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I suspect you are correct. However, what I appreciate is the fact that it is an unknown.
Back in March, The Trace (yeah, them) released an article... How Many Guns Are Circulating in the U.S.?
In short, the article concludes with...
It may be 'knowable,' but I'm not sure we'd appreciate what it would take for them to find out or how the numbers would then be used.
Back in March, The Trace (yeah, them) released an article... How Many Guns Are Circulating in the U.S.?
...According to historical ATF data, more than 465 million firearms have been produced for the U.S. market since 1899. This figure includes imports from foreign gunmakers but excludes exports by domestic gunmakers.
This data includes guns that are purchased by law enforcement, but not the military. The Small Arms Survey, a Switzerland-based outfit that publishes periodic reports on the global gun stock, estimated in 2018 that local, state, and federal police forces in the United States have just over 1 million firearms...
The majority of guns manufactured in America are handguns, but that wasn't always the case: Until the early 1990s, rifles and shotguns routinely outsold pistols and revolvers. Handguns accounted for 57 percent of domestic firearm manufacturing in 2021, the most recent year such data is available, with nearly 8 million guns produced, while long guns accounted for just 33 percent, with just under 2 million produced.
That tracks with a cultural shift in American gun ownership that saw fewer people buying guns for recreation and hunting and more buying guns for self-defense. Since 1990, more than a third of rifles produced in America have been semiautomatic rifles like AR-15s, according to the NSSF.
The last decade has also seen a rise in the manufacturing of so-called miscellaneous firearms, which are gun parts, like frames and receivers, that are "sold before being assembled with other components" to make a finished gun, according to the ATF...
This data includes guns that are purchased by law enforcement, but not the military. The Small Arms Survey, a Switzerland-based outfit that publishes periodic reports on the global gun stock, estimated in 2018 that local, state, and federal police forces in the United States have just over 1 million firearms...
The majority of guns manufactured in America are handguns, but that wasn't always the case: Until the early 1990s, rifles and shotguns routinely outsold pistols and revolvers. Handguns accounted for 57 percent of domestic firearm manufacturing in 2021, the most recent year such data is available, with nearly 8 million guns produced, while long guns accounted for just 33 percent, with just under 2 million produced.
That tracks with a cultural shift in American gun ownership that saw fewer people buying guns for recreation and hunting and more buying guns for self-defense. Since 1990, more than a third of rifles produced in America have been semiautomatic rifles like AR-15s, according to the NSSF.
The last decade has also seen a rise in the manufacturing of so-called miscellaneous firearms, which are gun parts, like frames and receivers, that are "sold before being assembled with other components" to make a finished gun, according to the ATF...
...A more precise accounting of the civilian gunstock is "really important," Semenza said, adding that he would like to see researchers and journalists use an exact figure in lieu of ranges and estimates, even if there are caveats with the data. He said one reason they don't is because historical production figures aren't easy to find.
"This is in a bunch of different documents in really cumbersome language," he said. "And the farther back you go, the harder that data is to wrangle." Semenza also pointed to "this persistent myth" that the number of guns in America is an unknowable figure. "It's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"This is in a bunch of different documents in really cumbersome language," he said. "And the farther back you go, the harder that data is to wrangle." Semenza also pointed to "this persistent myth" that the number of guns in America is an unknowable figure. "It's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy."
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