Back in October of last year, before Hognose passed away, the WeaponsMan blog made the case that the figure of 300 million privately owned firearms in the US is wrong. They not only claimed that the number is wrong, but they actually claimed the accurate figure could be somewhere between 412 and 660 million privately owned firearms inside the US.
The case they make is convincing, and their math seems to be true.
What's most convincing to me is where they show that the ATF uses their "A2K" system to log unique serial numbers for counting purposes. At this point, the A2K system has logged about 252 million unique firearm serial numbers, collected from VOLUNTARILY PARTICIPATING manufacturers, importers, distributors and wholesalers (no FFL retailers). But what percentage of US manufacturers, importers, distributors and wholesalers actually participate in this A2K system?
About 0.4%.
Just in case you're wondering, the ATF doesn't receive any other info in their A2K system. Only the serial numbers for counting purposes. So they say.
And how can the 300 million estimate remain firm over the last several years, when the NICS background check system has been reporting record breaking numbers every month for several years?
I'm thinking that 500+ million privately owned firearms in the US is a very plausible number. Thanks, Hognose.
Besides, if anyone is asking, I don't own any...
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