Hi folks and welcome to Adiga Armory! Today we’ll be taking a look at some fresh data on gun ownership in America. An article published by the Washington Examiner references newly-released federal data from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives showing that the number of guns in private hands is tens-of-millions of units higher than previous estimates.

For several years now, it has been assumed that roughly 350-400 million guns are privately owned in the US. However, new data indicates this number is closer to 423 million… a whopping 23-73 million more than previously estimated! That is almost 100 times the number of small arms weapons currently owned by the US Armed Forces. It is safe to assume that the threat of firearm confiscation coming from some of our political leaders will prove even more daunting than they may have initially anticipated. And to that we say, God Bless America, and long live the Constitution!

With all those snazzy new guns out there, please remember to exercise common sense gun control by gripping the gun firmly with both hands at all times. And of course, remember to keep those guns in proper, serviceable condition with our ultra-premium, battle-ready Citrus-Powered Synthetic CLP. It’ll have your guns running longer and harder than a well-oiled adult film star.

According to the President of the National Sports Shooting Association [NSSF], “these figures show that America has a strong desire to continue to… purchase firearms for lawful purposes”. In further dissecting the new data, the NSSF determined that more than half, or 54% of all rifles produced in 2017 were classified as semi-automatic, centerfire, modern sporting rifles such as AR-15’s and AK-47’s… or as others would call them “big, black scary-looking, belt-clip fed, 30mm, automatic, high-powered military style assault weapons of death”.

Jokes aside, the data indicates that there are over 17.7 million of these types of rifles in private hands with over a million more being purchased each year, and according to the FBI expanded crime database, less than 300 homicides are committed nationwide using all types of rifles each year. If we assume that of those rifle deaths, slightly over half are done with a scary black rifle, that means less than 1 out of 118,000 scary black rifles end up actually being used in a homicide. That is less than 0.0009% folks! Yes, you heard that right… less than 9 ten-thousandths of one percent of the scary black rifles in America are used in a homicide each year.

OK… timeout! Didn’t the fact-checking truth-masters at Snopes complain about using that number for rifle deaths since about 3,000 firearm homicides do not specify the type of firearm used. In that case let’s humor them by adding in the pro-rated amount of that to our figures.

Firearm homicides are distributed accordingly… of the 11,004 total gun homicides minus the 3,077 unknown gun types we have 7,927 known gun type homicides in 2016. Of that figure, 7,105 are handguns, which is about 89.6% of all homicides. So our adjusted total for handgun homicides would come to about 9,862. Looks pretty bad for handguns, but in their defense, they are used much more often to save lives and stop crime than any other gun type due to the fact that you might actually have one on you when you need it… but I digress.

If we apply the same math logic to rifles we get an additional 144 rifle homicides, or 519 total based on the abnormally-high 2016 numbers. This still only amounts to 4.7% of the total gun homicides and it includes all rifles. If we generously assume that half are done using scary black rifles, it is still less than 2.4% of all gun homicides per year. Furthermore, if we look at that number as a portion of all scary black rifles owned by American civilians, it still amounts to only 0.0014%, or 1.4 thousandths of one percent being used each year in a homicide.

So I have to ask Snopes by using the quote of the sage, “at this point, what difference does it make”? We may as well argue over whether quarks are smaller than neutrinos when they are both so miniscule, they can hardly be observed.   

To put it into perspective, according to the aforementioned FBI crime database, nearly 4 times as many are killed with blunt objects like hammers and clubs, and nearly 10 times as many people are killed with knives and other edged weapons. Furthermore, if we compare the infinitesimally small number of black rifle deaths to the hundreds of millions of people who have perished in recent times at the hands of their own government, the disparity grows even deeper.

Anyway, don’t we have much more imminent threats to life and limb than scary black rifles?… or any guns for that matter? A recent study conducted by Johns Hopkins University that found over 251,000 people die each year in the US as a result of preventable medical mistakes. That’s over 9.5% of all deaths in the US annually, and nearly 1000x more deaths than all rifle homicides combined. Thank you doctor, but I think I’ll pass on the magic pills, and I’ll hold on to those rectal polyps, at least for today.

Another interesting aspect of the recent BATFE data dump is the amazing amount of ammo being produced and distributed in the USA. Our bold and industrious ammo factories pumped out an epic 8.1 billion rounds of ammo in all shapes and sizes in 2018, and that was for the US market alone. That said, it is nice to finally find a decent selection of .22 bulk packs on the shelf after the painful and destitute famines of yesteryear.  

We find it very motivating and inspirational that this industry continues to endure and thrive over the decades despite the many obstacles and opponents it has faced. After all, firearms and ammo manufacturers have always been the scapegoat of misguided good intentions, as well as very precisely-guided sinister intentions. This new data shows us what many of us already knew; that the overwhelming majority of American gun owners are peaceful individuals who use firearms for legitimate purposes, and that the 2nd Amendment does vastly more good than it does bad for our society.

Considering that firearms, including scary black rifles, are used millions of times each year to save lives, stop crimes, defend innocent people, and most importantly, to keep our government from totally owning us, you have to ask this, how many people would have died had the gun control advocates gotten what they wanted? And it leaves us to wonder, why is so much energy being expended on disarming law-abiding Americans under the guise of public safety? After all, if our leaders were genuinely concerned for our safety, wouldn’t the conversation be about banning these deadly “gun-free zones” in which over 90% of mass shootings occur?… or perhaps allowing nationwide constitutional carry as a first line of defense against violent maniacs? Instead the conversation is about declawing the entire US population while our masters enjoy being surrounded by an armed militia of their own, and at our expense no less.

And with that, we thank you for visiting today. Please remember to give us a thumbs-up and subscribe if you haven’t already. We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below, and we’ll see you again next time at Adiga Amory!


ATTRIBUTIONS:

Some visual references to existing publications have been made under fair use law and are properly attributed to the original publisher in the video.

Data Sources:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/atf-423-million-guns-in-america-1-2-per-person-8-1-billion-rounds-of-ammo-a-year

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-4.xls

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/topic-pages/tables/table-1

https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf/view

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/22/medical-errors-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-america.html

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/study_suggests_medical_errors_now_third_leading_cause_of_death_in_the_us

https://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/Fulltext/2013/09000/A_New,_Evidence_based_Estimate_of_Patient_Harms.2.aspx

Media Source Links:

Song “Swagger” by Quincas Moreira at YouTube Audio Library

Song “Falling Rain” by Myuu at YouTube Audio Library

Song “Eyes of Glory” by Aakash Gandhi at YouTube Audio Library

Crying Photo https://pixabay.com/photos/baby-crying-cry-crying-baby-cute-2387661/

Hong Kong Video by New York Times and Contributors: https://youtu.be/HRdXjsGlh2s

Soldiers at war video: Louis-de-Funes at Pixabay.com

Lady Liberty https://www.pexels.com/photo/architecture-art-clouds-landmark-290386/

Constitution https://pixabay.com/photos/old-transcript-constitution-vintage-438035/

Monkey https://www.pexels.com/photo/animal-ape-banana-cute-321552/

Stop https://www.pexels.com/photo/hands-black-and-white-fingers-palm-23008/ 

The Atom https://pixabay.com/videos/atoms-electrons-energy-orbital-8579/

Laughing https://www.videezy.com/people/35809-happy-businessman-laughing-and-looking-at-camera

Skulls https://www.pexels.com/photo/grey-skulls-piled-on-ground-1096925/

Fear https://pixabay.com/photos/fear-anxiety-emotion-worry-scared-2019930/

Capitol Police: https://www.copblock.org/126770/capitol-police-undergo-additional-training-after-leaving-guns-in-public-bathrooms/

New BATFE Data: 423 Million Guns in USA; 17.7 Million “Assault Weapons”; 8.1 Billion Rounds Per Year
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