Guns In The US is one of the most misunderstood topics in America. We thought we’d go further into the matter with all the commotion and misinformation surrounding weapons. Misinformation breeds dread, which is based on insufficient information. Fear leads to legislation intended to fix a problem that often does not exist, which may harm law-abiding gun owners.
It may seem like an uphill effort, but it is our duty as gun owners to inform the public so that we do not lose the right to own certain guns. We can’t criticize people for being afraid of what they don’t know. Still, we can blame ourselves for not reaching out to educate them.
It is particularly essential to examine since most people are curious about the proportion of semiautomatic weapons because they feel semiautomatics are more deadly.
Sure, there are gun owners, like this author, who are fascinated by the number of various weapons in the United States. But, for the most part, people draw this difference out of ignorance – literal ignorance, that is, they don’t know. It is why it is our responsibility to teach them.
What Is Semiautomatic?
Because the phrase itself is the source of many errors, we must begin by explicitly defining what semiautomatic implies in the context of a weapon.
In its most basic form, “semiautomatic” refers to how the gun works. It refers to the mechanical process inside the cannon when a cartridge is discharged. In a nutshell, it refers to what the gun performs once you pull the trigger.
It is also self-loading, which is another way of expressing it. The action of a semiautomatic handgun or rifle is such that the spent cartridge case is ejected, and a new one is inserted after each shot. That’s all.
It doesn’t help you shoot quicker. Shooting speed is determined more by your ability to precisely aim and pull the trigger than by the gun’s functioning.
What Kinds Of Guns Are Semiautomatic?
True, every one of them is or at least has the potential to be. There are semiautomatic rifles, handguns, and shotguns, but not every gun created is. Because semiautomatic merely refers to how the pistol works, you may have almost any gun in a semiauto.
Caliber is also unimportant. Semiautos are available in 5.56, 7.62, 9mm, and even 12 gauge. Unfortunately, this adds to the panic by making people confused about which firearms are which. With the likelihood of every gun becoming semiautomatic, folks inexperienced with weapons are left in the dark.
You’ve probably seen it yourself. Maybe you’re demonstrating or discussing a gun and say that it’s semiautomatic. “Why do you need a semiautomatic?” you may be questioned. If it hasn’t already happened to you, it will.
Since of all the disinformation, people think that because your gun is semiautomatic, it is the deadlier version. It is not the case; it is just the mode of operation for many different sorts of guns.
So, What Percentage Of Guns Are Semiautomatic?
That depends entirely on who you ask. According to the NRA, this accounts for around 20% of all weapons in the United States. Other pro- and anti-gun think groups and organizations have their figures.
But why are they all guesses? That is the tricky part. The fundamental reason is that no data is gathered that defines what is sold. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Guns, and Explosives keeps track of several elements of firearms manufacture, but not specifically by operation type.
In truth, weapon production is monitored on far more extensive grounds than the operation style of individual firearms. The ATF maintains track of whether the weapons manufactured were revolvers, pistols, shotguns, or rifles.
The ATF makes a distinction between pistols and revolvers. Still, as was already said, semiautomatic weapons are not limited to handguns. Furthermore, there are semiautomatic rifles and shotguns, but the ATF does not differentiate between them and fully automatic firearms.
Given such knowledge, there is just no way to tell for sure. We can, however, look at the facts and make a somewhat safe, informed judgment. So, how about we do some extrapolating?
Pistols Vs. Revolvers:
Because the ATF distinguishes between a pistol and a revolver, we can begin to understand what the percentage picture will look like. We may presume that all firearms classified as pistols by the ATF will be semiautomatics, including striker and hammer-fired pistols and AR-style handguns.
ATF saw the production of 4,545,993 handguns. There were 3,881,158 pistols among them, and it accounts for around 85% of all guns produced.
Modern Sporting Rifles:
The phrase “modern sports rifle” refers to contemporary semiautomatic rifles in America. The word includes firearms such as the AR-15, often mislabeled as “assault weapons” by the uninitiated. While the phrase “modern sports rifle” does not have every semiautomatic weapon in the United States, it is near. It may be used to estimate based on statistics.
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s (NSSF) most current data on contemporary sports rifles, these guns accounted for half of all rifles produced in 2022. Furthermore, between 1990 and 2022, around 17.7 million of these weapons were built or imported.
Percentage Estimates:
Given the data provided, it is feasible to estimate the number of semiautomatic firearms possessed in the United States. We may make an accurate prediction by integrating the available information and dividing it by the projected number of guns owned. It’s time to do some arithmetic.
According to the NSSF, private persons in the United States hold an estimated 423 million weapons.
According to the NSSF, 17.7 million modern sports rifles were manufactured between 1990 and 2022. The ATF statistics for the same period for pistols is little more than 52.4 million. It equates to around 70.1 million semiautomatic pistols and rifles.
When split by the 423 million weapons in circulation, the ratio is about 17%. When the percentages of shotguns and those before the period utilized are considered, the NRA figure seems very near accurate.
Whether you were unfamiliar with semiautomatic and wanted to know how many of these firearms were in the United States, or you’re simply a curious gun owner, maybe this helps clear things up.
Whatever your motive for needing this knowledge, you may be able to utilize it to educate people around you. Because one thing seems sure: our nation could benefit from more gun education.
