A Firearm Commerce study issued [PDF] by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) on Jan. 15 reports, “…there have been some notable shifts in the dominance of types of NFA [National Firearms Act of 1934] weapons manufactured. Annual silencer manufacturing volume increased 9,504 percent between 2000 (5,001) and the peak production year of 2021 (480,281) with the bulk of this growth taking place after 2010. In 2000, the 5,001 silencers manufactured constituted 6 percent of the total 79,862 NFA weapons manufactured and distributed into domestic commerce that year. In 2023, the 408,893 silencers manufactured constituted 83 percent of the total 495,762 NFA weapons manufactured and distributed into domestic commerce that year.”
Total volume of suppressor manufacturing dipped during 2022 and 2023, the latter being the last year in which BATFE has complete information. In 2021 there were a record-setting 480,281 made in the United States. The following years the number dropped to 445,597 and 408,893, chronologically.
The percentage of NFA items—which also includes short-barreled rifles, machine guns, etc., as well as suppressors—manufactured has more than doubled in the last three years when compared to firearms that fall under the more familiar Gun Control Act (those that typically require completion of a 4473 background check at the FFL) guns. “Compared to GCA firearms, NFA weapons have historically comprised a small fraction of all firearms manufactured annually,” the report states. “In 2020, NFA annual domestic firearm manufacturing constituted just 2 percent of all firearms manufactured domestically. However, that percentage more than doubled to 5 percent in 2023.”
Total domestic NFA item manufacturing peaked in 2022 at 560,170. Short-barreled rifles and machine guns—prohibited from civilian ownership unless owned privately before May 19, 1986—set records that year at 62,731 and 29,966, respectively. The next year their volumes decreased, however, to 36,325 and 25,310.
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