Who is Manufacturing the Guns Used in Crimes?

On February 14, 2024, multiple people opened fire at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade, killing one person and wounding another 24. At least two of the weapons used were semiautomatic pistols, capable of both utilizing high-capacity magazines and being concealed due to their small size. These two weapons were produced by Glock and Taurus—two of the country’s leading crime gun manufacturers.¹State of Missouri v. Dominic M. Miller and State of Missouri v. Lyndell Mays, 2416-CR, Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, https://smokinggun.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Miller-Mays-Charging-Documents.pdf.

Executive Summary

The gun industry has long avoided taking responsibility for the use of its products in crimes and violence. Despite receiving notifications from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) when their guns are recovered and traced,² Brian Freskos, “How a Gun Trace Works,” The Trace,, July 8, 2016, https://www.thetrace.org/2016/07/how-a-gun-trace-works-atf-ffl/; Eric Flack, “Former ATF Agent: Current Gun Tracing System Is ‘Insane,’” WUSA9, May 1, 2018, https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/investigations/former-atf-agent-current-gun-tracing-system-is-insane/65-547682302. manufacturers often deny knowledge of just how often their guns inflict harm upon communities.³U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Reform, “The Committee’s Investigation into Gun Industry Practices and Profit,” memorandum, July 27, 2022, https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO00/20220727/115024/HHRG-117-GO00-20220727-SD005.pdf. Instead, they continue to produce increasingly deadly weapons and lean into dangerous advertising tactics, while generating an estimated $9 billion in revenue annually.⁴Everytown analysis of Shahool Al Bari, “Guns & Ammunition Manufacturing in the US,” IBISWorld, December 2021, 19–20. Note: Civilian and law enforcement sales accounted for 46.9 percent of the gun industry’s total estimated revenue of $18.4 billion for 2021. Meanwhile, America’s gun violence epidemic costs the country over 44,000 lives and $557 billion each year.

To combat this attempt to avoid responsibility, the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund (Everytown) embarked on a city-by-city collection of recovered crime gun data, seeking to answer the question of which gun manufacturers’ weapons are showing up at America’s crime scenes. This data collection was made possible by Everytown’s long-standing coalition of mayors fighting to end gun violence: Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The data received included 178,218 crime guns recovered in 34 US cities over the past five years.⁵Not every city reported all five years of data. 

Key findings from Everytown’s analysis include:

• Of the over 11,000 licensed gun manufacturers in the United States, four manufacturers—Glock, Taurus, Smith & Wesson, and Ruger—accounted for over 40 percent of the guns recovered in crimes in 2023.⁶Of the 52,919 guns recovered in 2023, 9,716 (18.4 percent) were manufactured by Glock, 4,937 (9.3 percent) by Taurus, 4,891 (9.2 percent) by Smith & Wesson, and 2,497 (4.7 percent) by Ruger.
• Glock pistols were recovered at crime scenes twice as often as the second-leading manufacturer, Taurus.⁷In 2023, 9,716 guns manufactured by Glock were recovered, compared to 4,937 manufactured by Taurus.
• Crime scene recoveries of Polymer80s—the largest producer of ghost guns today—increased nearly 1,200 percent over the past five years, finally showing signs of decline in 2023, following litigation as well as regulatory and legislative fixes.⁸In the 28 cities reporting five years of data, 2,506 guns with frames or receivers manufactured by Polymer80 were recovered, increasing from 52 in 2019 to 670 in 2023—an 1,188 percent increase. After reaching a high of 933 recoveries in 2022, recoveries decreased 28 percent in 2023.
• Twenty cities reported recovering more than 560 machine gun conversion devices in 2023, at least two-thirds of which were “Glock switches.”

This report adds to the growing evidence about the use of gun manufacturers’ products in crimes.⁹ATF, “National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA), Volume II: Crime Guns,” 2023, https://www.atf.gov/firearms/national-firearms-commerce-and-trafficking-assessment-nfcta-crime-guns-volume-two; California Department of Justice, “Crime Guns in California: Mandated Reporting Statistics AB1191 Legislative Report,” July 1, 2024, https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/ab1191-crime-gun-report-2024.pdf. It highlights the urgency for manufacturers and policymakers to act by implementing codes of conduct, cutting off irresponsible dealers, innovating safety features, and advertising products responsibly, because the best time to prevent gun violence is before it happens.

Introduction

The presence of guns and related crimes in US cities rose starkly during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving many feeling the effects of dual public health crises. Gun manufacturers reaped the benefits of rising sales, taking in an estimated $9 billion annually without consequence,¹⁰Everytown analysis of Al Bari, “Guns & Ammunition Manufacturing in the US,” 19–20. Note: Civilian and law enforcement sales accounted for 46.9 percent of the gun industry’s total estimated revenue of $18.4 billion for 2021. while Americans paid the high price of more than 100,000 people shot and killed or wounded each year, costing the country an estimated $557 billion. Fortunately, violence has been decreasing from these highs over the past two years. But still, many cities have yet to achieve prepandemic levels of safety—in part because so many more guns remain in circulation today.¹¹Jennifer Mascia and Chip Brownlee, “How Many Guns Are Circulating in the US?,” The Trace, March 6, 2023, https://www.thetrace.org/2023/03/guns-america-data-atf-total/.

Crime guns are guns recovered by law enforcement due to their owners’ illegal possession or because they are suspected to have been used in a crime. Once recovered, they’re traced by ATF to determine their original manufacturer, dealer, purchaser, and connections to other crimes.¹²Freskos, “How a Gun Trace Works”; Flack, “Former ATF Agent.” Everytown analysis of ATF data reveals that over the past five years, 1.5 million crime guns were recovered and traced in the United States.¹³Everytown Research analysis of US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “Firearms Trace Data,” 2018–2022, https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/data-statistics. About half of these crime guns were purchased within the past three years, and over a quarter were purchased in state lines.¹⁴Firearms trafficking is defined as the illegal transfer of firearms from the legal to illegal market via unlicensed sellers, fences, corrupt federal firearms licensees, or straw purchasers. US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “Following the Gun,” 1. Taken together, these findings strongly suggest that these guns were purchased with the intent to use them in a crime or traffic them to the illegal market.

>49%

Of the over 1.5 million crime guns traced from 2018 to 2022, nearly half were used in a crime within just three years of their initial retail sale.

Source: Everytown Research analysis of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “Firearms Trace Data,” 2018–2022, https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/data-statistics.

A year after Everytown published the first version of this report, ATF released nationwide aggregate data on crime gun manufacturers from 2017 to 2021.¹⁵ATF, “National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA), Volume II: Crime Guns.” This updated Everytown report provides readers a preview of more recent trends through 2023, along with new data on the growing issue of machine gun conversion devices and solutions to the growing problem of industry accountability.

Manufacturer Trends in 34 Cities

To answer the question of who makes the guns most often recovered at today’s crime scenes, Everytown, in partnership with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, embarked on a city-by-city collection of data on recovered crime guns, sorted by manufacturer. Thirty-four US cities provided Everytown with aggregate data on the manufacturers of recovered crime guns for inclusion in this analysis. All of these cities provided data from 2023, and 28 of them shared data covering the past five years, comprising a total of 178,218 recovered crime guns.

In 2023, four gun manufacturers accounted for over 40 percent of the recovered crime guns: Glock (18.4 percent), Taurus (9.3 percent), Smith & Wesson (9.2 percent), and Ruger (4.7 percent).¹⁶In 34 cities reporting data, 52,919 crime guns were recovered in 2023. While the specific percentages changed slightly from 2023, this general trend remained consistent over the past five years. The concentration of crime gun recoveries among these four companies is particularly notable given there are currently over 11,000 licensed gun manufacturers in the United States.¹⁷Everytown analysis of ATF Federal Firearms Listings, January 2024, https://www.atf.gov/firearms/listing-federal-firearms-licensees.

Crime Guns by Manufacturer in 2023

Source: Everytown Research analysis of data provided by 34 police departments on crime guns recovered in 2023.

This aligns with recent ATF findings, which also revealed that Glock was the top manufacturer of recovered and traced pistols in the United States from 2017 to 2021, followed by Smith & Wesson, Taurus, and Ruger.¹⁸From 2017 to 2021, 255,055 Glock pistols were recovered and traced (20.0 percent), followed by 182,728 Smith & Wessons (14.0 percent), 159,360 Tauruses (12.2 percent), and 113,654 Rugers (8.7 percent). ATF, “National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA), Volume II: Crime Guns.” A 2024 report by the California Department of Justice also found that, for the second year in a row, Glock, Smith & Wesson, and Ruger manufactured over one-third of crime guns recovered by law enforcement in the state.¹⁹California Department of Justice, “Crime Guns in California.” If these largest crime gun manufacturers took action on their own, the national impact on our nation’s gun violence epidemic could be profound.

Glocks were by far the leading gun of choice for criminals in 2023. Glock pistols have been the most common firearms recovered at crime scenes for at least the past five years, and the gap has grown over time. On average, twice as many Glocks were recovered than the second-leading manufacturer, Taurus, in 2023.²⁰In 2023, 9,716 guns manufactured by Glock were recovered, compared to 4,937 manufactured by Taurus.

2x

On average, twice as many Glocks were recovered at crime scenes in 2023 than the second-leading manufacturer.

Source: Everytown Research analysis of data provided by 34 police departments on crime guns recovered in 2023.

Why are Glock pistols the weapon of choice for criminals?

The reasons for Glock’s popularity are multifold. Glock produces relatively low-cost pistols that are sold through retailers known to be the top suppliers of crime guns and can be easily converted into machine guns. Lacking more traditional safety mechanisms and requiring a lighter trigger pull than other handguns,¹Erin McCarthy, “Why the Glock Became America’s Handgun,” Popular Mechanics, January 12, 2012, https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a7445/why-the-glock-became-americas-handgun/. you simply point and shoot—a selling point to some consumers and criminals.

Recoveries of Polymer80s—the leading manufacturer of ghost gun parts and kits—increased nearly 1,200 percent over the past five years.²¹In the 28 cities reporting five years of data, 52 Polymer80s were recovered in 2019, compared to 670 recovered in 2023—an 1,188 percent increase. In effect, Polymer80 was the seventh-largest manufacturer of crime guns in 2023. ATF similarly found a rise in ghost guns at crime scenes in recent years. They estimate that more than 70,700 suspected ghost guns were recovered by law enforcement between 2016 and 2022—nearly two-thirds of which were recovered in 2021 and 2022.²²Everytown Research analysis of U.S. Department of Justice, “Justice Department Announces New Rule to Modernize Firearm Definitions,” press release, April 2022, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-new-rule-modernize-firearm-definitions; US Department of Justice, “FACT SHEET: Update on Justice Department’s Ongoing Efforts to Tackle Gun Violence,” press release, June 2023, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/fact-sheet-update-justice-department-s-ongoing-efforts-tackle-gun-violence. Note: ATF warns that “the dramatic rise in trace submissions involving PMF’s reflects both increased criminal use of these firearms and enhanced awareness among law enforcement that ATF will process trace requests for PMFs. In particular, the substantial increase in PMF trace submissions since 2020 is in part attributable to education, outreach, and training that ATF has provided to LEAs on how to identify PMFs and the importance of submitting them for tracing.”

However, following the implementation of a new ATF ghost gun rule and a recent wave of ghost gun legislation enacted at the state level, this upward trajectory finally broke in 2023, with Polymer80 ghost gun recoveries declining by 28 percent relative to the year prior.²³In the 28 cities reporting five years of data, 933 Polymer80 ghost guns were recovered in 2022, compared to 670 recovered in 2023. A notable example of this can be seen in Baltimore, where Polymer80 recoveries dropped by 25 percent in 2023, a year after Maryland passed ghost gun legislation.²⁴Baltimore Polymer80 recoveries declined from 451 in 2022 to 335 in 2023. MD SB 387 (2022), https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/SB0387?ys=2022rs. In the summer of 2024, facing additional litigation and this new legal landscape, Polymer80 reportedly shut down.

Polymer80 ghost guns recovered by law enforcement in 28 cities, 2019–2023

Source: Everytown Research analysis of data provided by 28 police departments on crime guns recovered from 2019 to 2023.

Devices that convert weapons—especially Glock pistols—into machine guns are becoming increasingly common at crime scenes. Semiautomatic firearms require shooters to pull the trigger each time they fire a round. But machine gun conversion devices—also known as auto sears—convert semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic machine guns that can fire continuously as long as the trigger is depressed and the gun has ammunition, making them particularly deadly. “Glock switches,” designed for Glock-style pistols in particular, are the most common. Such devices are easy to manufacture and 3D print, and they are often sold online as innocuous products.²⁵Alain Stephens and Keegan Hamilton, “The Return of the Machine Gun,” The Trace, March 24, 2022, https://www.thetrace.org/2022/03/auto-sear-gun-chip-glock-switch-automatic-conversion/. 

From 2012 to 2016, ATF recovered just 814 machine gun conversion devices, but in the five most recent years of available data, that number increased an enormous 570 percent to 5,454.²⁶US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA): Crime Guns—Volume Two: PART VII: Recommendations and Future Enhancements,” January 2023, https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/report/nfcta-volume-ii-part-vii-recommendations/download. Local law enforcement agencies are beginning to follow ATF’s lead in systematically collecting data on recovered machine gun conversion devices. In 2019, none of the 34 cities that shared data for this report tracked how many auto sears they recovered. By 2023, more than half (20) were doing so, and reported recovering 565 machine gun conversion devices, at least two-thirds of which were Glock switches.²⁷These cities were Akron, Allentown, Baltimore, Birmingham, Cleveland, Denver, Des Moines, Greensboro, Hartford, Kansas City, Little Rock, Lansing, Madison, Memphis, Nashville, Providence, Richmond, San Antonio, Savannah, and South San Francisco. Of the reported auto sears, 375 were specifically labeled as Glock switches. Data collection for this report also prompted multiple cities to begin tracking auto sear data moving forward.

Manufacturers Deny Responsibility

For decades, gun manufacturers have taken a head-in-the-sand approach to the use of their guns in crimes. They point to wholesalers, gun stores, and other federally licensed dealers who typically complete sales to consumers as being the ones with more knowledge of, and responsibility for, this problem.²⁸Ruger, Form 8-K, shareholder report, February 8, 2019, https://ruger.com/corporate/PDF/8K-2019-02-08.pdf. But manufacturers have enough insight to proudly report how quickly their products sell²⁹Ruger, Form 10-K, February 21, 2024, 22, https://www.ruger.com/corporate/PDF/10K-2023.pdf. and offer sales promotions to their top retailers,³⁰The Outdoor Wire, “Smith & Wesson Announces Top Retailers as 2023 Ambassador Dealers,” February 2, 2024, https://www.theoutdoorwire.com/releases/8f464f7d-5ab3-4408-ac1e-b0ae8c476d99; Ruger, “Fin Feather Fur Outfitters Honored as 2018 Ruger Retailer of the Year,” May 21, 2019, https://ruger.com/news/2019-05-21.html . regardless of potentially problematic sales tactics.³¹Glen Thrush and Katie Benner, “6 Gun Shops, 11,000 Crime Guns,” New York Times, April 30, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/us/politics/gun-shops-weapons-resell.html; Alex Yablon, “Rare Gun Store Inspection Casts Doubt on Government Tallies of Lost and Stolen Firearms,” The Trace, March 8, 2016, https://www.thetrace.org/2016/03/missing-guns-ffl-arkansas/.

There are multiple ways in which manufacturers learn when their guns show up at crime scenes. For example, ATF often contacts manufacturers or searches their records electronically to trace their products.³²Freskos, “How a Gun Trace Works”; Flack, “Former ATF Agent.” And for the past two years now, Everytown and ATF have published reports and data that convey this information as well. Despite this, five gun manufacturers³³Bushmaster, Daniel Defense, Ruger, Sig Sauer, and Smith & Wesson. told the House Oversight Committee in 2022 that they “do not have any systems in place to monitor and analyze deaths and injuries associated with their products.”³⁴US House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Reform, “The Committee’s Investigation into Gun Industry Practices and Profit,” memorandum, July 27, 2022, https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO00/20220727/115024/HHRG-117-GO00-20220727-SD005.pdf. Today, it is unclear what, if any, systems these companies maintain to prevent the use of their guns in crimes. But what is clear is that certain manufacturers are driving the supply of crime guns.

Conclusion: The Path to Accountability

Recommendations for gun manufacturers

In the face of the reality that their devices are fueling deadly crimes in cities, gun manufacturers continue making ever deadlier weapons to boost profits, irresponsibly marketing their products to downplay their risks,³⁵Nick Penzenstadler and Amritpal Kaur Sandhu-Longoria, “Are Gun Advertisements in FTC’s Crosshairs? Critics Decry ‘Toxic’ Messaging as Firearm Sales Soar,” USA Today, August 18, 2022, https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2022/08/18/gun-advertisement-marketing-crackdown-federal-trade-commission/10301417002/. and taking a hands-off approach to policing their supply chains. This must change. 

Gun manufacturers must begin to take seriously their obligation to the public. To improve public safety and prevent guns from ending up in the wrong hands, manufacturers should:

• Require dealers to adhere to a public code of conduct and suspend contracts with those who violate it.
• Track and monitor ATF trace requests and end relationships with dealers that account for a higher percentage of crime guns.
• Regularly audit dealers to ensure regulatory compliance, and require that they provide reports detailing all ATF inspections and violations.
• Commit to developing safer firearms, including those that cannot (a) be operated by unauthorized users or fire unintentionally (b) accept high-capacity magazines, or (c) be modified with machine gun conversion devices.
• Dedicate funds to advertising campaigns that inform the public about the risks of owning firearms, the importance of secure storage and training, and connections to mental health services.

These reforms would not be burdensome for the gun industry. In fact, Smith & Wesson previously agreed to many of them in March 2000, when the company struck a deal with the Clinton administration, agreeing to implement a dealer code of conduct, keep better track of its inventory, refuse to sell firearms at gun shows where background checks aren’t conducted, and develop smart guns, among several other safety initiatives.³⁶Smith & Wesson, “Clarification, Settlement Document, Agreement,” March 17, 2000, https://vpc.org/graphics/smith.pdf; Clinton White House, Office of the Press Secretary, “Clinton Administration Reaches Historic Agreement with Smith and Wesson,” press release, March 17, 2000, https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/WH/New/html/20000317_2.html. However, after facing a nationwide boycott from the gun lobby, Smith & Wesson almost went bankrupt and was sold to new owners.³⁷Christina Austin, “How Gun Maker Smith & Wesson Almost Went out of Business When It Accepted Gun Control,” Business Insider, January 21, 2013, https://www.businessinsider.com/smith-and-wesson-almost-went-out-of-business-trying-to-do-the-right-thing-2013-1. The company never lived up to the terms of the deal. But it’s time they and other manufacturers do so.

Recommendations for government

Federal, state, and local government agencies can also take steps to hold the gun industry accountable for its role in our nation’s gun violence crisis.

Congress should:

• Pass legislation like the Federal Firearm Licensee Act to strengthen regulation of the firearms industry.
• Ensure that ATF has the funding and resources needed to conduct robust oversight and enforcement.
• Repeal federal restrictions on trace data.

States should pass laws that:

• Prioritize gun industry accountability and product safety by rejecting legal immunity for the gun industry, regulating ghost guns.
• Promote product safety by requiring microstamping technology and/or childproofing features.

Finally, cities should:

• Collect and make public the manufacturers of recovered crime guns and the number of auto sear recoveries in their communities.
• Utilize litigation against irresponsible manufacturers—as the City of Los Angeles did against Polymer80.
• Leverage law enforcement purchasing power to demand that Glock—the leading manufacturer of police-issued weapons and crime guns³⁸Paul M. Barrett, Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun (New York: Crown, 2013).—improve its business practices.

The data is clear: The same manufacturers who are engaging in risky business practices to profit the most from gun sales are also behind the most gun crimes and violence in US cities. The industry can no longer pretend that it has no knowledge of, or responsibility for, how its products are sold and used. Now it must change its practices to prioritize the safety of our communities.