Americans now own more than 530 million guns

Cavalry

Cavalry

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I'd be willing to bet that number is much higher. Record keeping was essentially a guess before NICS and even more so 1968. Generally speaking guns aren't just disposed of like other consumer commodities, only a small percentage are lost or destroyed over the years. Owning a 50-100 year old gun is not uncommon and still in many closets or in use.
 
dsdmmat

dsdmmat

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Cavalry said:
I'd be willing to bet that number is much higher. Record keeping was essentially a guess before NICS and even more so 1968. Generally speaking guns aren't just disposed of like other consumer commodities, only a small percentage are lost or destroyed over the years. Owning a 50-100 year old gun is not uncommon and still in many closets or in use.
Click to expand...
Quite a few of my guns are over 50, most are over 20.
 
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fresch

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I was going to say 0% because if criminal act then no lawabiding.
I added the % to cover what the overlords deem to be a criminal act by a law abiding person.
 
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fresch

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Now that all of my older family is dead and property sold off, I still wonder why we had an ammo can full of 30o6 belted in the basement; dad had a 8mm no 06. Later in life a rumor was because they men that went to WWII had something that ate that configuration. My brothers and I never found or could get confirmation on such.
I would say the government has no idea what or how many of anything is out there.
 
FP1201

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fresch said:
Now that all of my older family is dead and property sold off, I still wonder why we had an ammo can full of 30o6 belted in the basement; dad had a 8mm no 06. Later in life a rumor was because they men that went to WWII had something that ate that configuration. My brothers and I never found or could get confirmation on such.
I would say the government has no idea what or how many of anything is out there.
Click to expand...
Prior to 1968 there weren't any Gun Dealers per say, but there were people and businesses that sold Guns that were made or imported the same way someone might buy a Shovel...(Class III items not included here) so there little to no way to know how many guns were brought back, imported, manufactured without reporting to the Government how many and to whom...just like the number of illegal a aliens, it's a wild ass guess exactly how many guns there are and who all owns them.
I've met, bought, and inherited Guns and ammo from Men who Served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam: they had shit, because they'd see shit, and knew that one day it could happen here, and if it does, your Powder better be dry.
 
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FP1201 said:
Prior to 1968 there weren't any Gun Dealers per say, but there were people and businesses that sold Guns that were made or imported the same way someone might buy a Shovel...(Class III items not included here) so there little to no way to know how many guns were brought back, imported, manufactured without reporting to the Government how many and to whom...just like the number of illegal a aliens, it's a wild ass guess exactly how many guns there are and who all owns them.
I've met, bought, and inherited Guns and ammo from Men who Served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam: they had shit, because they'd see shit, and knew that one day it could happen here, and if it does, your Powder better be dry.
Click to expand...
True there were no FFLs for most of the country's history, therefore no paperwork per se on new firearms bought and sold. Really no 4473 'registry' until the Brady bill as I recall. I remember buying a shotgun at the hardware store and only signing off on it in a ledger book. Even though the NFA has been around for a long time, the ATF wasn't a real force to be reckoned with and rules were extremely lax on DEWAT/bringback guns until the late 60's and even beyond. Who knows how many DEWATS are out there where just the bolt was removed for compliance. In many gun friendly areas the cops didn't much care to pursue it either.
 
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