This sort of stuff stirs the long dormant and near extinct coals of warmth in my otherwise cold and blackened heart:
NSSF RELEASES FIREARMS PRODUCTION FIGURES
- The estimated total number of firearms in civilian possession is 423 million, according to data reported in the ATF’s Firearms Commerce Report in the United States 2019 report and including the preliminary 2018 Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Exportation Report (AFMER) figures and industry estimates.
- Approximately 17.7 million Modern Sporting Rifles were produced in the US or imported between 1990-2017.
- Approximately half of all rifles produced in 2017 were modern sporting rifles.
- In 2017, 7,901,218 total firearms were produced in the U.S. Of those, 4,411,923 were pistols and revolvers, 2,821,945 were rifles and 667,350 were shotguns.
- An interim 2018 estimate showed a total 7,660,772 total firearms were produced in the U.S. Of those 4,277,971 were pistols and revolvers, 2,846,757 were rifles and 535,994 were shotguns. Those are interim reports and will be updated as complete information becomes available.
- Firearms-ammunition manufacturing accounted for nearly 12,000 employees producing over $4.1 billion in goods shipped in 2017. An estimated 8.7 billion rounds, of all calibers and gauges, were produced in 2018 for the U.S. market.
That is a whole lot of guns. It seems that if guns were the problem, and “assault rifles” in particular, we would all be dead already. But we aren’t, which suggests there might be more to the “gun violence epidemic” than meets the eye.
Experience would suggest to me that the number of “Modern Sporting Rifles”, in other words AR-15 variants, AK style rifles and various other semi-automatic rifles, is probably too low at 17.7 million when you consider all of the lower receivers that have been sold as well as the 80% receivers that need only minor tooling to complete and never are registered as firearms. Lots of manufacturers sell a ton of kits to complete AR-15s and I doubt anyone has a good handle on the numbers that have been completed. I have heard gun store owners talking about people buying a half dozen or more lower receivers in a single outing and those lowers are all eventually being made into fully operational rifles.
Then there was this:
Black Friday gun background checks second-highest in recorded history
The FBI ran the second-highest number of gun background checks on Black Friday 2019, which is an 11 percent increase from the previous year and an indication that firearm sales are on the rise, officials said.
The agency conducted 202,465 gun background checks on Nov. 29, 2019, which is the second-highest number seen since the bureau implemented the checks in 1998. This year’s big-shopping day is second only to Black Friday 2017, when the FBI ran 203,086 checks, records show.
Black Friday’s numbers were 11 percent higher than 2018, when 182,093 checks were fielded, according to the data.
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Roughly 1.2 million firearms were sold nationwide in October 2019, a 10.8 percent increase from October 2018, according to arms and ammo analytics research consultancy Small Arms Analytics and Forecasting. September’s sales were estimated to be about 1.1 million, an increase of nearly 11 percent from the same period a year ago.
Data from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System shows the agency performed 2.4 million background checks for potential gun purchasers in October 2019, which is the highest number of checks recorded by the agency for that month. The second-highest recorded year for October’s background checks was 2016, when 2.3 million checks were conducted.
The trends suggest that American gun owners are very concerned about their future ability to purchase firearms and many are, like me, very pessimistic about Trump’s re-election chances. As I have said previously, we are in the Golden Age of Gun Buying and if nothing else Trump has bought us some time to prepare for what is coming. If you aren’t taking advantage now, don’t come crying to me when you suddenly can’t buy the firearms or ammunition you want in 2021.
I expect that every month next year will set new records for sales and if Trump loses in November you will see a gun and ammo and accessory buying frenzy like nothing you have ever witnessed. If I were the kind of person who would stockpile guns and ammo, and of course I am not because that is a sign of being a racist or something, I wouldn’t wait until the frenzy starts to get yourself we prepared. You can buy freeze-dried and canned food whenever you want but your window for buying freedom seeds and dispensers is going to close quickly.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.
