Number of firearms in America

[1 old 0311]

At work we were talking and someone mentioned there are 60 million firearms in America so one out of four have one. I thought ' This ain't right, I have 9 and the people who shoot usually have more than one'.
How many do THR members have?

Kevin

 

[mole]

They must have meant firearm owners. I personally have 12.

mole

 

[motoman]

I would be interested to know what percentage of American adults are gun owners. It would be kind of cool to see a state by state breakdown also.

 

[nfl1990]

I only have five, really four since one is an Arisaka type 38 (the ammo is 6.5x50jap (the absolute cheapest price I have found is around $2 a round))

 

[ZenMasterJG]

The (evil, evil) VPC makes claims to the tune of 190 million firearms in the US. (of course, they give no source.)

I, personally, own 4. I'm new to the sport though, and am starting to ponder my next couple of purchases. (I have no handgun. I need a handgun. some SA 1911, probably, becuase i love them. I also want a .22 target rifle, probably a 10/22 or somthing.)

 

[nfl1990]

I would be interested to know what percentage of American adults are gun owners.

I think this might be a misleading figure because technically my father owns guns but my mother doesn't, so it would probaly be a better figure to see a % of housholds that own guns.

 

[f4t9r]

That would be hard to get a # on. Some people dont like others to know they own guns.

 

[Oleg Volk]

The important statistic is that more than a few of those who own guns are willing to use them, along with all other means and methods necessary, to perpetuate this salubrius condition. What worries VPC isn't how many people own guns but how many would use guns to retire them, if necessary.

One good test would be to figure out how many were made and then balance attrition (low) with unaccounted sources (probably about equal to attrition).

I have somewhere around 12,000 centerfire rounds on hand...and just one would would suffice for most bad things to begin their journey to hell. That thought of the eventual hellfire is what worries them, not the gross numbers. As a courtesy to the Devil, we won't increase his work load unless forced. VPC would be well advised not to rely on that courtesy and to make themselves inoffensive instead.

 

[Spot77]

I hit double digits about two weeks ago.

10 guns in 2.5 years.

I'd like to double the number in half the time.

 

[sumpnz]

Most estimates I've seen peg the number of gun owners at ~80 million, and the total number of guns in circulation at around 300 million (mind you this includes legally and illegally owned guns). There's roughly 3 million new guns added to the market each year (2 million long guns, 1 million hand guns). Who know how many are damaged beyond repair, lost, confiscated/destroyed or otherwise removed from circulation each year.

Current population of the USA is ~300 million. So there's estimated to be enough guns for 1 each for every man, woman and child without exception. Of course with only a little over 1/4 of all residents of this country owning guns, that's almost 4 each on average. Once you account for all the hunters that only have the one deer rifle, and all the folks that just have the one revolver for home defense, and it's pretty easy to see how relativly few of us account for most of the guns in this country.

Personally, I own 4 long guns and 3 handguns. My wife has also has a handgun.

 

[Moonclip]

I thought there was well over 60 million guns in the USA. I have heard there is basically a gun for every person and half of all homes have one. I don't know how true this is though and I don't know if this includes any of the guns the military/gov/police have.

I have between my father and I well over a hundred guns with roughly 2/3 of them being mine. So I guess that leaves a lot of houses statistically that don't have one then! I knew another guy who had about 40 or so who passed away recently, met another guy whom I believe who claimed 400 and another guy I semi believed, only met him once and he was not involved with a gun store lke the other guy, who claimed over 400 in handguns alone. Some things in his speech and history and gun knowledge did seem to match up though with someone who had been in the business of collecting guns for a long time.

One story I only semi believe though could be true is a buyer for a large hardware store in my area I talked to a few times. He claimed the owner had 15 safes full of guns. He would sell tools and machine parts to various gun companies over the years and sometimes they would present him with a gun.

This does not take in to account value either though. I'm sure people have very expensive English double rifles and shotguns and such that one of the guns could equal the value of my whole collection! There is a guy that sets up at guns shows in my area that brings like 50 or more long guns that sell easily from 5-10000 dollars. I think its' more of a hobby for him to show these guns as I'm sure your average gun show customer does not want and/or cannot afford those guns.

When people claim to me to own a very large number of guns I usually take it with a grain of salt but you can't really tell by appereance, job, car alone. My friend who had the 40 guns, most of them pretty decent, looked very poor. I drive 2 mid 1990's vintage cars, am only pushing 30, and have not worked a full time job in a year but I always manage to hang on to my collection even in rough times.

However I use what I call the $200 Mossberg analogy to show most people do not have a large collection. Right now not so much but generally in my life if I want to buy a 200 dollar Mossberg at a local chain I can swing it though with taxes and fees and such it makes it a good bit more.

I could not do this all the time though like every week. And I think your average working man with a car payment, house payment, children, things like that can't do it at all or at least not w/o it being a financial hardship. And also figure in cleaning supplies, range fees, ammo, time, ect.

I just managed to build up the collection mostly by religiously looking for bargains and getting into some aspects of gun collecting like milsurps that generally cost little compared to other areas of the shooting sports.

 

[LaEscopeta]

At work we were talking and someone mentioned there are 60 million firearms in America

They must have meant firearm owners

Yes, 60 to 65 million firearm owners in the US in 1997, owning between 200 and 240 million firearms. One source:
http://www.justfacts.com/gun_control.htm
"1998 NRA Fact Card." Viewed in January of 1999 on the National Rifle Association web site, www.nra.org
Lott, John R. Jr. More Guns, Less Crime. The University of Chicago Press, 1998. Pages 1, 11, 43

US population in 1995: 282 million.
Year 2000: 309 million.

Number of households in 2000: 121,606,000.

This works out to 21%+/- of Americans own firearms, or 28% to 48% of all American households have at least one firearm (depending on who is counting.)

Scources:
http://www.unhabitat.org/habrdd/northern.html
http://www.unicri.it/wwk/publications/books/series/understanding/19_GUN_OWNERSHIP.pdf
http://www.washingtonfreepress.org/07/Guns9.html

 

[TrafficMan]

4 rifles, one shotgun, one handgun

 

[Texfire]

I hit double digits about two weeks ago.

10 guns in 2.5 years.

I'd like to double the number in half the time.

Sigh. I'm approaching 10 guns in 5 months. When I said this divorce would bankrupt me I had no idea it would be this way... I've decided that I need help... moving in another gun safe.

 

[Freeze N]

Somewhere +or- 30 and still growing.

 

[Stand_Watie]

Only 12 (sigh).

I recently saw a poll (can't remember the source, but it was mainstream and neither pro-gun or (overtly anti) that indicated the highest household gun ownership rate in the US is Wyoming with 62% and lowest is DC with 5%,

 

[Stand_Watie]

O.K., I looked it up, it was September's 'Pediatrics' Journal (yeah, I know they're anti gun, but not specifically). Remember of course that if 63% of Wyoming residents admit to gun ownership it's probably higher.




http://www.network54.com/Forum/33620/message/1128302694/Wyoming+Leads+in+Gun+Ownership

Wyoming Leads in Gun Ownership
by Nanxy

Wyoming Leads in Gun Ownership
Date: Oct 2, 2005 10:59 AM
Remember, many people are not going to give "honest"
answers to questions about the guns in their home to
somebody calling them up on the telephone. Therefore,
we can safely speculate Vermont really "leads" in the
gun in private homes race. Vermonters encourage the
other states to work to catch up.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wyoming Leads in Gun Ownership

A study published in the Pediatrics journal in September
says that Wyoming has the highest per capita rate of gun
ownership, while Alabama appears to be the state with the
largest number of unsecured firearms in the home.

According to The Casper (WY) Star-Tribune, more than 5% of
Wyoming children live in homes with unsecured, loaded
firearms. Around the country, about 1.7 million children
and teens live in such homes, the study said.

The data was collected during a 2002 telephone survey of
some 241,000 adults, the newspaper reported.

According to the report, 63% of Wyoming homes have guns,
while the national average is 33%.



Posted on Oct 2, 2005, 9:24 PM

 

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Something like 100 million firearms, mostly hunting weapons, exist in the country. Something like 1/3 or 1/2 of the population has access to a firearm in his/her home.

At least, that's what I've always held to be the answer. I had a source for these numbers at one point, but I don't remember what it was.

 

[Lupinus]

I have five (six if you count the one that is nothing but a very old wall hanger and will never be fired)

Though for the most part the two handguns are close to retirement andwill be when I get a new handgun if they arnt traded for a new one.

 

[boofus]

I saw the number 240 million somewhere. Almost 1 for every adult in the US.

 

[Mulliga]

Let's put it this way. There are probably as many firearms here in the U.S. as in the rest of the entire world.

~240 million U.S. guns
~500 million guns worldwide (including us)

 

[Standing Wolf]

...60 to 65 million firearm owners in the US in 1997, owning between 200 and 240 million firearms.

Meaning I've got to get busy and buy some more, right? Well, okay.

 

[Dragun]

Admiral Yamamoto (hope i spelled it right) said, "One could never invade the United States, as there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass"

or something close to that....

currently
12 Rifles
2 Shotguns
8 Handguns

 

[Omaha-BeenGlockin]

Man---I have 5 on lay-a-way currently--will be 4 when I get paid this week and take one home-----kinda lost track of how many at home----lets just say---its a lot. After a quick mental check---its pushin 50

I can't help it---I'm such a gun hoare

 

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

currently
12 Rifles
2 Shotguns
8 Handguns

Man---I have 5 on lay-a-way currently--will be 4 when I get paid this week and take one home-----kinda lost track of how many at home----lets just say---its a lot. After a quick mental check---its pushin 50

How on earth can you people afford so many guns? I would have a hard time buying enough gunsafes to house that kinda collection, not to mention the guns themselves...