It is entirely possible that people who know absolutely nothing about the AR-15 are

[2on2u]

purchasing them in large numbers. If true this does not portend good things to come.



http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2012/12/20/assault_rifle_stats_how_many_assault_rifles_are_there_in_america.html

1986 to 2007, at least 1,626,525 AR-15-style semi-automatic rifles were produced and not exported from the United States. Overstreet suggested that you could use trends in NICS background checks to project future sales of AR-15-style rifles. As of Nov. 30, 2012, the total number of NICS background checks increased by 50.4 percent since the end of 2007. If the number of AR-15 rifles increased similarly, then that means there are at least 2,446,294 AR-15 rifles currently available in the United States.

That “at least” is an important caveat. These data only include firearms manufactured in the United States. In his declaration, Overstreet notes that, since 1986, “U.S.-made firearms have accounted for roughly three-fourths of all new firearms available on the commercial market in the United States.” So if you increase the above number to account for foreign-made, AR-15-style rifles, you get 3,261,725 total rifles.
More caveats: Overstreet derived his numbers by examining the sales figures of companies that only produced AR-15-style rifles. He didn’t include sales data from America’s three largest gunmakers—Remington, Smith & Wesson, and Sturm-Ruger—because these three produce multiple lines of rifles, and he couldn’t break down the data. (Remington is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Freedom Group.)

That’s weak stuff, Overstreet! Let’s try estimating those figures ourselves.
According to Sturm-Ruger’s 2011 annual report, sales of rifles accounted for $83.4 million in revenue that year out of $324.2 million in total net firearms sales—about 26 percent of revenue.

SNIP:
>>Add everything together, make all the necessary caveats, carry the two, and we reach the conclusion that there are somewhere around 3,750,000 AR-15-type rifles in the United States today. If there are around 310 million firearms in the USA today, that means these auto-loading assault-style rifles make up around 1 percent of the total arsenal. And keep in mind, the AR-15 is just one of the many assault weapons on the market. Overstreet estimated that more than 800,000 Ruger Mini-14 rifles—the rifle that Anders Behring Breivik used in the Oslo summer camp shootings last year—had been produced since 1974. There are other types, too. This is only the tip of the gunberg.<<

[geckosfeet]

1. True enough. Hope they keep them and the ammo locked up.

[2on2u]

2. I know this will sound crazy, but think of the kids who have killed themselves or others with

firearms they've found if there was something that was required of a pistol or a rifle that required the strength of an adult to enable it.... not just a simple light pull on a trigger... I saw the finger print reader thing... pretty good idea but locked up is the ultimate answer.

[onehandle]

3. People buying those need to be on potential domestic terrorist lists. nt

[Coyote_Tan]

6. It's legal...

Why should they be?

[former-republican]

7. nice user name

[Coyote_Tan]

11. Looking around the room at registration...

First thing I saw...

[Comrade_McKenzie]

4. According to Ben Franklin, I deserve neither liberty nor security...

But some of the things I'd be OK with at this point would never happen.

[Turbineguy]

5. That's the beauty of it.

Get powerful weapons into the hands of dangerous idiots, then sell more weapons so that people can protect themselves from those dangerous idiots. They really cannot protect themselves, but it's a case of doing something, even if it's wrong, is better than doing nothing.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. What about those that post about them and know nothing about them?

The screeds in and out of the M$M are scary for their ignorance. A little knowledge would go along way to making the discussion more believable and rational.

The point about Mini-14s is a good one. They were the modern rifle to have until the ARs came down in price and took over as the most popular rifle to buy.

I think the AR numbers cited are low since there are many manufacturers who do not report their shipping number. It is also legal in many states to make your own lower receiver and not report it to anyone.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

9. Well, "rifles" altogether accounted for about 3.8% of gun-homicides in 2011.

According to the 2011 FBI Uniform Crime Reports...

Rifles account for 3.8% of all gun homicides (2.6% of total homicide) <--- Military-Style Rifles are only a portion of this category
Pistols account for 72.5% of all gun homicides (49.1% of total homicide)
Shotguns account for 4.1% of all gun homicides (2.8% of total homicide)
Unknown account for 19.6% of all gun homicides (13.3% of total homicide)
Gun-Homicides comprise 67.8% of total homicide
"Hands/Fist/Feet" compromise 5.7% of all homicide

To put this in perspective:
Hands/fist/feet killed more people in America this year than "Rifles" or "Shotguns" or even "Rifles+Shotguns" combined. It goes without saying that "Knives" or "Other" weapons also far exceeded rifles & shotguns. And keep in mind that of that paltry percentage of Rifle-related deaths, Military-Style weapons are only a portion... so "assault weapons" killed even fewer people. By and large, rifles (especially military-style rifles) are NOT the problem with gun crime in America - that would be handguns. The findings in the OP only serve to reinforce the FBI data. As the OP states, assault weapons do not make a majority part of the gun demographic... so it logically follows that they don't make up a significant portion of the gun-homicide either. Said otherwise, assault-style rifles are not the problem... for every one rifle murder (all types of rifles inclusive), there are nearly 40 other-gun related murders

The only reason politicians rail against "assault weapons" is that it's an easy target. It looks menacing and scary and fearful people vote like idiots. If you look to the Assault Weapons Ban (even a magically 100% effective AWB) as some sort of solution to anything but a fraction of the death guns caused every year - you will be sorely disappointed.

[mzteris]

14. You're taking individual numbers

(though making an excellent case against your own argument) but lets give you that for now.

It's the potential to kill LARGE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE AT ONE TIME that the public is having a problem with. It's being able to "open fire" at a school or mall or theater or anywhere really and many people dying, most of whom weren't in the least way involved with the shooter.

No one needs this capability. I used to hunt squirrel with a rifle. One shot. Dead. (usually through the head). If you can't hunt without a damn gun that shoots hundreds of rounds a minute, then you're not a very damn good hunter.

Single shot rifles would certainly reduce the number of "massacres", knives, handguns, - all are pretty much a one on one weapon. Even in a crowd. And that would increase the odds of someone stopping him, or getting away, before he killed an entire roomful of people.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

15. So you're saying that 90+% of americas gun problem OK...

just so long as it's done in small numbers. That somehow, 20 1st graders shot in 15-20 small incidents is somehow more acceptable than 20 1st graders shot all at once.

Gotcha.

[mzteris]

16. yeah, sure, that's exactly what I said.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

10. So lets estimate, all "Assault-style Rifles" combined we're around what... 6,000,000 total?

Disclaimer: I use the phrase "asault-style" rifle meaning anything militaryesque or basically a semiauto rifles that will accept a detachable mag. Forget all the other technical jargon that's BS... the real factor that makes these rifles dangerous is the ability to fire powerful rounds quickly from detachable magazines (via large clips or quick reloads).

Lets guess that the AR15, being the more popular of the assault-style rifle, comprises more than half of the total assault-style rifles. You still have AKs, FALs, Ruger Minis, AR10s, HK things, ... the list goes on. So if there's 3.75M Ar15s, lets say there are 6,000,000 total "assault-style weapons".

You'd say, "That's only 2% of total firearms. That's a very small fraction." .. and you'd be right.
But if you said, "We can/should ban these because it's they are not prevalent and a fringe item."... you'd be wrong.

Think about this: There are literally over a hundred of kinds of "common" handguns. Probably nearly a several dozen kinds of common shotgun and several dozen kinds of common rifle. It's easy to see that with the multitude of guns to choose form that if a particular gun even approached a single percent of makeup of total firearms, it has begun to far outpace its statistical likelihood of occurrence given an even/uniform distribution. The fact that the article in the indicated AR15s alone surpass 1% of total firearms and assault-style weapons is telling of their uncommon ubiquity. If you assume only 6M assault style weapons, you are talking about only half a dozen models of guns or so comprising around 2% of the HUNDREDS of models of firearms out there... that is what we like to call a statistical outlier. Why the over-representation in population makeup? Because they are much more popular than other rifles.

This article, with logical observation of other "common" firearms only serves to show that the AR15 and related assault-style weapons are far more popular and common in occurrence than other particular rifles.

[2on2u]

13. 30 and 100 round clips/magazines just like a pistol, I get it. n/t