysis (atf.gov).

The National Firearms Act governs some of the most tightly regulated civilian weapon categories in the United States — machineguns, suppressors (silencers), short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, destructive devices, and certain “any other weapons” — and the scale of registered items in 2025 is substantial. The 2,382,403 total machineguns currently in the ATF’s National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record represent all registrations regardless of type of holder, including government entities and licensed dealer sales samples; of these, only 234,718 are transferable to private individuals under the post-1986 Hughes Amendment restrictions of the Firearm Owners Protection Act. The explosive growth in NFA applications — from 525,582 in 2016 to 1,086,302 in 2023, a 107% surge in seven years — reflects primarily the rapid rise in suppressor ownership across states that permit civilian ownership. The 1,084,183 NFA-related NICS checks processed by the FBI NICS Section in 2024 hit a new record for the program, and the ATF’s successful campaign to reduce eForms processing time by 79% between early and late 2024 — from an average of 133.7 days down to 28.2 days — has been one of the most operationally significant changes in the NFA market in years.

U.S. Firearms Imports Statistics 2026

Source: ATF Firearms Commerce in the United States — Annual Statistical Update 2024 (atf.gov), Exhibit 3: Firearms Imports 2013–2023. Note: Exact 2023 import totals by type are published in the ATF Annual Statistical Update 2024; confirmed year totals from ATF. Estimates for intermediate years are indicative — see the ATF Annual Statistical Update for official figures by year.

Confirmed ATF figures for 2013 and 2014 give a clear baseline for the import side of the U.S. firearms market: in 2013, the United States imported 5,539,539 total firearms, with 3,095,528 handguns dominating that count — a ratio that has remained broadly consistent through the years since. The step-down to 3,625,268 total imports in 2014 reflects the year-to-year variability inherent in import flows, which respond to exchange rates, trade policy shifts, export licensing restrictions in source countries, and evolving U.S. consumer demand. The ATF’s import data is compiled from U.S. International Trade Commission records and published annually alongside the AFMER manufacturing data in the Firearms Commerce Annual Statistical Update — a document that serves as the definitive official reference for the combined picture of domestic production, imports, and exports. The key structural point confirmed by the ATF’s cumulative dataset is that handguns consistently account for the majority of imported firearms, making the combined domestic production plus import channel for handguns the single largest segment of weapons available to the U.S. civilian market in any given year.

NICS NFA Background Check Volume and Processing Data in the US 2026

Source: FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Section 2024 Operational Report, available at fbi.gov/nics.

The 1,084,183 NFA background checks processed by the NICS Section in 2024 represent a 140% increase over the prior five-year average and reflect the surging volume of NFA transfer applications flowing through the ATF’s eForms system. The processing bottleneck that developed through mid-2024 — when average eForms review times had reached 110 days for the roughly 23% of checks requiring staff research — was aggressively addressed by the NICS Section, which deployed additional dedicated staff and introduced system efficiencies that cut the average processing time to 48 days by December 2024. For the 77% of NFA checks where the applicant’s descriptive information matched no potentially prohibiting records in any of the three NICS databases, the system provided ATF with an instant “proceed” recommendation within seconds — a feature that, at scale, means roughly 834,000 NFA applicants in 2024 received same-day clearance without human review. The availability of the NICS VAF and the newly extended NFA challenge process — which became available to NFA applicants in January 2024 — further strengthened due process protections for applicants who believe they were incorrectly flagged by the system.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

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