The Business of Guns

This long history of manufacturing means that the relationship between the arms industry and the American government is not new, despite the rapid growth of the gun control debate in recent decades. Gun manufacturers like Eli Whitney (better remembered for the invention of the cotton gin) and Simeon North enjoyed the patronage of George Washington, who wanted to grow an American arms industry after spending much of the American Revolution needing to purchase foreign weapons to meet the war’s logistics needs. The government nurtured the growth of gun manufacturing not only through contracts and start-up funding, but also through tariffs against foreign competition and even patent laws meant to safeguard manufacturers from having their designs stolen by rivals. By the 1850s, not only was the United States a major world producer of firearms, but manufacturers had introduced a revolutionary system of interchangeable parts so that any gun could provide spare parts for another. Smith & Wesson popularized not only the revolver handgun (despite having been founded five years prior to the invention of the revolver itself), but also the metal cartridge ammunition that would quickly replace the ball ammunition used in both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. While Smith & Wesson enjoyed almost 150 years in the limelight of American gun manufacturing, its position at the top has been overtaken just recently—and by a much younger company.

Sturm, Ruger & Co.: The Current Sales Leader

Like many gun manufacturers, the history of Sturm, Ruger & Co. begins in a time of war. Cofounder William Ruger acquired a “Nambu” pistol used by the Japanese in World War II and successfully built a working duplicate of the gun. His partner, Alexander Sturm, fronted the $50,000 that the company needed

The Business of Guns

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