Posted on 02/10/2016 4:51:22 AM PST by marktwain
January of 2016 had the highest number of NICS checks for any January on record. There were 2,545,802 million checks, which translates to a bit less than 1.9 million new firearms. The industry is producing firearms as fast as they can, and they are being purchased just as fast. The demand side is crowded with first time buyers, women, and young urbans. Where will it end?
Disarmists, those who wish us to be disarmed, constantly talk about "need". Need is something they seem to think that they are the only ones qualified to define. The idea of "need" is a semantic trick to appeal to parents, especially women. Parents are constantly required to determine "needs" versus wants. This is because the parents are paying for what their child obtains. "Needs" are finite. Wants are infinite. If parents allow children to get whatever they want, the family goes bankrupt, or the children never learn self discipline. With adults, this is not normally a problem. Reality makes the distinction between "needs" and wants. No one can get everything they "want", because resources are finite at any given time. I might "want" a completely manned aircraft carrier fighting group; but I cannot afford it. Neither can Donald Trump.
The disarmists attempt to translate parental requirements for "needs" and "wants" onto other adults. Much of disarmist rhetoric focuses on defining adults as children that must be taken care of.
In the United States, we advanced beyond "needs" a long time ago. Most "poor" people in the United States would be upper middle class in most of the rest of the world. People do not "need" central heating, air conditioning, television, cell phones, or microwave ovens.
In the U.S., such things are taken for granted. We are a consumerist society. We mostly divide our disposable income into things that we want, rather than what we need to survive.
The United States has the highest number of automobiles per capita, on the planet. We also have the highest number of firearms on the planet. The current firearms number is approaching 1.25 for every man woman and child in the United States.
But what is a practical upper limit on the number of firearms produced? Firearms are not like most consumer products. They seldom wear out; their expected life, given moderate care and use, is centuries. It is likely that completely different weapons technology will eclipse firearms before the modern stainless steel and composite stock firearms wear out. It is one of the reasons that the current number of firearms in the United States is over 400 million.
Firearms are closer to finely crafted utensils than they are to automobiles. People still have and use utensils that were made in the 1800s. Often, they become family heirlooms, occupying a prominent place in a display cabinet, even if they are seldom used. A person is likely to have a pitcher or a gravy bowl that has been in the family for several generations; such objects are far more fragile than firearms.
Once a person becomes familiar with firearms, they realize that one firearm does not serve for all situations. In times of normal ammunition availability, a .22 rifle and pistol are virtually required for practice and training. A centerfire handgun is the favored tool for personal carry; a centerfire rifle for hunting, perhaps another for zombie defense, home defense, and neighborhood security during times of unrest; and the ubiquitous shotgun for hunting and home defense.
In that short paragraph, we have six firearms. It is not unreasonable that each adult would want to have their own. There are about 237 million adults in the United States as of the end of 2015.
Six times 237 million is 1.4 billion firearms, about 3.5 times the current number.
Even at the current fevered pace, we are producing only 17 million firearms per year. It would take about 50 years of such production to meet the measly 1.4 billion minimal "limit" that I have arbitrarily set.
Some firearms, for some people, some of the time are a clear "need". But most firearms, for most people, most of the time, are a "want". For people who explore the finer points of firearm ownership, owning a hundred firearms is not unusual.
Firearms are fun, are easy to store and take care of, have a good history of maintaining value, and offer a hedge against hard times and difficulty that even gold and silver do not. They are safer than swimming pools, stairs and bicycles. There is little reason to believe that the numbers have an upper limit based on market saturation, for decades to come. Human "want" has no limit.
Definition of disarmist
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Link to Gun Watch
OK...you convinced me.
This is a fact people better wake up to. We have already LOST the second amendment battle with tyranny. We lost when the NFA was enacted and limited the people to weapons technology that will one day be obsolete.
Every gun owner or defender of the second amendment should be focused on repeal of the NFA and all laws the put limits on small arms of any type. And before you even ask, Yes, an M2 heavy machine gun is small arms, as are M203 grenade launchers and most importantly phased plasma rifles in a 40 watt range.
Wake up: the battle is over and we have lost. The government will soon have those phase plasma rifles and WE will not.
All forms of leftists and statists like to talk about "needs". They like to be empowered to determine other people's needs so they can distribute goods and resources accordingly.
On the other hand, conservatives and constitutionalists like to talk about "rights" and "liberty". There is a reason the first ten amendments to the Constitution are called the Bill of Rights and not the Bill of Needs. Rights are something we inherently own; not something the government can grant or withhold based on what it thinks we need.
Talk about a man cave!
A better analogy is asking what the upper limit on ownership of Beanie Babies is. Or Cabbage Patch Kids, Legos or Star Wars action figures. Or Pet Rocks (which can be used as weapons).
However, to repeat what was said above the title of the article is wrong. The author is talking about the point of market saturation, and doing so from a pro-gun ownership perspective.
Don’t forget the accessories.
We do like to accessorize our “collection”.
Just one more?
Limits are rubbish as are all firearm laws on the books enacted since the early 1900’s.
“Common Sense” is nothing more that Satanic lies to disarm us.
You have run out of places to store them?
If you are having to lean them against the side of your house you might want to get a bigger house.
EXACTLY
True! They will hate me. I’m stocking up on ammo.
Budget.
“Statistically, could someone please explain how 2.55 million background checks translates into 1.9 million firearms sold?”
To be precise the 1.9 million are firearms added to the existing stock. Background checks are also done for CCW permits, many are done for existing firearms that are sold on the used market.
The ration of checks to new stock is based on the NICS numbers of checks compared to the ATF reported number of guns manufactured for the private market, plus imports minus exports.
Excellent, thanks for the explanation!
I think we should draw the line at owning death stars that can obliterate whole planets. They should be limited to ten per person.
Oooh, i think I’m in love!
LOL
CC
OMG!! Something is terribly wrong. You haven’t had a TBA where you lost all of them.
My guns were all lost in a catastrophic capsizing of my canoe in the careening cataracts of the Chattahoochee River. It was a calamity!
Limitless. You know...like taxes.
It Ain’t Fair!
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