How many AR-15 rifles or clones in the US?

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dalepres

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With the long lead times for AR type rifles and lowers, I was wondering how many AR-15s do you think there are in the hands of non-LEO civilians in the United States. It seems like it must be 10s of millions.
 
tens of millions? Doubful. Ten million or so? Maybe as much as 20 million A stretched possibility. It is definitely the new rifle for the sportsman of all backgrounds, that's for sure. Just about any rifle company or importer has their own build.

Keep in mind that there are some 200 million-odd firearms in the country. A good deal are evil and black, and a very good deal are ARs. But, as to how many of the 80 million gun owners own an AR, who knows.
 
You realize, I'm sure, that 20 million is two "ten millions", or tens of millions, right? :)

In any case, that's a lot of guns. Odd thing is, I don't own a single one. I'll probably have a few between now and the end of the year, though.
 
20 million is 1 in 15 people in the US. I don't think it is that high of a number. Here is a question. Everyone who owns one look at the serial number. There aren't 20 big name companies out there selling lowers. How many have a lower with a serial number in the millions?
 
The ATF releases a report on the number of firearms produced by every gun manufacturer every year. You can pick out the biggest manufacturers and run the numbers.
 
I doubt that more than 10 million M16/M4/CAR15/AR15 have been built during the entire 40+ years of it's existence.

The estimate I got from wiki is 8 million, and even though it's not been cited, I'd say that that was a close approximation to the total ever made worldwide.

For USA civvie population, I'd guess a few hundred thousand max.

Scroll to the bottom of this link, it lists pretty much every company that manufactured and sold AR15 (or any variant) in the USA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15
 
I am curious now. I'd think it'd be 2-3 million range, but that is just a guess. That would only be 1% of the population, which sounds a little low... I know quite a few people that own them.. a lot aren't "gun" people.
 
I've done my part to make sure that they are in "common use" per the Heller decisio
iv contributed to that idea in AK's AR's "hi cap" pistols and more!

I can offer a reasonable educated estimate of all types,
About 350,000

id say thats VERY low. VERY VERY low. but what educated position do you hold to inspire that number? im open to hearing your argument
 
Sorry, I believe that is elendy-hundo

I think it is a pretty small amount. I would say about 1 in 10 ACTIVE gun owners have one. By active I mean shoot at least a 6 times a year. Although I shoot every week :)

HB
 
There are "non-gun people" abound that own AR-15s?!??!

Meaning they bought an AR becuase they thought it would be cool, yet they rarely, if ever take it to the range. I have 2 friends in this category.
 
Many of the manufacturers out there are putting out close to 4-5K rifles per month... Think about that... And consider how many AR15 manufacturers there are out there now...
 
Fifty states with approximately 7000 rifles per state.
Prior to the big '94 gun ban, there were maybe 15,000 AR type rifles in civilian hands.
Add rifles in Police armories and the number would probably increase to about 700,000 total, maybe, but that would also include a lot of full auto rifles too and we are talking about rifles in civilian hands. Aren't we?
AR sales didn't really take off until people couldn't get them anymore or couldn't get them with the previously ho-hum bayonet lug and collapsing stocks that were offered.

The AR is a big seller, it isn't a huge seller and it didn't say those numbers may not increase drastically should Obamarama win the election.
 
From what Ive read recntly AR15 style rifles are the #1 firearms sold in the US in terms of numbers..

Alot of new shooters who have never owned a gun before are buying them.. I beleive in thanks to the war we are fighting they are popular on TV..

Thats good people are buying them, but bad becuase they are driving up the ammo costs..Which reminds on payday order another 1000rds cause I am running low..
 
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