This year, in releasing its 2004 U.S. production data, the ATF didn’t include all U.S. manufacturers, indicating, “26 percent didn’t file reports.” Admittedly, most of the non-reporting manufacturers produce a small number of firearms; however, a few had posted sizeable numbers in the past. To better reflect the real production for 2004, we analyzed the 2003 data for the major manufacturers not in the 2004 report, concentrating only on those with five-digits production numbers. We’ve factored these numbers, adjusted for 2004 trends, into our “Projected Production” for the total, handgun and rifle data. Shotguns were not affected.

Note: According to the ATF, manufacturers who don’t file their production data as required by April 1 of each year, will be “cited.”