The American state that produced and shipped out the most firearms since 2015, New Hampshire has funneled millions of weapons into the already-flooded domestic market of a nation beset by a gun death epidemic
An customer browses guns at RTD Arms & Sport in Goffstown, New Hampshire on June 2, 2022. Smaller gun makers are booming in the US , thanks to ravenous and sometimes specialized demand for pricey limited-production pistols and custom rifles, engraved with bible passages or the US flag. The millions of guns produced annually in the US are primarily made by the nation's biggest manufacturers, yet smaller operators have poured into a market that saw production nearly triple from 2000 to 2020. Image: Ed JONES / AFP
Newington, United States: Clai Lasher-Sommers alternates between tears and fury over the flow of guns from the factories in her home state of New Hampshire, a top producer in America's multi-billion dollar firearms industry.
Speaking just miles from the house where an abusive stepfather shot her with a hunting rifle when she was 13, the survivor-turned-activist said she thinks about moving—just to get away from the gun makers.
"I don't want to be anywhere near them, and the damage that they perpetuate every day," she said. "I want them to close, but that's not going to happen."
The American state that produced and shipped out the most firearms since 2015, New Hampshire has funneled millions of weapons into the already-flooded domestic market of a nation beset by a gun death epidemic.
Recent tragedies were unlikely to disrupt the flow from the small northeastern state, where a lawmaker can walk the legislature's halls with his pistol, guns aren't necessarily blamed in deadly shootings and firearms firms provide thousands of jobs.