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.
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. The work was previously done through 2015. In the decade from 2015 to 2024, a combination of ATF numbers and estimates from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) were used. This resulted in an estimate of 516 million firearms in the private stock as of the end of 2024, with another three million added in the first three months of 2025.
The recent publication of Firearms Commerce in the United States Statistical Update 2024 gave access to the official numbers of firearms manufactured, imported, and exported in the United States for the last decade through 2023. These are definitive numbers reported as required by law to the ATF. These numbers were used to update the estimate of the firearms in the private stock given in March 2024. The official ATF numbers were calculated and added to the previous work done through 2015. The change in the estimate is a few million.
As of the end of 2023, the estimate was 513 million firearms. An estimate of firearm sales calculated by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, based on the NICS data, reported by the FBI, adds another 16.5 million in 2024. NICS data for the first four months of 2025 adds another five million.
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.
I’m betting on rising numbers as the left’s “resist movement” erupts this summer. Don’t let the burning police stations, beatings of law abiding civilians and road blockades upset you. They’re just peaceful protests.
“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a patient man.”
I know you get it Ryan but here’s my take on this.
We’re DIFFERENT TODAY, the Country has changed
we’ve moved on from the Woke/ MSLSD was trying to cram down our throats.
We want to prosper, live FREE, SAFE, in PEACE. the Left wants ANARCHY (old energy).
Negative energy—We don’t want that (we never did)
The Left is falling father and father away from the democracy message.
I’ve said this here for years The Socialist is a miserable creature (and it never works).
Just look at history man, then look at Blu-Cities today same same.
How can they ‘justify’ Antifa ‘Attacking’ a Christian Concert in a public park?
How can they try and ‘Mandate’ and Restrict our freedoms in the name of WOKENESS?
That dog don’t hunt and even the Dem’s are seeing this now.
In their death throes they continue to spout Trump is a Facist, he’s Hitler
even though this is exactly who they are.
We have 533 MILLION Guns in circulation if they continue down this road spouting unhinged anger and ANARCHY! They WILL FAFO.
IDK I don’t judge people by their political views. I have some very democratic friends that were anti gun and seem to be changing there minds about guns and getting more excepting of people that have them.
Yup Bruce…Brings back memories (Gulp! read Nightmare’s) of that Horrible
‘Boating Accident’ I had on Elephant Butte Lake a few years back!
Hey it’s May already maybe another trip needs to be planned----oh, nevamind!
Yes! But it’s a divided army! That gives me great concern. Our country seems to be
1/3 pro Constitution, American and freedoms
1/3 are socialist liberal pigs anti-American and the other
1/3 are HAMAS!
How’s that going to work?
I can guarantee the number is way higher than 533 Million, my family has kept every firearm ever purchased since my great grandfather purchased his first firearm. There is zero way they have records that go back that far.
