Gun Imports in 2010
The BATFE have published a list of the top countries which exported firearms to the USA and how many gun were imported from them. Most of these countries have only one, two or three major firearm manufacturers, so it is not hard to figure out how many guns these manufactures exported.
Note: Many of the companies listed below also manufacture firearms in the USA. Some have been known to export US-manufactured guns to Europe.
Brazil: Taurus/Rossi.
Austria: Glock and Steyr. I am going to make an educated guess and say that at least 70% of those pistol imported are Glocks. Glocks are selling well! The rifles would be Steyrs.
Italy: A number of companies. The bulk would be from the Beretta family (which includes Benelli).
Germany: H&K, SIG & Walther [Thanks Jason]
Croatia: Springfield Armory is selling a lot of XD pistols!
Turkey: A lot of firearm manufactures. A good proportion of those shotguns would from Beretta owned companies.
Canada: I have no idea who is exporting rifles to the USA. Maybe its a typo? Maybe a large undisclosed purchased of Colt Canada firearms for allied forces in the Middle East? Maybe the Canadians decided to send all their Lee Enfield to collectors in the USA. Apparently Savage makes rimfire rifles in Canada [ Thanks James ]
Russia: Mostly Saiga rifles from Izshmash. I am surprised, I thought Russia would be exporting a lot more.
Argentina: Bersa pistols.
China: A few countries import Remington 870-clones (ironically the list includes H&R, a subsidiary of Remington). Who is importing rifles? It must only be either a government, defense contractor or military organization.
Romania: Soviet era rifles and handguns?
Japan: Weatherby, some Winchesters.
Philippines: Rock Island Armory and a few other companies.
Serbia: Zastava.
Czech Republic: The majority from CZ. Czechpoint is a smaller company that imports a variety of Czech-made firearms.
Belgium: FN Herstal.
Finland: Tikka / Sako (owned by Beretta).
UK: I am not sure who is importing handguns. I suspect it's a government-related transfer. There are a number of rifle manufactures. Accuracy International is one of the larger companies.
Spain: Star and Astra. Possibly includes imports from CVA and Traditions who make muzzleloaders. [Thanks Jon]
Ukraine: Soviet-era rifles?
Portugal: Collector guns? Some Browning-branded shotguns [Thanks Jon]
Bulgaria: Arsenal.
Poland: Collector guns like the Polish PPS-43C.
Israel: IWI pistols.
Switzerland: KRISS and a few other firms.
If you notice any errors or omissions in the above list, please let us know in the comments.
The spanish gun manufacturers Star & Astra disapeared more than ten years ago!
The only gun manufacturer alive in spain is called “SPS” and the volume of guns is near to their capacity.
Would I be mistaken to believe the Italian imports of pistols to include the black powder versions produced by Uberti, Pietta, etc. in addition to Beretta and Stoeger?
the japanese shotguns would be miroku, and some browning shotguns also
It’s surprising Century Arms is only importing 35,000 WASRs a year. I guess the WASR kits without the receivers don’t count.
CZ needs to do something either marketing/branding-wise, a la HS 2000/Springfield XD. 21,000 handgun imports a year is pathetic for a company whose CZ-75 is the most widely copied design in the world.
Repeal that 1993 Clintonian Norinco import ban, so I can get my hands on a semi-auto QBZ-97 and some more reasonably priced steel cased ammo.
Never going to happen. US gun makers would ensure cheap guns would not enter the market Springfield Kimber being some who would lose there pants to cheaper M-14 and M-1911 imports like Canada has. The QZB-97 is not the true Chi com rifle like the QZB-95 is its .223 caliber not 5.8mm and uses AR mags instead or AK style mags the 95 has. Its rather cheap and not as good as some other foreign designs like the SiG-552 Arsenal AK-74 and AUG are. If the ban died I want a semi-auto AN-94.
@ Lance. It is QBZ, not QZB. QBZ literally stands for Light Infantry Family(of weapons) in Chinese. You also seem to think if someone wants a certain gun, he is striving for the best gun he can get his hands on. Whatever happened to “variety,” the spice of life?
There’s no need to flaunt your firearms knowledge over QBZ Type-95 or Type-97, some of us are already intimately familiar with the specs of most interesting infantry weapons. Such as the hyper burst cyclic rate of the AN-94 and HK G11.
@Caseless
Type-95 or QZB QBZ or what ever the Commies want to name it is not that awesome of a firearm has awkward controls and a carry Handel which raises the sights alot farther than a western made weapon dose. The fact you cant get 5.8 Chicom ammo out of China makes the gun worthless.
A AN-94 fire plentiful 5.45 ammo and uses same accessories as the AK-74 so alot more sense to get one.
i agree in maintaining a ban on Chinese firearms imports, though believe the restrictions on Russian firearms should be rescinded.
My justification? I would rather do business with the Russians than the Chinese. Besides that point, I have immense respect for Russia’s military technology and weaponry…particularly small arms.
I’m Canadian and I love my Norinco M14, how can you not love an M14 for under $400? Or a 1911 for $300, another good one is the Sig 226 clone by Norinco for $349.
Canada imports a single-digit number of handguns.
What?
Just…what? Six? I dunno how Canada handles its handgun legislation, but it doesn’t say anything good when the country apparently imports…six.
Unless that were saying that the country produces such good handguns that only six people or less were stupid enough to import one – which I highly doubt.
It’s not that Canada makes bad handguns, it’s just that they just don’t make many at all. In fact, Para was the only Canadian handgun-maker I knew of until they moved to the US. I’m sure there are a few small smiths around that make custom 1911s and the like, but that’s about it.
Canada’s handgun laws aren’t that tight, and handgun ownership is high, but import laws are so lax that the Canadian market is flooded with handguns from all over the world. Firearm manufacturer has never been big in Canada and the market is dominated in all areas by imported guns.
Dlask makes custom 1911′s and they are based out of B.C., it’s not a hugely known brand name, but they sell the odd 1911 part through Brownells.
I’d feel pretty certain that the split between Austria’s pistol imports is s lot higher than 70% for Glock. It is probably closer to 95%.
70% would be leave Glock with over 300000 pistols while leaving Steyr nearly 130000. I seriously doubt that steyr sells anywhere near that amount.
If Glock sold 95%, that would be 409450 for Glock versus 21550. Even that seems like an implausible number for Steyr.
I would think Steyr would be lucky to sell 5000 pistols in the US per year. That would be 1.16% of total pistol imports from Austria.
I would think the majority of Romanian imports would be wasrs and dracos
Zermoid, the could have made a couple thousand but only sold 6 in usa, rest went elsewhere.
Canada imported 6 handguns????
Just 6?????
Really? Strange, were they custom makes? Who tools up a factory for 6 guns? Anybody got details on that?
Did Para sell off the last of their Canadian stuff on January 2nd, and then bail? It did seem odd to me too.
Probably stated in the 75 comments below.
But Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft or more commonly known as SIG Sauer or these days Swiss Arms, sure sound like they come from Switzerland.
Taking time to look it up, seems as if SIG started up a german company to handle their exports.
Anyway, to add to the Swiss list, Sphinx and Brügge & Thomet at least are Swiss companies.
I must say I was much surprised Switzerland did non end up higher on that list. I guess most of that is due to SIG selling from germany.
Romania = WASR-10 variants, and that SVD-type thing they made. There may be 5.56mm and 5.45mm AK variants coming out of Romania, but I’m not willing to stake my life on it.
The Draco pistol is a Romanian import also – an AK-47 pistol that has become popular because it’s not too hard to convert to an SBR (short-barreled rifle) if you go through the NFA (National Firearm Act) process and get the tax stamp.
WASR-10s are imported as low-cap rifles and converted to be 922(r) compliant and to take surplus AK-47 mags. Century Arms surely sells a crap-load of these, because it’s hard to find a cheaper AK variant.
Since Russia supposedly imports that many rifles, It still baffles me why Russian Dragunovs bring a rediculous price in the United States.
SVDs and Tigrs are not exported from Russia anymore. It’s a shame, they would sell very well but the Russians don’t seem interested in exporting them.
Also, the Romanian imports are most likely all WASR 10/63 (7.62×39) WASR2 (5.45×39) and WASR 3 (.223) models as well as PSLs.
based of what i have heard and researched, the problem is US import regulations, specifically the ones dealing with Russia. I’m sure Izhmash would be in hog heaven importing firearms and semi-automatic copies to the US, due to a wide variety of reasons: privatization blues, the Russian military overstock on AK74′s, and lack of large numbers of customers. I would buy a Russian rifle…if they imported authentic ones to the states.
TO ALL THOSE WHO BUY CHINESE SHOTGUNS OR THINK IT SUCKS THAT CHINESE SMALL-ARMS ARE BANNED FOR U.S. IMPORT
Why would you want to buy Chinese made NORINCO handguns and rifles when the same state owned company supplies the 107/122 mm rockets to the Taliban that are targeting US Military bases and killing U.S. soldiers and have in the past in Iraq by other groups. I came across a lot of recent manufactured Chinese Norinco made Type 69 RPG’s and clone AK’s when I was there. No American should support a Chinese small-arms company that has no problems selling weapons that are killing/maiming American soldiers as we speak. Never mind that Nornico is the main supplier of Sudan and even keeps supplying them even though those weapons are being used to perpetrate a genocide in Darfur. A cheap price isn’t worth surrendering my ethics plus I want to support as much as I can U.S. manufacturing and U.S. workers.
The company is owned and run by Communist Red China to answer your question why. Thanks for your service.
and people have made fun of me for not buying into the “cheap” Norinco SKS fad…
it certainly changes your perspective when you are digging up the same Norinco weapons that were used against you as a soldier.
i agree completely!!! and the fact that the PRC constantly oppresses thier people and imprison them for disagreeing, protesting ect. Tienanmen square is a prime example and its one of the reasons that i loathe buying chinese products.
lol, not to mention of how the U.S. supplied the Taliban with all that stuff from Norinco in the 80s.
anyone know the number of guns produced in the us?…bill
The first “rapid firing” firearms were usually similar to the 19th century Gatling gun, which would fire cartridges from a magazine as fast as and as long as the operator turned a crank. Eventually, the “rapid” firing mechanism was perfected and miniaturized to the extent that either the recoil of the firearm or the gas pressure from firing could be used to operate it, thus the operator needed only to pull a trigger (which made the firing mechanisms truly “automatic”). Automatic rifles such as the Browning Automatic Rifle were in common use by the military during the early part of the 20th century, and automatic rifles that fired handgun rounds, known as submachine guns, also appeared in this time.
Ukraine probably exports VEPR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vepr. You can find them for sale in the U.S.
Sorry but that weapon is rare in Ukraine nope never imported to the US.
Quite surprised FN Herstal and H&K/SIG/Walther aren’t selling more pistols with all their military publicity. Guess the Glock, XD and S&W M&P line is just too dominant.
Couldn’t it be that those companies have State-side manufacturing plants or at least have sold licenses to produce their wepons to US-based companies?
stefan, you are correct. H&K, SIG, and Walther cannot fairly compete against US companies (which explains why they are more expensive) due to utterly ridiculous import laws. These laws also stifle innovation and new designs…
If blackpowder firearms are included in the data, then Italy’s numbers would include products by Pietta & Uberti.
I suspect those UK pistol imports were mostly collectibles – one at least was a Purdey Howdah with my name on it.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_10_53/ai_n27349592/
Winchester imports some rifles from Russia.
Astra and Star are out of business, so they would not be importing from Spain. As many have said, many Browning rifles are made in Japan
In Canada we have para making handguns so I doubt that only 5 made it to the US
I thought that Para had moved it’s operation to the States. Is that not the case?
Let’s not forget that people lawfully import/export their own firearms to/from Canada.
Romania exports most WASR 10/63s, not just old Soviet firearms.
I am not sure about current production but at one time Browning firearms were built in Japan.
I wish the numbers for Russia and Brazil were switched around…
Japan has New-SKB shotguns as well.
Komrade is right On;ly Chinese shotguns are allowed after 97. Ukraine does NOT sell firearms to civilians in the US. The list forgets Bulgarian Makarov and Arcus 98 pistols which Century arms imports. Romania is forgotten which makes WSAR 1 2 AKM/74 style rifles.
Firearm posession isn’t quite illegal in Brazil, I know ’cause my dad has a Beretta .22…
But I’m surprised to see Brazil is the top importer! :O
Springfield Armory 1911A1′s are made (or at least were) made in Brazil by Imber.
I have one and it’s very good quality workmanship IMO, I bought it used and the only problem I have had is extractor needed adjustment.
I know Polish surplus P-64 pistols (9x18mm caliber) are pretty popular because they’re cheap (about $180 from the usual surplus sources) and accurate. I believe IO currently imports them. A rush of them became available near the end of summer.
J&G Sales has them for $150. Although I don’t own one personally, I hear tell that they are nearly ideal CC guns, especially at that price. I suggest anyone looking for a CC pistol at least consider a P64.
The P-64 is an option for carry, but there are pluses and minuses. Since they’re surplus any given gun may need some work to make it reliable enough for carry. The 9x18mm cartridge is somewhere between the .380 and the 9x19mm in power, and the mag holds only 6 rounds. (A Ruger LCP holds as many, but is much smaller.) Some people want more punch. The DA trigger pull is substantial (18-20 lbs) although SA is quite light. One advantage some owners claim is that if they ever do have to use their P-64 for defense and it gets confiscated by law enforcement, they’re not out $500.
9mm Makarov is a decent weapon trust me it in Russian hands killed alot of Muslim terrorist in Afghanistan and Chechnya. While yes 9x19mm Is a bit more powerful it dose enough to kill an opponent especially with HP ammo.
The Makarov is a outstanding and safe concealed carry weapon. Given that 380 and even 9mm are more popular in the US, those calibers are only marginally more powerful than the Russian cartridge. I like 9x18mm because it is cheap
The same criticisms of the 9x19mm can be refuted also with the fact this “anemic” little cartridge has killed hundreds of thousands. Its about shot placement.
“Speed is Fine, Accuracy is Final is the motto I adopted when it comes to combat marksmanship. The reason is simple; the only way to guarantee ending a gunfight in your favor is accurate hits on target – fast misses don’t cut it.” -Larry Vickers-
“China: A few countries import Remington 870-clones (ironically the list includes H&R, a subsidiary of Remington). Who is importing rifles? It must only be either a government, defense contractor or military organization.”
Is H&R a, “country”? Should that read, “A few companies import….”?
You can import sporting shotguns from China, it is only rifles and handguns that are banned from import. It kinda sucks that we can’t get any of those cheap guns.
TO ALL THOSE WHO BUY CHINESE SHOTGUNS OR THINK IT SUCKS THAT CHINESE SMALL-ARMS ARE BANNED FOR U.S. IMPORT
Why would you want to buy Chinese made NORINCO handguns and rifles when the same state owned company supplies the 107/122 mm rockets to the Taliban that are targeting US Military bases and killing U.S. soldiers and have in the past in Iraq by other groups. I came across a lot of recent manufactured Chinese Norinco made Type 69 RPG’s and clone AK’s when I was there. No American should support a Chinese small-arms company that has no problems selling weapons that are killing/maiming American soldiers as we speak. Never mind that Nornico is the main supplier of Sudan and even keeps supplying them even though those weapons are being used to perpetrate a genocide in Darfur. A cheap price isn’t worth surrendering my ethics plus I want to support as much as I can U.S. manufacturing and U.S. workers.
quantity-wise, i’d say the XD/XDm are out selling other manufacturers..
Ukraina: Molot Vepr (“better” AKs).
Quite a surprise to see Brasil at the top of the list considering the crap domestic market.
Is IMBEL included in those numbers? They don´t export whole guns as ar as I know, but they do make the frames and slides for the 1911 line from Springfield if I’m not mistaken.
I thought the whole gun was made there, but the frame is definitely made in Brazil as that’s where the Imbel marking is.
you are correct with the Springfield 1911 frames and slides. the whole pistols arent assembled there, though it is my understanding the custom variants are 100% made in the US.
Glock and Taurus and Beretta top 3 again.
It’s odd that Brazil is the biggest exporter but domestic gun possession is basically illegal. You’d think those two would conflict.
Wonder why the imports from Bulgaria are listed as handguns. Arsenal is the only one there I know of and they make rifles, which aren’t listed.
Bulgarian Makarovs.
They use and export Makarovs and Arcus 98s.
With respect to Spain, doesn’t “Astra” just mean “Star?” Are these actually the same company?
ASTRA and STAR were two different firearms manufacturers from Spain -the operative word being: “were”. Those two companies went under back in the mid-1990′s.
Besides ASTRA and STAR, there were the Llama pistols and revolvers -Llama did too go into bankruptcy years ago.
Part of those import figures might be from vintage firearms, but I suspect the most are from a small company in Barcelona that caters to the IPSC crowd: SPS-DC Custom.
http://www.spsguns.es/
The Spanish word for star is estrella. Astra is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning weapon.
Romania = Fabrica de Arme Cugir SA exporting the PSL-54C to us.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSL_(rifle)
–James
Don’t forget all those WASRs!
For sure, I’ll wager there were a bunch more of those imported here than the PSL!
Very interesting to read.
P.S. Many (if not all) of Browning’s shotguns are also Japanese.
My father-in-law has a rather beautiful Browning 12ga semiauto made by Miroku sitting in his safe.
I want a mp412 rex damn it! Its such a cool 357 top break revolver
COD much?
Battlefield much?
Only 3708 Siagas could have been brought in from Russia? That’s not even counting those fancy non-Siaga shotguns.
I wonder who many in 2011 and 2012? Now that the ban scare has been silenced.
I really doubt the price is ever going to come back down. Glad I got my S12 for $450 when I did. Nice gun, but not worth the 1000+ they were getting.
Springfield has it’s 1911 parts forged in Brazil. The dust cover on the 1911′s should say imbel
I bought a used Cimarron coach gun and it was made in “PRC” (China), so maybe they make other cowboy clones, sort of like a crappy Uberti.
China makes clones of Winchester 1887 & 1901 shotguns
sphinx from switzerland?
Could be the case, KRISS announced in 2011 that they wanted to get a hold of the US market with a few basic models of Sphinx pistols.
I wonder if the shotgun imports from Russia include the “Remington Spartan” line. If so, that’s even fewer Saiga shotguns making it into the US.
The shotguns from Brazil might include Rossi.
I too would like to know what handguns where imported by whom from Russia. There are a few current handguns over there I wish would be imported for the public!
Revolver EXport!! I want a modern top break 357.
Canadian rimfires are made in the old Lakefield Arms plant.
Miroku Japan also produces long guns branded under the Winchester name.
I am curious to what handguns were imported from Russia considering there is a ban on handguns from there?!?
Toz-35M free pistols, I’d bet.
Japan: Howa (Weatherby), Browning Rifles and Shotguns produced by Miroku http://www.browningint.com/miroku/homepage.php
Phillipines: Armscor (RAI is a brand)
Wow, that is a LOT of XD
Japan would be Howa, which is who Weatherby would be importing from. They sell under their own name also. Legacy Intn’l is the importer.
The UK handguns are probably Section 5 dealers selling historic handguns that we can’t own in our own country, to a country where you can
Romainia has been importing alot Of their tokarevs pistols lately. I bet all those dracos count as pistols too. I bet the Italian pistol number is lower than Austria too because beretta makes alot of pistols in america vs all glocks for us market being made in Austria.
Spain would include CVA and Traditions … If this list includes muzzleloaders. I believe those American companies import their muzzle loaders from a Spanish company.
Good point, but I am not sure if muzzleloaders are included in the BATFE figures. They are usually treated differently.
I was wrong. CVA and Traditions apparently import the muzzle loader components, and assemble them in the US facilities.
Walther is also in Germany. The popular P22 pistol may be a portion of what is imported.
Good point. S&W import Walther.
this is the sort of thing i follow this blog for, interesting, non-political info that i would not find elswhere
The numbers are weird. For example, most Brownings are either made in Portugal from some level of Belgian parts or made in Japan, yet I’m sure they sold more than 1,000 Browning shotguns in 2010. I don’t believe Brazil made that many shotguns either, Stoegers are the only mass market brand I can think of.
Ah! Thanks.
Taurus/Rossi make the Circuit Judge .410 shotguns.
Also Rossi makes cheap single shot break-open shotguns.
Canada would be Savage, they make Rimfire Rifles for the US market there.
Ah, thanks James. I had no idea and I own a recently made Savage rimfire.
Savage only started selling rimfire rifles when they acquired Lakefield Arms in Lakefield, ON. All of their rimfire rifles have always been made in Canada.
I just learned this a few months ago. Interesting considering I owned a Lakefield .22 when I lived in Canada.