Record sales increase American firearm ownership to an estimated 434 million guns
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Record sales increase American firearm ownership to an estimated 434 million guns
Posted by: James E. Lewis|November 18, 2020
NEWTOWN, CT – The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), founded in 1961, reported Monday there are an estimated 434 million firearms in private possession in the United States of America.
Firearms purchases have strongly surged in the past year, mostly because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but also because of political uncertainties, like the possibility of a very liberal incoming administration.
The gun purchasing surge being witnessed during coronavirus shutdown resulted in the sale of nearly two million firearms last month alone. https://t.co/Qc5MQOFGSSFirearms production figures show approximately six million firearms were manufactured in the U.S. in 2019, consisting of 3.6 million pistols and revolvers, two million rifles, and 480,000 shotguns.
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 8, 2020
Imported firearms accounted for another 3.3 million firearms. Those imports included 2.3 million pistols and revolvers, 301,000 rifles and 678,000 shotguns.
The NSSF estimates that there are approximately 19.8 million sporting rifles in our country, ranging from the AR platform rifles to SKS/AK-47 styles.
Back in 2018, Breitbart published a story indicating there were more than nine million AR-platform rifles manufactured or for sale in our country during former president Barack Obama’s administration alone
On the weapon magazine front, NSSF estimates that Americans own “approximately 71.2 million pistol magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds” and “79.2 million rifle magazines capable of holding 30 or more rounds.”
CBS News points to another report released by the NSSF indicating that without 2020 being completed, calendar-wise, 2020 has already topped the highest weapons sales year on record, which was in 2016.
As stated before, the surge in buying weapons was primarily motivated by the Covid-19 lockdowns occurring nationwide.
Owner and manager of Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, GA explained:
“Everybody went to the grocery stores first to stock up on food, then they went to the gun stores.”
The 2020 holiday season is expected to cause a secondary boom in gun sales this year. With that said, November and December are already the highest tallied months for weapons sales in cumulative history, based on an NSSF check of the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
“The National Shooting Sports Foundation found that 17.2 million background checks were completed this year, versus 15.7 million in 2016, the previous high-water mark for gun sales.
Firearm purchases have climbed every month since March, and more than 1.7 million background checks were conducted in October alone, a roughly 60% jump over the same period in 2019.”
Further in the CBS report, the NSSF made a key point:
“Politically-charged calls to defund police also continue to spur sales. Also, firearm sales typically climb during presidential election years.”
Adventure Outdoors owner Wallace added:
“We saw a little bit of a slowdown in April and May, but it’s been crazy every month since. It’s mostly the civil unrest and the talk on the news about defunding the police — people have decided they need to take action to protect themselves, their families and their homes.”
In a previous Law Enforcement Today article, we explained how Joe Biden has proclaimed the outright tightening of gun rules, including banning all online sales of ammunitions, gun parts, and accessories.
He also promises to ban “assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines,” that common mantra on the liberal left. Additionally, he proposes to limit individual gun sales per person and how many one person may own.
The NSSF Releases Most Recent Firearm Production Figures https://t.co/lo0p72knNI pic.twitter.com/y7x6Vh4K11
— AmmoLand News (@AmmoLand) November 16, 2020
The gun industry saw a slacking of sales from 2017 to 2019 mainly because President Trump reduced concerns about gun restrictions.
A specific example of increased gun sales is evidenced by sales and profit reports from mainstream gunmaker Ruger – officially Sturm, Ruger & Co. Their sales jumped to nearly $146 million in the third quarter of 2020, up 53% from the same period of last year.
Ruger grossed $400 million in sales in just the first nine months of 2020, a $95 million increase compared to the first nine months of 2019.
Sturm Ruger CEO Christopher Killoy attributed the sales spurt to calls by some for reduced funding of law enforcement, civil unrest and “concerns about personal protection and home defense, stemming from the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.”
https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/...o-434-million/
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