THE MACHINE
The gun industry is not an accident. It is a system — built over decades by corporations, lobbyists, lawyers, and politicians — that manufactures profit from weapons and protects itself from accountability. This is its user manual.
More gun deaths than from car accidents or most diseases. (CDC WISQARS 2023 final data)
Source: Johns Hopkins, 2023
Components of the Machine
Every machine has components. These are the organizations, manufacturers, legal instruments, financial vehicles, and individuals that form the operational core of the American gun industry — and the political apparatus that protects it.
The US has more guns per capita than any country on earth — at least 120 guns per 100 people as of 2017 (Small Arms Survey); the current rate is almost certainly higher.
Source: The Trace, 2023
How the Machine Is Wired
Follow the money. Track the personnel. Trace the legislation. Every connection in this diagram represents a documented relationship between components of the gun industry machine. Click any node to learn more.
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No other product industry in America has this level of blanket civil immunity.
Source: Giffords Law Center, 2024
How the Machine Operates
The gun industry doesn't just make weapons — it runs a systematic operation to maximize profit and minimize accountability. These are its standard operating procedures: the tactics, laws, and mechanisms that keep it running.
PLCAA — The Manufacturer Liability Shield
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (2005) gives gun manufacturers and dealers a unique legal immunity not available to any other product industry. When someone is killed or injured by a gun, PLCAA generally prevents the victims from suing the manufacturer or dealer in civil court. This is not how product liability works for cars, pharmaceuticals, tobacco, or virtually anything else sold in America.
Preemption Laws
State preemption laws prevent cities and counties from passing their own gun safety regulations that are stricter than state law. This is a critical tactic: even when local communities want stronger protections, preemption laws block them. The gun industry pushed preemption laws in state legislatures through ALEC model legislation.
Castle Doctrine / Stand Your Ground
Castle Doctrine laws — spread through ALEC model legislation — allow people to use deadly force to defend themselves in their homes without a duty to retreat. "Stand Your Ground" extends this to any place a person has a legal right to be. These laws expanded legal justifications for lethal force, making it harder to prosecute killings as criminal homicides.
The Tiahrt Amendment
The Tiahrt Amendment (passed in 2003 riders, renewed annually) restricts the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from releasing gun trace data to the public, researchers, or local law enforcement agencies. When a gun is used in a crime, the ATF traces where it was sold — but Tiahrt prevents that data from being used to identify gun dealers who disproportionately supply the crime gun market.
SHOT Show — The Industry Trade Show
The Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) is the world's largest trade show for firearms and related products, organized by the NSSF every January in Las Vegas. Over 50,000 industry professionals attend. It is not open to the public. At SHOT Show, manufacturers unveil new products, dealers place orders, and the industry's political and policy agenda is set for the year.
The Dickey Amendment — The CDC Research Ban
In 1996, the NRA lobbied Congress to add language to the federal appropriations bill that became known as the Dickey Amendment: "none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control." The CDC's entire firearms research budget ($2.6M) was simultaneously stripped from its appropriations. The result was a de facto ban on gun violence research at the CDC that lasted 22 years.
More than three times what it spent in 2012 — including roughly $30 million in outside expenditures supporting Trump and opposing Clinton.
Source: OpenSecrets, 2017
Your Part of the Machine
Select your state to see its Giffords gun law grade and firearm death rate.
Where the Machine Is Vulnerable
Every machine has failure points. Here's where to apply pressure right now.
Pressure Points
Restore the Bump Stock Ban
In June 2024, the Supreme Court struck down the ATF bump stock ban in Cargill v. Garland. Bump stocks were used in the Las Vegas massacre that killed 58 people. Congress must pass legislation to restore the ban — contact your representatives now.
Defend Ghost Gun Regulations
In March 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the ATF's ghost gun rule 7–2 (Bondi v. VanDerStok), reversing the 5th Circuit. The rule requires background checks on ghost gun kit sales — over 400,000 untraceable ghost guns have been recovered at crime scenes since 2016. Contact Congress to block any legislation that would roll back this rule.
Push to Repeal PLCAA
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act is the gun industry's greatest legal shield. Multiple bills to repeal or narrow it have been introduced — contact your representatives to co-sponsor repeal legislation.
Safe Storage Laws — 40 States Left
Only 10 states require firearms to be stored securely. Giffords counts 26 states and DC with either a storage requirement or a child access prevention law — meaning most impose liability only after a child gains access, rather than requiring storage in the first place. Unsecured guns in the home are how most children who shoot themselves or a sibling get the gun. If your state isn't one of the 10, push your state legislature — it's one of the highest-impact interventions available.
Universal Background Checks
In the 119th Congress, H.R. 18 — the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2025 — was introduced in June 2025 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where it remains stalled. Contact your Senators and Representatives to demand a floor vote — 90% of Americans support universal background checks.
FFL Dealer Accountability
In 2024, ATF revoked a record number of gun dealer licenses under a zero-tolerance policy for willful violations. That policy was rescinded in April 2025. Six weeks later, ATF invited dealers who had lost their licenses to reapply. ATF inspects licensed dealers roughly once every seven to ten years, and inspections routinely find violations in nearly half of dealers checked.
Red Flag / ERPO Laws — 28 States Left
22 states and DC allow courts to temporarily remove firearms from someone found to pose a serious risk to themselves or others. Maine became the most recent, by ballot measure in November 2025, effective February 2026. If your state isn't one of the 22, push your state legislature.
Fund Gun Violence Research
The Dickey Amendment froze federal gun violence research for over twenty years. Congress restored limited funding in 2019. In 2025 that progress was reversed — the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention closed in January, and CDC's Division of Violence Prevention was gutted by mass layoffs in April, dismantling the agency's capacity to study gun violence. Firearms remain the leading cause of death for American children and teens, and the research needed to address it is again being defunded.
Live: Gun-Related Legislation
Data from LegiScan + Congress.gov · Refreshes every 6 hours · Click any bill for details
Gun violence became the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States in 2020 — the first time in American history it surpassed car accidents. (New England Journal of Medicine, 2022; CDC WISQARS)
Source: NICHD, 2022
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BREAK THE MACHINE
119th Congress · 0 Federal Gun Safety Laws Passed · The Machine Is Still Running