Someone say boating accidents?I've put this here as SCOUTUS decisions and numerous lawsuits cite various firearms are -- or are not -- in common use. They're much, much larger than many would imagine. Data compilations usually lag. The summary just released (2023) by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), an industry trade organization, has numbers up through two years ago, 2021. They reflect the leap that occurred when Biden won the election in November 2020.
Modern Sporting Rifle (MSR): Magazine fed semi-automatic rifles, which includes AR-15, AR-10, AK-47, AK-74, M1A, Mini-14, etc.; the vile evil "Assault Weapon".
MSR in circulation is derived from total 1990-2021 production numbers (produced minus known destroyed; doesn't include the ubiquitous "boating accidents")
Some important numbers as of 2021:
I found the total handgun production compared to total long guns much larger than I'd have imagined or estimated. The overwhelming rifle of choice now is the MSR. Any argument that MSR -- the evil "Assault Weapons" -- are not in common legal use is male bovine feces. That is why the gun grabbers are now insisting guns must be "in common use for self defense" counting only those that were actually used by someone for self-defense in defiance of SCOTUS decisions and their dicta.
- Total Firearms Owned by Civilians in U.S.: 473.2 Million
- Total 2021 Domestic Production: 12,521,614 (up 28.6% from 2020; 5.6% of civilian ownership)
- Total 1990-2021 Modern Sporting Rifles (MSR) in Civilian Circulation: 28,144,000 (up 15% from 2020 24.4M)
- Total made available for sale in U.S. Market in 2021 (mfr. + import - export): 21,037,810 (all firearms)
- Handguns: 12,799,067 (60.8%; overwhelms total long guns; unknown how many are AR/AK pistols)
- Rifles: 4,832,198 (by my estimate, about 3/4 of them are MSR)
- Shotguns: 3,406,545
Data was pulled from this January 2024 NSSF Press Release:
https://www.nssf.org/articles/nssf-releases-most-recent-firearm-production-figures-2024/