How Reliant is Illinois on the Firearms Industry?

How Reliant is Illinois on the Firearms Industry?
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

A new study by WalletHub.com ranks states according to their dependence on the firearms and ammunition industry. The personal finance website said it conducted the analysis following President Barack Obama's proposed executive orders on gun control and recent changes to state gun laws.

WalletHub compared states across three key dimensions: the firearms industry, gun prevalence and gun politics. Indicators that received the most weight were the number of jobs in the industry per 10,000 residents, gun ownership, gun sales per 1,000 residents and political contributions to both anti- and pro-gun members of Congress.

Source: WalletHub

According to the study, Illinois ranks 18th in the firearms industry category, 22nd in gun prevalence and 40th in gun politics, giving the state an overall rank of 30 for its dependence on the guns and ammo business.

Illinois is home to several major gun manufacturers, including Springfield Armory of Geneseo, which is one of the largest firearm companies in the world. The state ranked seventh in the nation for average wages and benefits in the firearms industry.

Here's how Illinois ranked in some other key metrics, including total taxes paid by the firearms industry per capita, NICS background checks per capita and the number of jobs in the firearms industry per capita.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot