The U.S. gun industry is something special. While cars and gadgets got shipped off to cheap labor overseas, many gun makers skipped that chase, pumping out revolvers and rifles from factories in the good old USA.
But have you ever thought about why?
It turns out that regulations like the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) played a huge role, acting as an early version of the protectionist punch that Donald Trump’s tariffs are now delivering. It’s not just about national security; it’s about keeping jobs and know-how stateside.
ITAR kicked off back in 1976 under the Arms Export Control Act, mainly to stop bad guys from getting their hands on U.S. military tech. It covers stuff on the U.S. Munitions List, like firearms, ammo, optics, and the tech behind them—think blueprints and designs. If a company wants to move production abroad, they’ve got to export not just the guns but all that “technical data & the know-how to make them,” and that means jumping through hoops for licenses from the State Department.
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