Ruger has sold over 25,000,000 firearms...

S

SaxonPig

New member
This is why I laugh when people say there are 100,000,000 guns in the U.S. Or even 300,000,000. Ruger has made 25M all by itself. What about Colt, Winchester, Remington, S&W, Savage, Marlin, H&R, Mauser, Steyr, BSA, Browning, Weatherby, Sako, CZ, Mossberg and the many, many other manufacturers of sporting firearms? How about the ship loads of surplus firearms imported into the U.S. over the many decades since WW I?

I think the actual number of guns in the U.S. is somewhere between 500,000,000 and 1,000,000,000. Maybe even more.

It is thought that around half of Americans are gun owners. OK, that's 125 million (for a round number). How many guns does the average gun owner own? No way to know for sure, but based on my circle of friends I'd say about 20-25 is a typical number. Of course some people have a few more, some have a lot more...while others have fewer. That's how you get an average. Let's say my friends are at the high end of gun ownership and most folks have fewer. Fine, let's assume the average number of guns owned is half that of the figure among my friends, or about 10.

Um...10 X 125,000,000 is 1,250,000,000.
 
I think there are far more guns tucked away and not known abut by anyone other than the owners than there are guns that the authorities say exists.
 
You do realize that Ruger has held the #1 position in terms of units sold for several years, and they have been around for a long time too. S&W is in 2nd. Both are publically traded too.
 
Ruger has been in the gun business about 60 years. Darn fine record.

Remington began putting their name on rifle barrels in 1816 or so, and they have several individual models of guns sold in the multi million units category.

Winchester had sold a lot of guns over the last 150 years or so, as well. Savage and other companies have turned out quite a lot in the last century + as well.

I don't think you are quite right to look at your friends collections, and base an "average" number off that, or even half that. Those of us who are enthusiasts tend to have friends in the same group. That skews you numbers for average in the general population.

I think there is a good chunk of the gun owning public that only owns one gun, for home protection. Another good size chunk owns 3-5, typically shotguns, deer rifles, and .22s. Maybe a handgun.

A much smaller group are the enthusiasts, who own more, often many times more. As an example, when I was growing up, nearly everyone we knew had a gun in the house, usually a shotgun or deer rifle, or both. A couple had 4 or 5. My Dad had 20 or so. He also taught NRA Hunter Safety courses, and other things. Rural New York State, in the 1960s.

I stopped counting when I got over 70, and have a close friend who's collection is probably close to double that. Other "Shooter" friends of ours have 8-10 or so, some more, some less.

I wouldn't use my group as a basis for a national average, because we are certainly not "average." :D
 
I've come to distrust polls more and more, not because of any agenda on the part of the pollsters but because of a trend I've noticed among many of the people I know.

Totally unscientific, totally subjective comments follow.

Back in the 1960's if you got polled on something, anything, you felt kind of special and really tried to answer the questions honestly. Getting polled didn't happen very often.

Today it seems you get polled every month for something and folk find it annoying and MANY folk play with the pollsters and spoof them for sport.
 
A quick google suggests that the number of firearms in the US in 2007 was about 347 million. Most estimates are in the 300-350 million range.

Things have been a bit crazy the past few years, so I wouldn't be surprised if the actual number is at least 500 million.
 
I think that most estimates of gun ownership is far underestimated.

I actually think the anti-gun crowd has no idea how many guns are out there.
 
I do firmly believe that their are over 500,000,000 functional firearms in the hands of we, the people.


However, I also completely agree with the assessment that most of the members here are, at a minimum, part of the 'enthusiast' crowd. We are well above average, as far as ownership numbers.

In the real world...
Most of my friends don't own a gun. (Highly anti-gun Democratic backgrounds. :rolleyes:)
While most of my gun owning friends only own one, two, or maybe three guns (primarily a shotgun or AR, and a .22 pistol; with possibly a 'hunting rifle'). The guys that love advertising their gun ownership and constantly politicizing it, own three, five, maybe eight to ten (usually "fanboy" guns - an AK, several ARs, something Sig, a Glock, etc...).

But within my family, you can easily triple that. In some cases, you're talking about guys that honestly don't know how many guns they own. They lost track after 30 or 40. One of my uncles recently "found" a handgun that he bought about 6 years ago, in a box of random ammo and reloading supplies. "Huh, I forgot that I bought that one. I never even fired it!"
...And that wasn't the first time that it has happened. I can recall having the "so I found a gun the other day"-conversations about half a dozen times.

A few years ago, he even found a new-in-box rifle that he hid in the back of a closet in a moment of panic, to keep his previous wife from discovering the purchase. "Oh yea... I remember that one. I wonder why I wanted a 7mm-08? Or is that the one that I bought just to get the scope that was on it?..."
 
I do not have a single friend that does not own at least 1 firearm. Most of my friends own more. I have no way to figure out how many there are and I don't think anyone else really does either...as it should be.
 
The shear number of guns already owned in this country is one reason complete registration and confiscation is an impossible task. I wonder how many thousands of handguns are out there hidden in dad's sock drawer or the top shelf of the closet and mom, pushing 70, forget or never knew he had it. The kids find those when mom dies and are cleaning out the drawers for the auction. While most of us know which neighbors own guns, we don't know how many or generally what kind. The man hours and expense to do this to even a small number of already owned firearms would be prohibitive.
 
I think the number is probably under 500,000,000.
On mistake you are making is a household often involves two or more adults, so if your family has father, mother and one adult child, you have to divide that number by three.

I bet the average is around 3.

I have met some people who own 100+ guns. They really throw the numbers off and I am unsure how many of them are out there. The one guy in California was found with over a thousand a month or two ago. Who knows how many of those are out there.
 
A few pieces of Ruger engineering have passed through my hands.
Never disliked a one of them.
Never tried the mini-30, though.
 
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