Here's the breakout of the data: Semi-auto's are the clear preference for all years listed except 1986.
First column is the year.
Second is semi-auto's reported sold that year.
Third column is the number of Revolvers sold that year.
The last column is the Ratio of Semi's sold divided by Revolvers sold.
The last row is the cumulative sales and sales ratio.
Year ...... Semi Autos...... Revolvers .......Ratio SA/R
1986 …….. 662,973 …….. 761,414 …….. 0.87
1987 …….. 964,561 …….. 722,512 …….. 1.34
1988 …….. 1,101,011 …….. 754,744 …….. 1.46
1989 …….. 1,404,753 …….. 628,573 …….. 2.23
1990 …….. 1,371,427 …….. 470,495 …….. 2.91
1991 …….. 1,378,252 …….. 456,966 …….. 3.02
1992 …….. 1,669,537 …….. 469,413 …….. 3.56
1993 …….. 2,093,362 …….. 562,292 …….. 3.72
1994 …….. 2,004,298 …….. 586,450 …….. 3.42
1995 …….. 1,195,284 …….. 527,664 …….. 2.27
1996 …….. 987,528 …….. 498,944 …….. 1.98
1997 …….. 1,036,077 …….. 370,428 …….. 2.80
1998 …….. 960,365 …….. 324,390 …….. 2.96
1999 …….. 995,446 …….. 335,784 …….. 2.96
2000 …….. 962,901 …….. 318,960 …….. 3.02
2001 …….. 626,836 …….. 320,143 …….. 1.96
2002 …….. 741,514 …….. 347,070 …….. 2.14
2003 …….. 811,660 …….. 309,364 …….. 2.62
2004 …….. 728,511 …….. 294,099 …….. 2.48
2005 …….. 803,425 …….. 274,205 …….. 2.93
2006 …….. 1,021,260 …….. 385,069 …….. 2.65
2007 …….. 1,219,664 …….. 391,334 …….. 3.12
2008 …….. 1,609,381 …….. 431,753 …….. 3.73
2009 …….. 1,868,258 …….. 547,195 …….. 3.41
2010 …….. 2,258,450 …….. 558,927 …….. 4.04
2011 …….. 2,598,133 …….. 572,857 …….. 4.54
2012 …….. 3,487,883 …….. 667,357 …….. 5.23
2013 …….. 4,441,726 …….. 725,282 …….. 6.12
2014 …….. 3,633,454 …….. 744,047 …….. 4.88
2015 …….. 3,557,199 …….. 885,259 …….. 4.02
..... …….. 48,195,129…….. 15,242,990…….. 3.16
While wheel gun guys are ardent supporters, the trend is semi's by a substantial ratio. I'm guessing LamarW was looking at 1936 data.
Had to add the periods between columns otherwise the numbers run together.
(Yea I know it's a slow news night).