Media Numbers of Guns in Private Hands Severely Lacking…Likely On Purpose

“In common use.”

I don’t like that being the standard for whether a gun can be banned or not, but that’s what the Supreme Court said, and that’s what we’re stuck with, at least for now. 

The phrase, though, applies to most things we’ve got banging around our gun safes, from the single-shot .22 rifle we taught our kids to shoot with, to the AR-15s we bought for various reasons up to and including the fact that some people don’t want us to have them.

The idea of a firearm being in common use shouldn’t be a requirement, especially since we all know how people lie about what’s common and what isn’t.

And the National Shooting Sports Foundation thinks the media is doing just that by underreporting the number of guns in the hands of private citizens, which makes way too much sense to dismiss as paranoia.

If you ran a simple Google search of “how many Americans own AR-15s?”, the results would be woefully lacking. The Google AI tool gives an immediate answer of “approximately 16 million to 24.6 million” Americans who own an AR-15 or similarly styled semiautomatic rifle. Google’s high-end estimate is more than 20 percent off from the most current industry estimates.

The top articles referenced and provided as citation are all far out-of-date. The top article provided, from Georgetown University, is a republish of The Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard writing about AR-15 popularity — from 2022 — also pegged at 24 million.

The second-highest-placed article  — from Stephen Gutowski’s The Reload — is also from 2022 and puts MSR ownership at 24.4 million.

Next is a Washington Post article from 2023, suggesting there are only “20 million AR-15s in circulation.”

NBC News included the figure 24.4 million as well in 2020 in an article titled, “What makes the AR-15 so beloved and so reviled.”

All these publications could use a refresh on their research if they’re going to cover the popularity of the MSR and state legislation being proposed to ban their possession, use and sale.

New High Mark

NSSF recently released its “2025 Firearm Production in the United States” report that includes firearm import and export data as well. The report includes the most recent figures gathered from industry manufacturers that is up-to-date as of 2023 production. The report compiles the most current and accurate information available based on data sourced from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF’s) Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Export Reports (AFMER).

So what’s the current as of 2023 total number on MSRs? It’s a big number – significantly higher than what mainstream media continues to report.

All told, industry data reveals that 32,091,000 Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) are in circulation since 1990. While MSR production slowed down slightly between 2022 to 2023, coming off scorching hot sales during COVID and the early Biden administration, the estimated total amount of MSRs produced since 1990 increased by 4.5 percent, bringing the total to 32 million from 30.7 million.

Media outlets covering firearm related legislative proposals in Virginia, New Mexico and elsewhere need to include the most current figures to give readers a clearer understanding that these lawful rifles are commonly owned and popular for use for a variety of lawful reasons, including recreational target shooting, hunting, varmint control and home defense.

Now, just to be clear, Gutowski’s The Reload is quoting an NSSF report in this particular example, so he’s not lying about the numbers. In fact, most of those are a few years old. That’s not NSSF’s Larry Keane is talking about, though. He’s talking about how these numbers are still being used as the default count of firearms in circulation.

And the media in Virginia and elsewhere are still using them, as if there haven’t been new reports on the number of AR-15 and other so-called assault weapons in private hands since then.

For a little perspective, this would be enough of these types of rifles to put one in the hands of nearly a third of the American population.

That’s definitely “in common use,” even if a large number of the owners of these weapons own more than one.

The purpose of downplaying the numbers, though, makes sense when you consider that if the population increases but the number of firearms in circulation stays the same, it suggests they’re not as common as they used to be. This opens the door for all kinds of nefarious things, such as gun bans. “They’re not in common use anymore,” the gun grabbers cry, but the truth is that they’ve been lied to.

Journalists can see where the numbers come from. They can see when those numbers were published. Their job is to look to see if there are new reports that update the numbers or, if not, to reach out to see if there is an update.

They’re not doing that.

Yes, part of it is laziness. All of that takes work, and they’d rather be complaining about Trump on Twitter/X.

Another part is that they know what they want to see happen, so why bother updating the numbers that will undermine what you want to see when you can just use older numbers, look like you’re still doing your job, and accomplish the same task.

Then you can get back to pontificating about how Orange Man Bad and society would be so much better if we’d just listen to our journalistic elite to all of their friends on the rocket man’s site.

Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment. 

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