That’s A Lot Of AR-15s
BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 10 months ago
25 million. I think that number is probably about right, although it might be somewhat low. I think it might press towards 30 million because it likely doesn’t account for personal builds.
The number is also just a bit dated, and many have seen sold since then.
The FedGov is scared of the rifle. They hate it. When they want to ban and regulate something so badly, you know they hate it.
On February 11, 2022 at 12:41 am, Ohio Guy said:
I have one for nearly every occasion. They’re well fed too. Personally, I think the 25 mil number is way low.
On February 11, 2022 at 1:13 am, George 1 said:
In addition to AR15s add in all of the AK variants, FAL variants and other less common semi-autos. Then, maybe of the most significance, all of the bolt action type rifles.
The numbers are no doubt staggering.
On February 11, 2022 at 3:38 am, Rick said:
Perhaps George1 misunderstands. At issue is not the number of civilian-owned firearms. At issue is whether a particular firearm is commonly used. And it is that ‘common use’ which the courts seek to derive which I have issue with.
I guess they had to hang their hat on something when trying to decide the various legal challenges to the 2nd Amendment. But this quite absurd; a firearm common among the people has more legal protections than a less common firearm. I believe that by using such qualitative means the courts would decide the musket not worthy of protections.
[Note: the musket was instrumental in securing our freedoms in the founding days of our nation.]
My point is the government has tried, does try, will try by hook or crook to deprive us our freedoms and liberties. They have found that ‘common use’ does carry forward their argument. And why not since it is the most artificial, wholly subjective means and contrived by them.
On February 11, 2022 at 6:56 am, Longbow said:
The controllers have latched on to the “common use” phrase as a last resort.
The Court in Miller said, paraphrasing, “No one has provided us evidence that a short barreled shotgun is a militia grade weapon. Therefor we cannot say that the Second Amendment protects the right to own such a weapon.”
Do you get it? The Court was saying, in Miller, that Militia grade weapons ARE exactly THE weapons provided protection under the Second Amendment. Your fine five thousand dollar trap or skeet gun may not be, but your AR definitely is! The Browning Automatic Rifle your great grand-pappy brought back from the Great War, definitely is! Etc…
On February 11, 2022 at 7:22 am, Wes said:
There will always be some instrument for them to point their finger at. What they fear most is the prospect of personal physical harm, at the hands of the citizenry, for what they’ve done. The pictures of them cowering behind the “pews” inside the Capitol are testament enough for me.
On February 11, 2022 at 8:18 am, Fred said:
It’s a testiment to our cowardice that they fear the gun and not us. If they feared us they would know better than to care what types of weapons we have.
Notes: Yes, the number is low.
The Heller decision is where common use came from. Then they suffocated him to death in a hunting lodge. Nobody won either day.
On February 11, 2022 at 2:20 pm, Hedge said:
It’s not the number of rifles. It’s the number of men willing to use them that’s important.
On February 11, 2022 at 3:10 pm, Russell G. said:
That number is bogus. Additionally…Two words; actually three…Eighty Percent Lowers. BATF hasn’t a clue but they sure want to codify something really really bad. And, one lower can go 5.56, 6.5, 7.62, and whatever else fad round pops up from the wildcatters…in a matter of seconds. Uppers ship to your house, so, again the black hole of data.
An individual can literally start at 9:00am with a poly80 AR lower blank or a LR308 Warhogg blank and have the whole platform range ready by 12:30pm (if you’ve done them before).
Unserialized platforms are as common as 9mm and 22 brass on the floor.
On February 11, 2022 at 4:37 pm, X said:
“Common use” is a completely bogus argument that appears in U.S. v. Miller, but nowhere in the text of the Second Amendment.
A weapon that is banned cannot be in common use; therefore, it can be banned. The logic is circular.
Further, the “common use” argument does not account for advancement or obsolescence of technology. The “high-capacity” Marlin Model 60 and the .22 rimfire cartridge were not in “common use” at the time of the Founding because they did not exist. But eleven million have been sold since 1960.
Conversely, the Brown Bess musket was once in common use, but no longer is. Does this mean that the Second Amendment does not protect the ownership of single-shot smoothbore flintlock muskets?
The text of the Second Amendment reads “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Period, end of sentence. It says nothing about “common use.”
“Common use” is merely a rabbit hole for lawyers and sophists.
On February 12, 2022 at 1:33 pm, Steady Steve said:
Also doesn’t take into account how many one person might own. Or how many serialized lowers or 80% lowers and various parts one person might own. The fact that 80% manufacturers have been backed up forever along with barrel and other part manufacturers means there are probably millions of off record rifles out there. Fedgov is scared because they can’t muster enough manpower to stop a civilian uprising, should one come. They can require us to register our arms, but that hasn’t worked out well anywhere. Even California.
On February 12, 2022 at 7:59 pm, Hudson H Luce said:
Who enforces the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights? Go look in the mirror, it’s you. It’s not the courts, they’re a part of the government, against whom those rights are asserted, and it’s definitely not Congress, the National Security State, or the Executive branch. The last thing the National Security State does is provide security for the people of the United States. If they did, the Twin Towers would still be standing, the Boston Marathon would not have been bombed, the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre would not have occurred – and the present plague would not have been first exported to China by Fauci – a lifelong denizen of the National Security State, nor would it have been brought back here and spread in the population by the same corrupt group of people. The National Security State has held illegitimate power since its establishment in 1947 – that’s 75 years – and it has perpetrated one debacle after another – and then covered up its misdeeds and fraud and theft under a cloud of secrecy. It’s time to end this Secret Government, and return to the government of limited and enumerated powers as set out in the Constitution. This means that the alphabet soup of agencies need to be abolished, and the Code of Federal Regulations scrapped – and if you’ve ever been to a law library, you’ll know that the Code of Federal Regulations dwarfs the United States Code – and the CFR is just as much binding law as the US Code. Succeeding governments over a course of 75 years have nullified the Bill of Rights, especially the Tenth Amendment (https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1243&context=ndlr – for reference). And the corporation laws which favor corporations over people need similar revision (see https://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate-accountability-history-corporations-us/), to come into accordance with a truly free republic, with a limited federal government with enumerated powers that it cannot exceed. Corporations, a creation of the state, should not be allowed to be used to make an end-run around Constitutional restrictions and limitations. And finally, the “police power” of public health authorities (see https://journals.lww.com/stdjournal/Fulltext/1999/07000/The_Role_of_the_Police_Power_in_21st_Century.8.aspx) should be abolished outright. Although at the time this power was created, it was used for great good, in the last 100 years, beginning with the involuntary sterilizations of the 1920s to the 1970s, the Tuskegee Experiment, the experiments using nuclear radiation on US citizens under the guise of “cancer therapy”, and ending with what the governments and public health authorities at both state and federal levels have done with the COVID situation. This latter situation has been a carnival of regulatory agency capture, an opportunity for corrupt officials to amass wealth, and it has been ruinous to the actual health of the public, who have been subjected to injury and death, loss of employment, social abuse, and other harms, from the mandates, quarantines, lockdowns, coercive measures such as masking, to the mass coercive administration of what has turned out to be a defective vaccine which fails to prevent infection or stop spread, and has caused numerous injuries and deaths, which continue to occur. This great power has been badly abused, it must be abolished, and other means – without the coercion and propaganda – must be found to protect the health of the public.
On February 12, 2022 at 8:38 pm, Hudson H Luce said:
Who enforces the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights? Go look in the mirror, it’s you. It’s not the courts, they’re a part of the government, against whom those rights are asserted, and it’s definitely not Congress, the National Security State, or the Executive branch. And the means of enforcement – that’s what the Second Amendment was designed for: “The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? are they not ourselves. Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American. What clause in the state or federal constitution hath given away that important right…. T he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.” Philanthropos” (Tench Coxe), To The People of the United States, PA. GAZETTE, Jan. 16, 1788, cited at https://davekopel.org/2A/LawRev/hk-coxe.htm#FN;F83
Sorry about the apparent rant in the immediately preceding post above, got distracted, inserted the wrong text, and published the rather long comment… ooops.
On February 13, 2022 at 10:53 am, Paul B said:
Things are getting sporty. if they come down my street trying to destroy what I have spent my life building the switch will be flipped. 1, 100 or 1,000 makes no difference at that point.
They, the government, is playing with fire. I pray they do not burn the house down.