About two years from now, an organization not widely known but of huge importance to the firearm industry and its customers will celebrate its 100th anniversary. That organization is the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute®, known as SAAMI®.
The organization’s work has a fundamental, beneficial effect on the firearms and ammunition we all enjoy using. That’s because SAAMI develops industry standards to ensure the safety, reliability and interchangeability of firearms, ammunition, suppressors and components.
How does this technical organization affect me, you might ask. Here are two examples.
When you walk into a firearm retailer and purchase a box of cartridges and then at the range or in the field you chamber a round, you know, without giving it hardly a thought, that the ammunition you bought will fit and be safe to fire in the gun chambered for that round. Or let’s say you purchase a rifle made in the 1940s and then buy ammunition for it that was shipped from the factory only last week, you have confidence it will work safely and reliably despite more than 80 years between the making of the two products.
The reason we all have this trust is that the firearm and ammunition have been manufactured to standards specifying exacting tolerances and pressures, to name only a few measures, so that you don’t need to be concerned when you pull the trigger. SAAMI standards give everyone assurance that industry’s firearms and ammunition will perform as we expect them to.
SAAMI at SHOT Show
Although SAAMI has been around a long time—it was established in 1926—it still functions as a behind-the-scenes organization that quietly works with its member companies and their designers, engineers and others to ensure reliable, safe products are made for the consumer.
As the President and CEO of SAAMI, I take great pride in SAAMI’s importance to industry and in the work of its small, dedicated staff, and its committees made up of industry professionals. That’s why I’d like everyone to know more about SAAMI and what its work means to our industry. One way you can get to know SAAMI better is by stopping by the first-ever SAAMI booth (#42327) at the SHOT Show® in January. We’d like to meet you, tell you about us and hear from you.
The importance of SAAMI can be seen in its historical roots, which reach back to around 1913 when there was unrest in Europe that would eventually lead to the outbreak of World War I. The U.S. Department of War wanted U.S. companies that made military arms and ammunition to develop a system to exchange technical data. This was accomplished in 1918 when the Society of American Manufacturers of Small Arms and Ammunition (SAMSAA) was formed. SAMSAA was active into the early 1920s, but then, for some unknown reason, it lapsed. In 1925, Congress, acting through the Commerce Department, urged the group to re-form. That led to meetings of the producers of smokeless powder and major ammunition and firearm manufacturers, and the result was the formation of SAAMI, in 1926.
One of SAAMI’s most important functions is to review and standardize new cartridge/chambering combinations. This happens when a SAAMI-member company provides a complete technical submission package that moves through a review process by the SAAMI Joint Technical Committee (JTC). The JTC will ensure resolution of any identified safety, reliability and interchangeability issues. When the review process is complete, the SAAMI Board of Directors hears the JTC review and, barring objections, the cartridge becomes a SAAMI-accepted cartridge—a coveted designation—and is posted to SAAMI.org. There’s much more to the process, which involves proof loads, further testing and an updating of the American National Standard, but this is the essence of this important procedure.
SAAMI encourages companies to become members and support the development of standards, and while some of SAAMI’s technical resources are available to non-members, not everything is. Membership does have its privileges. Member companies benefit by having their cartridges accepted by SAAMI, a designation that gives other companies confidence they can build firearms or magazines for SAAMI-accepted cartridges.
SAAMI is responsive to changes in industry. Reacting to the growing popularity of suppressors, SAAMI recently changed its bylaws to allow suppressor manufacturers to become members and is currently developing suppressor standards. Membership categories have also been created for smaller manufacturers to support the work SAAMI does (Supporting Member) and for those making critical supplies for our industry (Affiliated Member) such as reamer manufacturers and those producing ammunition test equipment.
SAAMI.org contains a wide range of information to assist industry members, from publications containing guidelines on what to do if ammunition or firearms are submerged in flood waters, on take-home lead hazards, transportation of ammunition, a video to help firefighters understand the realities of fires in which smokeless powder is present, a glossary of terms and much more.
SAAMI also works to shape constantly evolving transportation and labeling regulations, both international and domestic. As a United Nations Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), SAAMI works with federal and international partners to ensure the proper handling and transportation of the industry’s products, creating a predictable, consistent and safe environment for shippers worldwide.
Although SAAMI is an organization of domestic manufacturers and affiliated industries, over the last 20 years it has become increasingly active on the international front. The Commission Internationale Permanente, or C.I.P., based in Liege, Belgium, is a similar organization for firearms and ammunition standards-setting, although this organization comprises member countries, whose standards are implemented in those countries as law. To harmonize SAAMI’s and C.I.P.’s standards, SAAMI has developed a relationship with C.I.P., working to resolve inconsistencies in respective standards and working to ensure future activities are consistent from the start.
I hope this gives you a sense of how important SAAMI is to the firearm industry and its millions of customers. Remember, if you’re at SHOT Show, stop by and see us.
— Joe Bartozzi
In addition to being SAAMI’s President and CEO, Joe Bartozzi is President and CEO of NSSF, The Firearm Industry Trade Association.