20 Million Modern Sporting Rifles and Counting
BY Herschel Smith
4 years ago
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) released the 2020 edition of its Firearm Production Report to members this month, and among its findings is the fact that civilian interest and ownership of modern sporting rifles continues to skyrocket. Since 1990, according to the study, an estimated 19.8 million have been manufactured and put into circulation.
Forty-eight percent of all firearms produced in the United States or imported in 2018 were modern sporting rifles. Despite the manufacturing focus, inventories remained low across the nation, and this year’s firearm sales pace has left many retailers without models to sell.
There are approximately 79.2 million rifle magazines capable of holding 30 or more rounds in circulation—nearly all of them modern sporting rifle versions. The potentially lifesaving advantage of not having to reload during a criminal encounter isn’t overlooked by pistol owners, either. Roughly 71.2 million handgun magazines capable of holding more than 10 cartridges are owned by enthusiasts today.
Lots of luck trying to confiscate all of those guns. That’s an impossible task.
However, there’s something that bears repeating, and it’s a point of second amendment logic brought up by David Codrea a couple of days ago.
And as few “gunpundits” seem to see, no matter how long you give them, “in common use” is not about popularity. It is about “every terrible implement of the soldier,” that is, “ordinary military equipment” capable of enabling citizens to prevail in “common defense” battles. Were it otherwise, withholding new technology from We the People would be all tyrants would need to keep it forever out of “common use.”
Make sure to ponder the point he’s making, and focus on the last sentence of his paragraph. If “common use” had to do with popularity contests, then the whole edifice of the second amendment collapses.
A tyrannical government could (illegally) keep them from being produced for or distributed to the public, and then claim in court (or the court of public opinion) that although our standing army has such weaponry, since they are not in common use among the public (from which the militia comes), the second amendment doesn’t apply to those weapons.
This becomes a “de facto” argument (which is a formal logical fallacy) by themselves nefariously ensuring the preconditions for waiving and cessation of the right.
Never forget what the founders really intended, regardless of the machinations of the lawyers – and ignore the dense gun bloggers who fail to point these things out.
On November 20, 2020 at 8:27 am, Arthur Sido said:
The sheer number of AR/AK rifles and pistols in circulation is mind boggling, especially since so many of them are assembled from component parts rather than purchased complete. I am a small home based FFL and all of my wholesale distributors are out of stock on MSRs and many of my manufacturers that sell direct are 4-5 months out on production, going back to orders placed in July.
We are on the verge of laws being passed that will be as completely ignored as prohibition.
On November 20, 2020 at 8:45 am, Wes said:
Can’t corral 1 million people to bus them back to the border, but going to take 20 million+ rifles away from people who don’t plan on giving them up.
Gotcha.
On November 20, 2020 at 9:43 am, Ned2 said:
I dream of a future where metal work becomes a compulsory subject in school.
On November 20, 2020 at 10:20 am, Frank Clarke said:
https://dispatchesfromheck.blogspot.com/2015/12/heretofore-otherwise-law-abiding-gun.html
On November 20, 2020 at 11:18 am, Kick Ass said:
Let’s not forget about an unknown number made from 80% lowers and unserialized uppers & other parts.
If it’s a war they want, a war they will get.
Unfortunately, no one really wins a war anymore.
On November 20, 2020 at 12:19 pm, Paul Bonneau said:
“Quantity has a quality all its own.”
Flood America with rifles, making confiscation a practical impossibility. (We were actually already there, years ago, but “the more, the merrier”.)
On November 20, 2020 at 12:39 pm, Mack said:
Be very careful when you write “A tyrannical government” — bear in mind there is also “A tyrannical majority” — that is why I will never surrender my Natural Rights to the mob.
And all the clownish GOPers who continue to say “democracy” are a discredit to the very term Republican.
On November 20, 2020 at 4:50 pm, Ron W said:
Right, Mack!
“Democracy is indispensible to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism.”
–Vladimir Lenin
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government….” –Article IV, Section 4, U.S. Constitution
Our founders rejected a democracy as a form of government.
On November 20, 2020 at 5:00 pm, Fred said:
While I appriciate Codrea’s view, that’s not what Scalia said, as far as I can tell.
On November 20, 2020 at 5:04 pm, Henry said:
“A tyrannical government could (illegally) keep them from being produced for or distributed to the public, and then claim in court (or the court of public opinion) that although our standing army has such weaponry, since they are not in common use among the public (from which the militia comes), the second amendment doesn’t apply to those weapons.”
In other words, precisely what they did with automatic weapons.
On November 20, 2020 at 5:05 pm, Henry said:
“While I appriciate Codrea’s view, that’s not what Scalia said, as far as I can tell.’
Codrea is not harking back to Scalia, he’s harking back to US v. Miller, where this is precisely what it meant.
On November 20, 2020 at 6:07 pm, Sabre22 said:
Just a thought. The first bump-stock case was dropped by the BATFE recently because they were afraid losing the case would inhibit future enforcement actions. HMMM if they dropped the bump-stock case because they did not think it was viable how are they going to justify calling any Semi-Auto weapon capable of holding a magazine a machine gun under the same statute?
On November 20, 2020 at 6:30 pm, TwoDogs said:
I want to know how they think they’re going to make normal capacity MSR magazines NFA items. I’ve never seen a mag with a serial number, have you ?
On November 20, 2020 at 9:36 pm, Fred said:
@Henry, Ah,thanks.
On November 20, 2020 at 11:10 pm, Phil Ossiferz Stone said:
It has to be a lot more than that.
>The National Shooting Sports Foundation estimated 2018 sales at 13.1 million firearms, down from 14 million the previous year and down 16.5 percent from record 2016 sales of 15.7 million.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-sales-idUSKCN1PN346
That’s over six million AR-15’s produced — and presumably sold — in one year, or just under a third of the total. The NSSF is lowballing. I do not understand why.
On November 21, 2020 at 1:47 pm, Sabre22 said:
My question is Only an average of 4 magazines per weapon???????? Where did that estimate come from? That has been low-balled as well
On November 21, 2020 at 2:41 pm, Phil Ossiferz Stone said:
Yep yep yep. I know people who were ordering crates of 100 mags at a time from PSA. Maybe they only count milspec mags from government contractors. Still, it’s far too low.
The question is why.
On November 21, 2020 at 6:55 pm, X said:
The AR numbers are not nearly as big as they would seem. There may be 20 million in circulation, but there are 320 million people in this country, so if every owner of an AR/MSR owns only one, that is a little over six per cent (or 1/16th) of the population.
Of course, most AR owners own more than one… so the actual percentage is probably less.
Are the Democrats willing to turn six per cent of the population into criminals? You bet your ass they are.
Will they round up and confiscate all those 20 million guns? Of course not. They’ll just make it a felony worth ten years in prison to possess an unregistered one. And, just as cops cannot possibly catch every speeder, they can’t possibly catch every person who possesses an unregistered gun.
But they CAN — and WILL — make examples out of a few people to scare the shit out of everyone else so that those unregistered guns never see the light of day and never go to the range.
Ask yourself the following question: when you go to your local Fudd gun club, how many people pull out unregistered SBRs, cans, and full-autos? Probably NONE. And if someone WERE to say “F–k the government, I’ll shoot an unregistered full auto if I want” the gun club Fudds would be the FIRST people to call ATF and turn them in.
Until people are willing to USE those guns the way that George Washington & Co. did — (and I see NO indication that they are willing) the government can and will do anything it wants. They’ve been putting people in prison for NFA violations for 86 years. What makes you think that that they’re afraid to put an AR owner in prison after they make his rifle an NFA item???
On November 21, 2020 at 6:59 pm, PeanutButter said:
It’s also the argument against not only the Hughes Amendment of FOPA 86, import restrictions of GCA 68, but the entire National Firearms Act.
Because of unconstitutional government fiats, the civilian supply of full-auto and DDs has been artificially reduced to what a healthy supply and availability would be in a free nation, along with imposing on these goods the obvious scarcity/price arguments learned in junior-high economics classes.
Never mind the treason aspects of such a supply diminution, of course. That in itself should be enough reason to not only strike these laws and regulations down, but mandate the arrest of those who have left them in place, giving aid to our nation’s enemies by disarming the American population.
On November 23, 2020 at 8:03 pm, Adam Baum said:
X says: “Surrender now, and beat the rush.”