If anti-gunners are ever to reach their goal of a U.S. without firearms, they have their work cut out for them.
A new report by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) illustrates just how entrenched the Second Amendment is in American culture. The industry trade group released the Firearm Import and Export Data 2025 Edition, which culled 2023 data produced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
Gun sales are off their pandemic peak but remain strong
It showed an estimated 506.1 million firearms in circulation from 1990 to 2023. That is a remarkable figure that should give pause to those who believe that an Australian-style door-to-door confiscation scheme is in the future.
For that same period, including domestic production and imports, some 284.4 million weapons were made available for American gun enthusiasts.
The ATF’s Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Export Reports (AMFER) revealed that domestic weapon production reached 8,466,729 in 2023, a drop of 15.4 percent from the previous year.
Public enthusiasm for modern sporting rifles has not diminished
And then there’s modern sporting rifles (MSR), the semi-automatic firearms that are wildly popular with the public. NSSF numbers showed that there are approximately 32,091,000 of these multi-purpose weapons in circulation.
NSSF President and CEO Joe Bartozzi celebrated the continued strength of the firearms industry after reaching pandemic-era peaks.
“This report reflects what we witnessed in 2023, as background checks drifted down from the astronomically high peaks that started in 2020,” Bartozzi explained. “American firearm manufacturers adjusted their production schedules and continued to deliver the highest quality firearms for law-abiding Americans.”
One thing is clear—upstanding citizens have a healthy appetite for exercising Second Amendment rights. Anti-gunners’ best efforts have not dampened the public’s enthusiasm to defend themselves and their loved ones and to carry on the nation’s fine sporting traditions.
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