California has a larger economy than all but 5 nations in the world. Excluding the US only Japan, China, England and Germany are larger. In 2020 alone there were 1,465,612 background checks performed for private citizen gun purchases and those numbers don't include person to person and institutional purchases.
While I searched for data on weapon sales in Europe, England, and Germany they are remarkably absent across the net, but US sales are splashed all over. If you rule out the totalitarian China, and consider the attitudes on gun ownership in England, Japan, and Germany: Those who ignore the California market are ignoring a larger market than any other country in the world, other than the USA.
My point is, that while California's outlook on private ownership of guns may be something less then desireable by Texas, Florida, or even Michigan standards, it is head and shoulders above those other countries and in fact a larger potential sales market than any other country in the world other than the USA as a whole.
"California’s Gross State Product (GSP) in 2015 was
$2.589 trillion according to the United States
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). In comparison, the World Bank’s 2015
nominal GDP figures were:
- United States: $18.036 trillion
- China: $11.007 trillion
- Japan: $4.123 trillion
- Germany: $3.363 trillion
- UK: $2.858 trillion"