We had that brief period after the end of of the cold war and the US just found other places to blow up in the middle east. The gun lobby will never stop. And, unfortunately, you might become a "peaceful nation" but if your neighbor decides to wage war against you, you either bow or buy more guns to fight as well.
It's unfortunate but I don't think human beings will be able to coexist without wars for the foreseable future. There's just too much you can win by violence if the other side doesn't have the same firepower.
Defense contractors like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin have large incentives to promote conflict and intervention, but how much business do American gun manufacturers even do with militaries?
I can’t find numbers, but my intuition is that individuals consume over 90% of their output. There’s too few militaries rich enough to equip soldiers with US-made guns, and too many US gun buyers.
ChatGPT tells me there are about 20 million soldiers worldwide. That includes roughly two million Chinese, 1.4 million Indians, a million Russians, 1.2 million North Koreans. Of those only India has a small deployment of American small arms from Sig. For the sake of argument, let’s say each is issued a rifle and a sidearm, 40 million guns.
It’s difficult to estimate gun sales, but in 2020 there were 40 million background checks run for gun purchases in the United States. Each check could represent multiple sales.
And arms purchased by the military can remain in service for decades.
It's unfortunate but I don't think human beings will be able to coexist without wars for the foreseable future. There's just too much you can win by violence if the other side doesn't have the same firepower.