Let's look at actual numbers. ATF says 50,000 guns were smuggled into latin america between 2015 and 2022. So about 7,200 a year. There are about 15-20 million new firearm sales per year in the US.
So assume ~.03% of production gets smuggled out. I think the industry would survive if that was cut that off. It actually would be better for them because it would make lies and slanders about the industry harder to make.
https://www.thetrace.org/2024/06/atf-gun-trafficking-report-...
It seems like the USA has about 393.4MM civilian firearms, which is ~1.2 per capita. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_g...
About 32% of Americans say they personally own one or more guns, and most of those people own multiple weapons. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/24/key-facts...
Where are the 'cooked statistics'?
The fact that supposedly every American owns 4 or 5 guns should hint at how bad the smuggling problem is
I think it shows how disconnected non-gun owners are from people who own guns. None of my liberal gun owning friends in California have fewer than 4-5 guns. My conservative gun owning friends in Texas have 20-30 guns. I've never met a gun owner that had 1-2.
1. people who don't have a gun
2. "gun owners"... who have them as a hobby and have a bunch of guns
3. people who just happen to have a gun at home. you don't hear about these people because they aren't "into" guns and don't talk about them.