How Many Guns Are There in the US? A Lot More Than You Think

It’s been said, “Law-abiding gun owners have over 300 million guns…and 12 trillion rounds of ammo. If we were a problem, you’d know it!” But what if that “300 million” estimate is wrong? According to these calculations, it is. We believe that the correct number is much higher — somewhere between 412 and 660 million.  You may wonder how … Read more

How Many Guns Are There in America?

Night hunting pig (courtesy The Truth About Guns)

The data for the estimated number of guns in America was gathered from two sources. From 1945 to 1987, the data was taken from Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America by Gary Kleck, Table 2.1. For the later years, Kleck’s methodology was applied to figures obtained from the ATF. The number shown is the cumulative addition of domestic manufacture plus imports minus exports, not including guns shipped to the U.S. military or foreign military sales. The figures are rounded to the nearest million. And the estimated number of guns in America is . . .

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