It’s that time of the year again. The federal bean counters have carved out a report and given us a broad overview of the state of firearms commerce in the United States. And with the historic period we experienced in 2016, this year’s report promises to be even more exciting than the last. Ok, none of this is that exciting; slightly interesting maybe, but not exciting. Let’s take a look.

Between a national election that drove sales based on gun control fears and the 41P/41F rule change for NFA making and transfers, Americans put up some impressive sales numbers. For example, the Government nearly doubled its NFA collection, taking in an additional $30M in 2016 compared to 2015.

NFA Form 4 Transfer applications were up slightly, but the data is skewed – even though NFA tax was collected showing a dramatic increase in submissions, many of those were not approved until the 2017 fiscal year. In theory, next years report will see an uptick in approved forms but a drop in NFA tax paid.

As always, I am happy to see increased NFA ownership – the more club members we have, the better chance we have at deregulation.

Excerpts and the link to the full report is posted below,

– Thanks to Gemtech’s Derek “IKH” S.  for the tip.

Firearms Commerce in the United States – 2017 (Click for the full report):

This report presents data drawn from a number of ATF reports and records in one comprehensive document. It also provides comparative data from as far back as 1975 for context, analyses of trends over the years, and a fuller picture of the state of firearms commerce in the United States today.