New Numbers Reveal How Many AR-15s Americans Own

AR-15s and other similar rifles may remain a key target of anti-gun politicians and activists, but new firearms industry production numbers indicate that they’re still incredibly popular among American gun owners.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation — the trade association for the firearms industry — put out a numbers report on Wednesday indicating that 17.74 million modern sporting rifles are currently privately owned in the United States. Furthermore, the report found that a 54 percent majority of all rifles produced in 2017 were modern sporting rifles. . .

Recently, MSRs have become a focal point of the American gun control debate. They’re often described as “assault weapons” by anti-gun politicians and are the subject of proposed bans, restrictions and confiscation, such as the “mandatory buyback” policy previously proposed by former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Robert “Beto” O’Rourke earlier this year. . .

But even with almost 18 million in private ownership, MSRs comprise just a small fraction of Americans’ privately-owned hardware. Wednesday’s figures also estimated that the total number of privately-owned American firearms between the years 1986 and 2018 was 422.9 million guns. That estimate is based on information from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as well as preliminary manufacturing and exportation numbers. On the subject of ammunition, NSSF says that over 8 billion rounds “of all calibers and gauges” were produced for the U.S. market in 2018. (Read more from “New Numbers Reveal How Many AR-15s Americans Own” HERE)

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