» Click here for all Gun Industry Watch reports

The Gun Industry Watch is a comprehensive and systematic effort to monitor the general operation of the gun industry, to investigate particular companies and practices that pose special threats to public safety, and to cast the light of public scrutiny and publicity on the industry.  Our goal is to bring about life-saving reforms.

The need for the Gun Industry Watch is great.  The gun industry has long been among the most secretive industries in the American economy.  Even though its products are involved in scores of personal tragedies on a daily basis, historically the public has known little about its operations and their effect on Americans, their families and their communities.

Exempted from oversight by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the gun industry is arguably the nation’s least regulated industry.  No federal agency regulates, or even monitors, the safety of firearms.   As a result, many firearms lack even basic safety features. Even worse, the domestic firearms industry is free to design and manufacture guns, which if produced abroad, would be prohibited from importation because they are designed for criminal or other non-sporting purposes.

Concern about the firearms industry is not limited to the design or safety of its products. The regulatory power exercised by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), which has jurisdiction over the sale and distribution of firearms, has been narrowly circumscribed by Congress. As a result, the gun industry has been able to act with virtual impunity.

The need for the Brady Center's Gun Industry Watch is critical to help protect you, your family and community from gun violence.

» Click here for all Gun Industry Watch reports