| Chapter
11
Guns and Gun Control
By David J. Krajicek
Gun Manufacturers
About 3.3 million firearms were manufactured in the United States in 2004, the last year for which ATF tabulations were available.
According to ATF figures published by Shooting Industry Magazine (www.shootingindustry.com), the number manufactured fluctuated considerably from 1985 to 2004, from 3.5 million in ‘85 to a peak of 5.2 million in 1994. Gun manufacturing gradually declined to 3.7 million in 1998, reached a 20-year low of 2.9 million in 2001 and has held steady at about 3.3 million since then.
In 2004, about one-third of all guns manufactured were handguns. One-quarter were shotguns, and 42 percent rifles.
Handgun manufacturing has declined significantly since the 20-year peak of 2.7 million in 1993. That year, more than half of all guns made in America were handguns. Since 2001, American gun manufacturers have made about 1 million handguns per year. As noted below, imports nearly double the number of new handguns offered for sale in the United States each year.
In 2004, the nation’s largest gun manufacturer was Remington Arms Co., founded in Ilion, N.Y., in 1816 and now headquartered in Madison, N.C., north of Greensboro.
Remington produced nearly 600,000 firearms, divided almost equally between shotguns and rifles. The firm has not made handguns in 10 years.
Second largest was Sturm, Ruger & Co., based in Southport, Conn. The first manufactured 446,000 firearms in 2004, including 249,000 rifles, 189,000 handguns and 7,400 shotguns.
Third largest was Springfield, Mass.-based Smith & Wesson, a handgun specialist. The firm manufactured 236,000 handguns.
Other large manufacturers in 2004:
Marlin Firearms of North Haven, Conn., 228,000 rifles; O.F. Mossberg & Sons, also of North Haven, 208,000 shotguns and 13,000 rifles; Harrington and Richardson Firearms, a Gardner, Mass., manufacturer that merged with Marlin in 2000, 116,000 shotguns and 77,000 rifles; U.S. Repeating Arms, which made the venerable Winchester brand in Connecticut until going out of business in 2006, 109,000 rifles and 36,000 shotguns, and Savage Arms of Westfield, Mass., 110,000 rifles and 4,000 shotguns.
A Web link to the ATFE’s list of all gun manufacturers in the United States in 2005: http://www.atf.treas.gov/firearms/stats/afmer/afmer2005.pdf
Imports and Exports
About 1.8 million firearms are imported into the United States each year.
In 2004, the country received 845,000 handguns, including 245,000 from Austria, 202,000 from Brazil and 142,000 from Germany.
A total of 449,000 rifles were imported, including 139,000 from Canada, 78,000 from Brazil, 68,000 from Japan and 49,000 from Romania.
America received 435,000 shotguns from foreign manufacturers in 2004, including 210,000 from Italy, 68,000 from Turkey and 65,000 from Russia.
More than nine of every 10 guns manufactured in America are sold here. American firms exported 62,000 rifles, 39,000 handguns and 31,000 shotguns in 2004.
Brief History of Guns
Firearms have been sending projectiles hurtling toward targets for nearly 700 years.
The technology has existed since the invention of gunpowder—a mixture of charcoal, saltpeter and sulfur—in China in the 10th Century.
The first reported use of a firearm—a type of handheld cannon—came in 1364. It was a simple device: a wick was used to ignite gunpowder packed in the bottom of a metal cylinder, just beneath a ball. The energy emitted when the powder turned to gas forced the object out of the barrel.
There have been technological advances in the ignition mechanism over the years—the “flash pan” of matchlock guns in the 1400s, the use of a flint spark in about 1630, the invention by John Forsyth of mercury fulminate percussion caps in 1825.
But the fundamental operation of a gun—a source of ignition, an energy exchange from the gunpowder and a hurtling projectile--has not changed much.
For centuries, gunmen had only one method of loading—a single shot loaded through the barrel. These firearms contained no magazines to hold extra ammunition. The shooter had to reload after each shot.
Beginning in about 1850, repeating firearms allowed shooters to fire more rapidly. Today there are many methods of loading ammunition, from hinged barrels to bolt actions, revolvers, pumps, levers and semi-automatic mechanisms.
Bolt-action rifles and pump shotguns are examples of manual repeating firearms. The shooter must engage the bolt mechanism or the pump to discharge the spent shell and load a round of live ammo from the magazine.
Many hunters use semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, which automatically discharge the spent shell and load a live round after a shot is fired. These firearms are known as semi-automatic because each shot requires a discrete pull of the trigger.
The typical automatic weapon is a machine gun, which fires continuously if the trigger is pulled and held.
Caliber/Gauge
The diameter of a firearm’s bore--the inside of the barrel--is measured in gauge in a shotgun and in caliber in a rifle or handgun.
Caliber is a direct measure. A .22-caliber rifle, for example, has a bore diameter of 22/100 of an inch. A .357 is just over one-third of an inch, a .45 just under half an inch. (Under metric measurement, a .357 caliber is comparable in size to a 9 millimeter and a .22 caliber to a 5.56 mm.)
Gauge, on the other hand, is a more obscure measure. Under an old British weight system, gauge measures the number of lead balls of a certain bore diameter that add up to a pound.
The bore size of a 12 gauge required a dozen lead balls of that diameter to make a pound, while the bore size of a 20 gauge required 20 balls.
Rifle vs. Shotgun
A rifle, which fires a single bullet or projective at a time, gets its name from its grooved bore. The spiral grooves, called "rifling," spin a bullet as it leaves the barrel, increasing the weapon's range and accuracy. Depending upon the caliber, rifles can be deadly at a mile or more.
Shotguns have a smooth bore and are designed to shoot numerous projectiles at once--pellets encased in a plastic hull that spread as they leave the barrel. Shotguns have an effective game kill zone of up to 75 yards.
More Information
Tom O’Conner, a criminal justice professor at Austin Peay State University in Kentucky, maintains a Website with many links about guns: http://www.apsu.edu/oconnort/3210/3210lect06b.htm
Continue to the next page in "Chapter 11: Guns and Gun Control " >>>
<<< Return to the previous page in "Chapter 11: Guns and Gun Control "
|
