With gun sales still in decline since President Donald Trump took office and with the recent Parkland school shooting prompting more debates on the gun industry, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2018's States Most Dependent on the Gun Industry.
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 16 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 | States Least Dependent on Gun Industry | |||
| 1 | Idaho | 41 | Illinois | |
| 2 | Montana | 42 | California | |
| 3 | Alaska | 43 | Massachusetts | |
| 4 | South Dakota | 44 | Connecticut | |
| 5 | Wyoming | 45 | Hawaii | |
| 6 | Kentucky | 46 | New York | |
| 7 | Arkansas | 47 | Delaware | |
| 8 | Kansas | 48 | Rhode Island | |
| 9 | Oklahoma | 49 | New Jersey | |
| 10 | North Dakota | 50 | Maryland | |
Key Stats
- Alaska has the highest gun ownership rate, 61.7 percent, 11.9 times higher than in Delaware, which has the lowest at 5.2 percent.
- Idaho has the most firearms-industry jobs per 10,000 residents, 40.05, 19.4 times more than in New Jersey, which has the fewest at 2.06.
- Connecticut has the highest average firearms-industry wages and benefits, $75,708, 2.2 times higher than in New Mexico, which has the lowest at $34,416.
- New Hampshire has the highest total firearms-industry output per capita, $732.54, 26.7 times higher than in Hawaii, which has the lowest at $27.40.
- Wyoming has the highest total taxes paid by the firearms industry per capita, $9.34, 14.8 times higher than in New York, which has lowest at $0.63.
To view the full report and your state's rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-dependent-on-the-gun-industry/18719/
- Adam McCann