U.S. imports of handguns and long guns surged by 60% in 2020 compared to the previous year and supplied more than a quarter of the nation’s demand for firearms, according to an analyst group’s Monday report.

The U.S. imported 6.4 million handguns and long-guns in 2020, compared to the 4 million in 2019, Small Arms Analytics and Forecasting announced. The plurality of these types of firearms came from Turkey – which exported 1,478,464 – as well as Austria with 1,284,785 and Brazil with 1,016,630, the SAAF said. Other top countries include Croatia, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic and China.

The SAAF data excludes muzzleloaders and military weapons. Meanwhile, 3.455 million munitions were imported in 2020, and largely came from Russia – which tops the charts with 765,487,845 units – Mexico, Italy, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Serbia, South Korea and Hungary, among others, the SAAF found.  [full article]