How many Americans own revolvers

Wow, nearly half of all semi's sold between 86 and 2015 were sold during the Obama administration!
(I'm including 2008 because of the post election panic)


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
 
When I began my life as a gun owner, I decided I was a "semi auto man" and I had little to no interest in revolvers. That has since changed though and I now carry a revolver daily, sometimes two, and I am slowly building a collection of "pre-lock" Smiths.
 
I've owned a number of automatics but my favorite Go To gun is my revolver. Even for match shooting I like the revolver. It may not be as fast as the automatics but I do pretty well with it.

Match directors use to apologize to me for having to do so many reloads. I just told them it's great practice and never complained.
 
The first time I saw a Student jam his S&W 4" Mod 64 up! Fumbling a reload, empty cartridge case, stuck UNDER the star? He was out of the fight (no fight, range practice) but you get the drift? Glock 19 forever.
 
I have not owned a revolver since the 1970s
Click to expand...

For me not that long , it's been since the 90's so 20 years or so . Back then I had more revolvers then semi's . I have not owned a revolver for 20+ years until 4 days ago when I bought a GP100 4" . It came down to the GP100 & the 686 . The 686 just did not point right in my hand and I'm starting to notice that most Smith's don't for me . The barrel is always pointed up when I look down the sight with my natural hold .

So it appears I went along with that trend only buying semi's from the 90's on . I had been wanting a 357 for awhile but never bought one for what ever reason . When I started reloading handguns about 2 or 3 years ago it became quite clear I did not like picking up my brass when shooting handguns . That's really the only reason I bought the GP100 . Although I'm more of a rifle guy I do like shooting handguns and would much rather have a handgun that works more like a bolt action then a semi auto as far as controlling the brass and how it's ejected .

So I can now say I own both but I would have been the odd man out and having to say I didn't own any wheel guns until a few days ago . I'm looking forward to reloading for it . I already tooled up just need some bullets . I've got plenty of powder and primers and have been keeping my buddy's 38 & 357 brass for the last couple years so I'm GTG there . Just need the gun :-( I'm in CA and need to wait ten days before I get to go play .
 
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All I know is that I go to the range every week, and I don't remember EVER seeing another person shooting a revolver besides me. Semis are the rage right now.
 
46.4% but when I was a younger man it was 0%, I just wasn't interested in them.

With birthdays I grew to appreciate them.

I appreciated them more when I could reload 38's
As cheap as 22's and more availible.
 
Still can reload 38's as cheap as 22's; just have to make the most expensive component of any handload yourself.

Don
 
Big single action fan here.
26 revolvers all single action
1 semi-auto
Would be all single action but we bought my late sons semi-auto just to keep it in the family.

I don't know of any way we can figure the number of house holds that have guns or a specific percentage of revolvers versus semi-autos.

Dana
 
I do not know. I like both and have both. Several revolvers and semis on layaway now. J frame in my pocket as I type. About twenty revolvers in the house right now from .22 to .44. About twenty semi autos in the house too from .22 to .45. A Kahr PM9 is in my other pocket as I type. Both types have advantages and complement each other. Then again I am an old f@rt that started with a M1911A1 in the Army MPs and a S&W model 10 when I left the Army for a civilian job in Law Enforcement. Either way I practice often, compete in local matches with both types and can hit what I aim at. I am ok with that.
 
I have 4 semis and 1 revolver. I traded a revolver for a semi. Just wasn't my bag. The revolver I do own is a 5" model 10 that was my grandpa's. Other than that I probably wouldn't have one. That being said I bet more people own revolvers.
 
I looked at the numbers provided by one of our Staff. It clearly indicates when the number of revolvers tipped over to the Semi Autos. It's pure marketing & fear mongering by the manufacture companies. They switched from revolver to semis in 1987 as per TXAZ's answer to this post. The real reason for this switch was that the mfgs. tapped into that we did not have enough fire power to protect ourselves with a 5 shot or 6 shot revolver and we, the public, bought into this. Let's go to what's happening in our world today. A well made revolver in either a 38 sp. or a 357 in magnum revolver should be our go to weapon for our self protection. The ghost stories that we hear about really does not apply to the majority of of us that carry 24/7 where 3, 4, or whatever bad guys are coming after us. It's pure sophistry. We were told that POTUS OBAMA, was going to take our guns away. WRONG!!!!! Never happened. Now POTUS Trump
wants us to arm teachers in our schools. Do we really need more guns to protect our kids because of fear that in our schools the kids might get shot??? Would armed teaches be better. Any one of us who were in the Military or LEO's, by the numbers, cannot hit their target more that 50% , or less,of the time. So what makes the average gun carrier better trained than the former or need more protection.
This is why we now have a higher percent of semi's vs. revolvers and have more weapons that is needed. We were conned into it. Just like I was.

I truely believe that we should have the right to own and have our weapons for self protection but not because we want to, but because we have to.
 
I own both revolvers and pistols. I have SA and DA revolvers. I prefer the revolver in any flavor to a pistol. However, there are times a high capacity pistol makes sense and I do love my Glocks and 1911s. But, I am of the mind that the average civilian (such as myself) is probably safer, more effective and better suited to a good revolver appropriate for the type of carry needed than they might be with a semi-auto pistol.

I suspect as time goes on the semi-auto pistol will over take the revolver but for now I think there are more revolvers in use. But a quick perusal of any gun store, the writing is on the wall as they say, and in the counter displays that are chock full of pistols and often very few revolvers in comparison.
 
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