Nearly 1 Gun for Every American

[TallPine]

You know, a fairly accurate number could be arrived at by using domestic firearm sales over the past 75 years, and then factoring in wearing out, casualty loss, destruction by law enforcement, etc... (sometime when I'm really bored I might look up these numbers and do a spreadsheet)

Guns last a looong time, and these companies haven't been making money by selling a couple dozen a year.

In the US at least, there are a large number of centerfire rifles, because everyone knows you need a different caliber for every different species of game that you might ever wish to hunt.

 

[Wil Terry]

ABOUT TEN OR TWELVE YEARS AGO I DID A SURVEY OF AMMUNITION CONSUMPTION.

The best I could come up with was 169,000,000 million rounds per day were being consumed. This did not include imported ammunition as none of those yahoos would give me the time of day. It did use the primer production numbers from the major primer manufacturers supplying the country's handloaders plus all of the 22LR ammunition made every year and other info now unretrieveable from the dustbins of my memory. The 22LR and the shotshells used up by trapshooters was a big part of all this.
I do remember sending Patsy Schroeder or one of those whinin' socialist ninnies this information and saying if the shooting sports were as deadly as those fools were implying the country would be wiped out in less than two days of shooting by all the gunners in the country at this rate of ammo usage.
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I NEVER GOT AN ANSWER IN RETURN...SIGH...
And so it goes...

 

[OF]

That there's a whole lot o' shootin'.

- Gabe

 

[Kobun]

169,000,000 million each DAY???
That would be 33,800 rounds for each person in the WORLD each day.
Think those numbers need some going over again!

169.... a YEAR gives something like 1850 rounds for each American a year.

 

[RustyHammer]

Koburn,

Keep me covered, I'm reloading!

Rusty

 

[carp killer]

"By any measure the United States is the most armed country in the world," it said. "With roughly 83 to 96 guns per 100 people, the United States is approaching a statistical level of one gun per person."

That's impossible, guns are like potato chips, you can't have just one.

 

[Tamara]

The United States has by far the largest number of publicly owned firearms in the world and is approaching the point where there is one gun for every American, according to the Small Arms Survey 2003 released Tuesday.

I don't have any "publicly" owned guns, although there are some down at the local guard armory, and I saw a police officer carrying one today.

I'm doing my share for the privately-owned average, however; I figure I'm carrying about sixty-something slackers who are refusing to do their share.

 

[cracked butt]

Jeez only about 1 gun for every American? I'm depriving a few dozen Americans of their 1 firearm. Ah, well more for me

 

[Glamdring]

Just think if Tamara moved to another country they would have to do the whole count over again for that country

She could probably double the count for some countries

 

[BryanP]

169,000,000 million each DAY???
That would be 33,800 rounds for each person in the WORLD each day.
Think those numbers need some going over again!

I suspect he was trying to say 169,000,000 per day, not 169,000,000,000,000 per day which is what "169,000,000 million" would come out to. The former works out to a much more believable per-person figure.

And as for the count, do we count pets, too? I just put a nice 6" .357 stainless revolver on layaway yesterday. Once I get that I'll have one firearm each for me, the wife, the multitude of cats and Bob The Big Dumb Dog.

The bad part is that my dog is an anti. He's a rescued stray and all I can tell you is that he's terrified of guns. If he sees me carrying one he puts his tail between his legs and leaves the room. Oh, the shame of it all!