With gun sales still in decline since President Donald Trump took office and with new gun laws taking effect this year such as a federal ban on “bump stocks,” the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2019’s States Most Dependent on the Gun Industry as well as accompanying videos.
To determine the states that depend most heavily on the arms and ammunitions industry both directly for jobs and political contributions and indirectly through firearm ownership, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 17 key metrics. The data set ranges from firearms industry jobs per capita to gun sales per 1,000 residents to gun ownership rate.
States Most Dependent on Gun Industry
1 Idaho
2 Alaska
3 South Dakota
4 Wyoming
5 Arkansas
6 North Dakota
7 Kentucky
8 Oklahoma
9 Montana
10 Tennessee
States Least Dependent on Gun Industry
42 Maryland
43 California
44 Hawaii
45 Connecticut
46 Delaware
47 Massachusetts
48 New York
49 Rhode Island
Key Stats
• Alaska has the highest gun ownership rate, 61.70 percent, 11.9 times higher than in Delaware, which has the lowest at 5.20 percent.
• New Hampshire has the most firearms-industry jobs per 10,000 residents, 42.16, 11.3 times more than in New Jersey, which has the fewest at 3.73.
• Connecticut has the highest average firearms-industry wages and benefits, $75,300, 2.5 times higher than in New Mexico, which has the lowest at $30,600.
• Wyoming has the highest total taxes paid by the firearms industry per capita, $8.13, 12.3 times higher than in New York, which has lowest at $0.66.
To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit: WalletHub