Private Gun Ownership in America is Higher Than We Think
Published in
Gun Rights
– 2 mins – Jan 22
Private gun ownership in America is probably much higher than you think.
Back in December, the Fresno Bee reported on a survey from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva, Switzerland that revealed that the number of guns in America stands at a whopping 393 million. But this could actually underestimate the total number of guns in America.
According to data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the number of firearms exceeds IHEID’s estimates. The NSSF drew from the ATF’s Firearms Commerce Report, which estimated that there are 423 million firearms in private circulation in the U.S.
Several points stood out in the NSSF report:

- About half of all rifles produced in 2017 were modern sporting rifles (MSRs)
- Of the 7,660,772 firearms produced in the U.S. during 2018, 4,277,971 were handguns, 2,846,757 were rifles, and 535,994 were shotguns
- From 1990 to 2017, approximately 17.7 million MSRs were manufactured in America or imported, surpassing previous estimates of 12 to 14 million semi-automatic rifles in private hands
- Ammunition manufacturers produced roughly 8.7 billion rounds of all calibers and gauges for the American market in 2018
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