As President Trump’s tariffs dominate the news cycle and ripple through the U.S. economy, driving stock prices down, one sector has remained conspicuously silent: the gun industry. Recent social media posts and press releases from major gun makers and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the gun industry’s trade association, make no mention of the tariffs or their potential to drive up firearm prices, impacting American gun owners. When asked about the tariffs by a journalist, the NSSF simply punted, saying, “We do not have any data on the impact of the tariffs at this time.”
Tariffs: A TAX ON RAW MATERIALS
On March 12, Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum — metals used to produce key firearm components — went into effect, placing additional pressure on the firearms industry at a time when gun sales are dropping. As we wrote a month earlier, such tariffs raise the specter of gun price hikes, and the latest tariff announcements present new costs for gun makers in terms of raw materials, which will hurt downstream customers. Basic economic theory tells us that when the costs of raw materials rise, the prices of finished products inevitably follow suit.
Raw material costs and availability play a crucial role in gun manufacturing. When Chris Killoy, then-CEO of Ruger, discussed the impact of raw material costs during a fourth-quarter 2023 earnings call, he named “steel, aluminum,” and even “wood” as key commodities, noting that difficulty in securing favorable pricing “negatively impacts profitability or impacts the price of the firearm going out the door.”
firearms imported from Europe
In addition to hikes in the cost of key raw materials, foreign importers of guns and ammunition are also facing hefty new tariffs. The European Union, for instance, now faces a 20-percent tariff on firearms, which will hit companies like Beretta in Italy, Fabrique Nationale (FN) in Belgium, Glock in Austria, Heckler & Koch in Germany, and Springfield Armory, which is the exclusive U.S. importer of Croatian HS Produkt pistols.
Meanwhile, Brazilian imports are being hit with a new 10-percent tariff, which could raise the prices of Taurus firearms, and the announced 10-percent tariff on Turkish imports could raise prices for a number of pistols and shotguns made by companies like ATA Arms Armsan, Canik, Girsan, Kral Arms, Sarsilmaz, and Stoeger Industries, among many others. Other gun makers that may be affected by the tariff on Turkish imports include CZ-USA, Weatherby, and Winchester, which have various product lines manufactured in Turkey.
Additionally, many firearm accessories, such as optics, are made in China, which is now facing a 34-percent tariff. Again, this will ultimately push prices higher for American consumers, and U.S. gun manufacturers looking to export their products will likely face hostile reciprocal tariffs.
The White House, in its executive order announcing the tariffs, said the U.S. needs to manufacture parts “without undue reliance on imports for key inputs.”
But that’s much easier to write in a document than to do. The Pentagon has spent decades building, funding, and nurturing a global web of suppliers and companies that now face tariffs. With no carve-outs for defense, the administration could undo much of that work while delaying American-made weapons production for the country and other buyers.
“There’s going to be shortages of supplies, tit-for-tats, and our allies and other partners are going to retaliate,” said Bill Greenwalt, a former Pentagon acquisition official. “Some potentially vital supplies are either going to cost a whole heck of a lot more than what they did or they’re just not going to be available.”
The global tariffs — ranging from 20 percent on imports from the European Union to 10 percent on the U.K. and Australian goods — are also likely to upend defense collaborations long considered successful joint ventures.
