ARKANSAS (KNWA/KFTA) — The personal-finance website WalletHub recently conducted a study on this year’s U.S. states most dependent on the gun industry and found Arkansas landing in the top 10.
In order to determine the states that depend most heavily on the arms and ammunition industry both directly for jobs and political contributions and indirectly through firearm ownership, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 16 key metrics. including firearms industry jobs per capita to gun sales per 1,000 residents to gun ownership rate.
Arkansas landed at No. 6 overall with Idaho named as the most dependent in the U.S. Following Idaho is Wyoming, Kentucky, South Dakota, and Montana.
According to the study, one estimate shows guns contributed more than $70 billion to the U.S. economy and generated nearly $7.9 billion in federal and state taxes in 2021.
Specifically, Arkansas was listed as No. 1 in some metrics and in the middle rankings on others. The Natural State was leading the U.S. in:
- Firearms-Industry Jobs per Capita
- Total Firearms Industry Output per Capita
- Total Taxes Paid by Firearms Industry per Capita
- Gun Control Contributions to Congressional Members per Capita
WalletHub noted this year that gun crime has remained a high-profile political issue, and over 230 mass shootings have occurred at an elementary school in Texas and a grocery store in New York.
To view the full findings of the study, visit WalletHub’s website.
