The NRA’s flagship publication just spotlighted Orchid’s analysis of ATF firearm manufacturing data. Here’s what its readers saw and where to find the full rankings.

There are few bigger megaphones in the firearm industry than American Rifleman, the NRA’s flagship publication. This week, its editors turned to Orchid’s research to answer the question every FFL, executive, and industry watcher asks each year: who is actually building America’s firearms?

On August 4, American Rifleman published “Top Firearm Manufacturers Estimated from ATF Report”, an industry snapshot drawn from Orchid’s Top 30 Largest USA Firearm Manufacturers of 2024, our annual ranking built on the ATF’s Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Exportation Report (AFMER).

Each spring, the ATF’s AFMER release opens a rare window into U.S. production. To build the 2024 rankings, Orchid’s team reviewed production data from more than 3,900 manufacturing FFLs. Among the findings now in front of American Rifleman’s readers:

• U.S. manufacturers produced roughly 9.6 million firearms in 2024, down 2% from 2023 as the market continues to settle from its 2021 peak.
• The Top 30 manufacturers built 88% of them. Scale keeps concentrating: Ruger, Smith & Wesson, and SIG Sauer alone accounted for roughly 42% of national output.
• Ruger held the #1 spot for the third consecutive year, at more than 1.35 million firearms.
• Pistols bucked the downturn, growing 4% to 4.1 million units, while revolvers (−21%) and rifles (−9.5%) pulled back.
• The growth stories keep coming from the challengers. Staccato, Shadow Systems, and Empire Precision Plastics posted the industry’s fastest five-year growth and Empire cracked the Top 30 for the first time, jumping 25 spots. Mossberg, meanwhile, kept its five-year hold on the #1 shotgun position.

The Top 30 report has become an annual reference point for the industry because it isn’t guesswork, it’s built the same way Orchid approaches everything: directly from the regulatory data. The AFMER filings, serialization records, and acquisition-and-disposition requirements behind these rankings are the same compliance workload our software and services carry for firearm manufacturers and retailers every day. When one of the most widely read firearm publications in the country cites that analysis, we’ll take it as a compliment and as a standard to keep.

The complete reportincluding the full Top 30 table, pistol, rifle, revolver, and shotgun leaderboards, and five-year growth trends is free to read: Top 30 Largest USA Firearm Manufacturers of 2024.

And if you’d like to see the coverage for yourself, the American Rifleman feature is available here.

For nearly 15 years, Orchid has been the firearms industry's leading provider of FFL technology, compliance, and education solutions, serving more than 11,000 FFL users. Trusted by the largest names in shooting sports, Orchid powers the systems through which nearly 25 million firearm transactions are processed each year, with more than 60% of all U.S.-manufactured firearms flowing through its flagship Orchid eBound™ platform. The company is the only provider offering a fully integrated suite of FFL Bound Book, electronic 4473, native 4473 electronic storage, POS, eCommerce, 2A-friendly payment processing, and in-house compliance services backed by a 100% Attorney Compliance Guarantee (terms apply). Together with its legal affiliate, FFL Law, Orchid delivers the industry's most complete ecosystem of software, payments, and regulatory expertise, helping clients run efficient, profitable, and ATF-compliant operations.