Update: 533 Million Privately Owned Firearms in the United States

AmmoLand ^ | May 27, 2025 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

There are about 533 million firearms in private hands in the United States of America in 2025. The current population is estimated at 343 million people. This gives a record number of 1.55 firearms for every person in the United States. The number of privately owned firearms in the United States is growing by 15-20 million firearms a year.

The number of firearms which are privately owned in the United States is not clear and obvious or easily measured. There has never been a registry of firearms for the United States. A national firearms registry is forbidden by law. There are partial state registration systems in a few states.  Data on manufacture, importation, and exportation of firearms was not kept as a matter of record until after World War II.

Researchers Newton and Zimring pioneered the estimation of private firearms numbers in the United States. They researched the number of firearms manufactured, imported, and exported in the United States from 1899 through 1945 and estimated a total of 46.9 million modern firearms as of 1945. For the years 1946 to 1972, individual figures were calculated for each year. Shipments of firearms to the military were not included.

US Homicide Rate vs Firearms per Capita

Gary Kleck, in his seminal work, Point Blank Guns and Violence in America, extended the work of Newton and Zimring through 1987, using data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF). As of 1987, the total was over 198 million.

This correspondent has used the ATF numbers from 1988 to 2023 to reach a figure of over 530 million firearms in the private stock in the USA in 2025.

[Taxman]

LOL!

[Seruzawa]

It’s probably be ok if you use black powder. Shot shells. Not worth the bother.

[Celtic Conservative]

“Boxers or briefs????”

Only snub nose revolvers can be considered “briefs”

🤨

CC

[Celtic Conservative]

“Very few gun owners own just one gun.”

I’m to the point where I have to sit down and count on a scratch sheet how many I own.

CC

[Quick Shot]

Can we make it 600m by Christmas?

[marktwain]

Highly unlikely. Sales are dropping because most people trust President Trump, and believe we are on the right path.

We need 67 million to make 600 million. That is about 4-6 years worth of production...

[GailA]

Supreme Court declines to examine appeals over Maryland, Rhode Island gun control laws
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-declines-examine-appeals-over-maryland-rhode-island-gun-control-laws

[GailA]

Jim Jordan Shows How Federal Agencies Work Against the American Public.

Why should Americans fund a federal agency that violates their Second Amendment rights?

https://jimjordanreport.substack.com/p/jim-jordan-shows-how-federal-agencies

[DPMD]

Yep, and understandably, the number is probably well off the actual.