How many guns are there in the world?

Factual Questions
1

How many firearms are produced each year, how many are dismantled/lost, and how many are currently sitting around in people’s homes or military stockpiles?

I’ve been hunting to find some data on this, but so far I’ve turned up diddly squat. Well, not really. I found one WAG that there are 500 million handguns and rifles worldwide, with half of those being in the U.S.

Please provide a cite for whatever info you’ve got.

And remember folks, this is GQ. Let’s keep the 2nd amendment debate out of it (especially since I’m not even a Yank :slight_smile: )

2

IANWI (I am not well informed), but I’ve always thought it was in the billions, at least twice as much as the WAG you mentioned.

Whatever the nmuber, it’s too many :smiley:

— G. Raven

3

I doubt anyone will ever know for sure, so I’d bet the best you’re going to get is a wild guess.

Last I heard there were roughly 180 million guns in America. I’d bet that number- whatever the “official” number is- is at least a third low, due to smuggling, unreported fabrication (some guy building a blackpowder pistol from a kit, for example, a procedure which does not have to be overseen by the ATF) and masses of curios and relics hidden in closets and attics, dating back to long before much of our bureaucratic paperwork.

As for worldwide? Who knows. Supposedly the Russians had built their fifty-millionth Kalashnikov (AK-47 type) something like a decade ago. The Chinese, Koreans, Israelis and several others also build licensed and unlicensed AK copies, and have for some fifty years.

As for the Chinese, I’d heard a tidbit that they’d made 20 or 30 million SKSs over the years.

And further, define the parameters: Is the 120-pound tripod-mounted, belt-fed M2 Browning .50 cal considered a “rifle”? Does “gun” include towed artillery? Sixteen-inch Iowa-class battleship rifles? Or just man-portable stuff? Something that can be held, carried and fired by one person, and uses a self-contained, non-rocket-powered metallic cartridge? (Which would include the M-79 40mm grenade launcher- which really isn’t a “rifle”- but wouldn’t include things like an anti-tank rocket, the “bazooka”, or some of the larger mortars. It would also exclude millions of flintlock or blackpowder arms.)

Also keep in mind that, in pre-AK and pre-SKS days, Russia suffered some 20 million casualties during WW2. Even presuming that only three-quarters were soldiers, that’s still fifteen million rifles or other weapons (even the air force guys had sidearms.)

So the 500 million mark is not impossible. If I had to guess, I’d say the total number of man-portable firearms- including deactivated war trophies, museum pieces, military surplus, civillian manufactured, antiques, prototypes, handmade examples, current military stocks (doesn’t China boast of being able to call up a five million soldiers?) and all the rest, may even be higher.

4

I say we limit it to “all post-1900’s” guns, since I’m betting the records from before that are sketchy.

I’m actually betting that the total number of such guns on Earth is GREATER than 500 million. Think about it… we have small wars going on all the time, whether it’s in Israel, Bosnia, Indonesia, Eastern Europe, etc. Such wars demand guns.

However, I imagine that the TYPES of guns would be greatly varied region-by-region. In the U.S., you’ll probably find more semi-auto hunting rifles and personal handguns. In Colombia, you’ll find more cheap automatic rifles (like the AK… didja know there’s more than a hundred variants of that rifle alone?).

For the record, I greatly doubt the “half the guns are in the U.S.” claim. I mean, we’ve got a gun culture, but that doesn’t mean we’re the ONLY gun culture.

5

Okay, let’s throw in a limitation. When I think ‘gun’, I’m thinking of something held in one or two hands that fires bullets, ie. slugs (or shot) combined with propellant. You can add accessories to your gun (such as a grenade launcher or scope) if you want, but something that just shoots grenades doesn’t count for purposes of this discussion.

And, as before, cites are much appreciated.

6

Funny you should mention this…

NPR’s Morning Edition just reported this morning that there are 500 million light arms in existence worldwide.

What exactly defines ‘light arms’, just how good of working order they are in (just how rusty does one have to be before it drops off the list), etc., were things not specified in the report.

Vague I know but take it FWIW.

7

…;)…;)…

8

Bump.

Does anyone have any idea who keeps track of guns being made? Would Smith & Wesson list the number of guns produced in their quarterly report?

9

I just heard on CTV tonight that there are half a billion small arms in the world (that we know about); small arms being anything from a hand gun to a military rifle - and something like half of them are illegal. The UN is working on getting a world-wide restriction program on small arms, so they would have some good numbers and statistics… now do they have a website?

10

Now, I have to poke a little fun at that…

What defines “illegal”?

250 million “illegal” firearms?

By who’s standards are they “illegal”? I own a firearm that is perfectly legal where I live, but would be “restricted” in California, heavily controlled but vaguely possible to own in New York, and totally banned in England.

That same side-by-side Shotgun a British farmer legally owns would be illegal contraban in Japan. The automatic rifle that most Swiss are required to own, is illegal in the UK, heavily restricted in the US, and banned altogether in many other countries.

Are they “illegal” because the factory simply cranks guns out without filing some kind of paperwork with the UN?

Or because the factory is making a “licensed” design without proper authorization? (Such as the Chinese copies of the AK, or an M-16 made without Colt’s permission in a Vietnamese sweatshop.)

Or are they “illegal” because the UN thinks they’re being used for nefarious purposes? (IE, Somalian tribal conflicts, Palestinian terrorism, South Seas piracy, Colombian drug-running, etcetera.)

11

Oh, and Barbarian- Yes, American manufacturers MUST keep track of every single firearm they make, even if the frame is later discarded for quality-control purposes before it’s ever sold, or even finished.

Losing track of even ONE, even if it’s a bare frame, is bad juju. That’s reason enough for the ATF, if they’re feeling especially nasty that day, to pull the manufacturer’s license.

A gun maker MUST keep detailed, auditable records of every single firearm made, who it’s sold to, when it was sold, when it was shipped, who got what serial numbers, how it was shipped, whether or not it arrived, etc.

And, of course, the person selling it MUST keep track of who he or she sold it to, when it was sold, did the buyer buy more than one gun that day, and so on.

The buyer must fill out a form with one’s name, age, mailing address, SSN, and other data, as well as fill out a form stating, under penalty of law, that, among other things, the buyer is not a drug user, hasn’t been dishonorably discharged from the military, is not a foreign national, and so on.

AND, the buyer must then undergo an “instant check” via a telephone call to the FBI.

The ATF has detailed records of all the firearms imported to and sold in the US since at least 1968.

So they have a pretty good idea how many firearms… legal ones anyway… are in the US.

12

Don’t ask me, ask the UN - should be easy enough to access their information. The report said something like 6 million people have been killed by small arms in major conflicts in the past year (might be off on the time span there; could have been a few years), 80% of whom were women and children. I’ll stay away from the debate of “illegal in who’s opinion” and leave out the name of the one country that wants nothing to do with the global resrictions on small arms as these were not what the original question asked; suffice it to say that there are one hell of a lot of small arms out there (~500,000,000)and the UN is trying to address the problem at the moment.

13

I would imagine that the 500,000,000 figure is way off the mark. I would guess that the number of firearms in existence is closer to 10 times that many. Think of the SMLE, M1903, M1917, M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, M1911, S&W revolver, Liberty .45, 1898 Mauser, H&K G3, FN-FAL, Beretta 92, AK, SKS, and PPsH firearms produced in the last 100 years. Each of these were produced in the millions. The 1911, S&W J/K/L/N series, G3, Beretta 92, and AK are still in production numbering tens of thousands each per year. Add in the myriad thousands of other models produced by manufacturers around the world. If you figure one firearm per soldier, you’re probably off by half. In my last Military Police Company, we had more than two firearms per soldier assigned (at one time, I had four: M16A1, M1911A1, M60, Colt Gold Cup .45). On top of that, there were even more unassigned weapons in depot storage.

I would also guess that in the US, the number is far higher than 180,000,000 if all small arms, including those owned legally, those possessed illegally, and those in government inventory are counted. While it is true that many American citizens do not own a gun, those that do typically own more than one: I have two, my brother has at least three, and my father has at least 15, my grandfather about 10. I’ve met people that own hundreds that are in working condidtion. One guy I met has over a hundred Remington .22 caliber rifles, all versions of the same model which he happens to collect.

One clarification on what constitutes small arms: The Browning M2HB .50 caliber machine gun and Soviet 14.7mm heavy machine gun are generally considered the largest of small arms, despite the fact that they are crew-served weapons. Anything that shoots only non-explosive shells from a sealed cartridge is generally a small arm. The next size up from 12.7mm Browning and 14.7mm Russian is the various 20mm AAA cannon in existence around the world and those are definitely not small arms by any stretch of the definition.

14

The WSJ had a blurb on the front page today that, according the the UN, there are 550 million working firearms in the world, half of which are owned legally by private citizens.