Interesting thread, if somewhat trivial. I think there are 3 BIG takeaways though.
POST # 16: 44 AMP hit the nail on the head. Since 1987, there have been many more semi-autos made than revolvers. What about years before 1987? Revolvers most likely ruled most of those years, and most of those revolvers are still in circulation. There were half a million S&W model 10's produced from 1940 to 1945 for WWII. That's just one model during a 5 year period (to be fair there were nearly 2 million 1911 models produced during the same time, but I digress). So any number anyone posts is nothing but a remote guess. We have no way of knowing.
POST # 23: I don't care about revolver vs semi here. It really only tells me what I already suspected. The big takeaway here is that handgun production more than doubled from 2007 to 2015. That is a huge increase. Here I was bitching that ammo and reloading price increases were mostly from panic buyers and scalpers... there was likely a significant increase in demand to actually shoot ammo as well.
POST # 23 AGAIN: Over 63 Million handguns, and handguns alone, produced in the US since 1986!?!? I wonder about the validity of the "nearly 300 million guns in America" statistic, as I'm now pondering if that's not on the low side. I suspect at least 63 million rifles and shotguns were also produced during this same time frame, if not much more. America has a lot of guns... as well it should.
POST # 16: 44 AMP hit the nail on the head. Since 1987, there have been many more semi-autos made than revolvers. What about years before 1987? Revolvers most likely ruled most of those years, and most of those revolvers are still in circulation. There were half a million S&W model 10's produced from 1940 to 1945 for WWII. That's just one model during a 5 year period (to be fair there were nearly 2 million 1911 models produced during the same time, but I digress). So any number anyone posts is nothing but a remote guess. We have no way of knowing.
POST # 23: I don't care about revolver vs semi here. It really only tells me what I already suspected. The big takeaway here is that handgun production more than doubled from 2007 to 2015. That is a huge increase. Here I was bitching that ammo and reloading price increases were mostly from panic buyers and scalpers... there was likely a significant increase in demand to actually shoot ammo as well.
POST # 23 AGAIN: Over 63 Million handguns, and handguns alone, produced in the US since 1986!?!? I wonder about the validity of the "nearly 300 million guns in America" statistic, as I'm now pondering if that's not on the low side. I suspect at least 63 million rifles and shotguns were also produced during this same time frame, if not much more. America has a lot of guns... as well it should.