America is awash in ammunition. if you want to stop gun violence, start with bullets

9mm Luger - Nearly twice as many 9mm Luger cartridges are manufactured as any other single caliber. Perhaps not surprisingly, the 9mm also kills more law enforcement officers than any other bullet.

.40 S&W - When the FBI decided that its 10mm ammunition produced too much recoil, Smith & Wesson developed this caliber as a replacement in 1990. It's a perennially popular round for buyers seeking "personal defense.

7.62x39mm - Introduced in 1943, this is the world's most popular bullet for assault rifles and a go-to cartridge for the AK-47. Between 2002 and 2011, the 7.62x39mm bullet killed more law enforcement officers wearing body armor than any other caliber.

.223 Remington - The assault rifles used in mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Aurora, Colorado, were loaded with .223 cartridges. As with most bullet types, hundreds of .223 choices are available;Cheaperthandirt.com, for example, sells 172 kinds that vary by weight, muzzle velocity, and form factor (e.g., full metal jacket, soft-point, jacketed hollow point).

12 Gauge - One of the firearms used in the Aurora movie theater shooting last year was a 12-gauge shotgun made by Remington. A similar weapon was used in the mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999.

.50 BMG - A standard caliber for machine guns, the .50-caliber Browning was also one of the bullets that the Branch Davidians shot at FBI agents during a siege on their compound in 1993.

Our immense appetite for bullets—and expertise in producing them—drives the entire global market, in which the US is the biggest importer and exporter. Between 2005 and 2009 alone, US imports quadrupled, in large part because the military, waging wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, was sapping domestic production. This map shows official US exports from, and imports to, its top 10 partners in bullet sales. Unofficially, US bullets also find their way into bloodshed from Mexico (via smuggling to cartels) to Norway (where mass murderer Anders Breivik ordered his online from a US seller).

Four Nations That Supply Bullets to War Zones

Ban Magazines

Track Purchases

Tax Bullets