You’ve heard the 200 million guns in this country before, right? The anti-gun people fainted and after they woke up they told anyone that would listen there was approaching almost one gun for every man, woman, and child in the country. We of course were concerned as well because that meant some of us weren’t doing our part and buying enough guns to arm all the neighbors in case of a Zombie attack.
Alan points out that maybe the numbers were actually understated:
The lamestream media has been claiming for years and years there are about 200 million guns in America. With about 100 million sold in just the past decade, even the brain dead can tell the media is just parroting a number without doing any research. At the very least, they should up the numbers from time to time, no?
If I recall correctly the 200 million number is an estimate at least partially based on survey results. If so then people are going to under report the number of guns in their homes.
That would explain 100 million sold in the past decade when the destruction, loss, confiscation rate is certainly going to be far, far below that.
I’m feeling better now. When the Zombies attack I want a gun and a back up gun with lots of ammo available for everyone. It appears we have almost enough guns now and we can start stocking up on the ammo now.
Gee thanks Joe, I’m having enough trouble finding ammo and reloading supplies, and those that I can find are way more expensive than a year ago….and you go encourage more ‘stocking up’…
On the other hand, maybe I should welcome you to the “Bandwagon”… :-),
Sure enjoy your blog, keep up the good work.
DTM
So sorry–we do not have nearly enough guns per person. The minimum is shotgun, rifle, handgun, and backup handgun. That is the absolute minumum.
We still have lots of work to do. 😉
200 million. Gosh, whenever I tell people I always say about 300 million. I have seen survey figures etc in the neighborhood of 230 mill to 260 million. I just round up to account for the underreporting. Maybe I haven’t been rounding up enough though.
That’s why I’m looking to reduce my ammo variation, it’s easier to stock-up on a few shared calibers than a whole bunch of different ones.
I think it is underestimated. I don’t know about other gun owners, but I never tell anyone how many firearms I own.
How much ammo do you have?
Not enough.
How many weapons do you own?
Same answer.
I couldn’t give an answer even if I were to honor the request. I really don’t know how many guns or rounds of ammunition I have.
I’m pretty sure I could find where they are cached but not the actual numbers involved.
Yeah; I’d have to take an inventory. That would take a long time and would involve some travel. I figure if my home town is in some real trouble, well, most everyone has guns already, but I could arm the rest of them. Then again, so could half my neighbors. I’m pretty sure the number of guns is greater than the town’s population, and I’ve seen at least one stack of ammo in a neighbor’s garage that would seriously overload my Ford pickup, and a couple others.
I did take an ammo inventory, and immediately went out and bought another safe.
When you guys talk about 200M or 300M guns are you including the ones already in criminal hands? What about law enforcement weapons? What about military?
Mikeb302000, that is the estimated number of firearms in the hands of private citizens. Yes, it includes those that have been stolen or otherwise entered into the criminal market. It does not include police or military.
And the 100M sold in the last decade… that was based on NICS checks. This only gives us a lower bound on the number of guns sold in the last decade. During that time I have purchased many new guns without a NICS checks because I held a concealed carry license. And only one NICS check would be done in the case of multiple guns sold in a single sale.
Most of my guns were either bought before the NICS checks, or from private sellers, so they aren’t associated with my name anywhere, or included in any government study.
Then there are the guns fabricated substantially by their owners. If you get certain partially completed receivers and build up a gun from one, there’s no federal paper trail (local laws are still applied of course, as are all possession laws). Then there are all manner of antique firearms, which can include essentially “modern” designs that were manufactured prior to 1898 and so are not legally considered “firearms” at the federal level and don’t get NICSed. Prior to 1968 (yes– some of us can remember that time) vast numbers of guns were made and sold, even mail ordered, with no special paperwork, and so the number of those that survive has to be estimated. Guns can last a very long time. If you want to count muzzleloaders and percussion revolvers, including modern reproductions, you can add a whole bunch more there too, and most of them are freely traded with no government records, except in some cities and states.