Your point is valid but I think your figure is high.
There’s a handful of states you’d need to have a permit which you can’t get right away.
There’s also the cost. Depending on where you look anywhere from 30% to 75% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck or are one large unexpected expense away from catastrophe. They likely don’t have the expendable income to go spends hundreds on a firearm at any given moment.
This is why, even though there’s somewhere between 300-500 million civilian owned firearms in the US, those firearms are owned by roughly 32% of the adult population in the country.
Or auction house AK variants. Or strike old school fear into fascism with a Mosin Nagant or an M1 Garand (ping!).
Lol memes aside (and not judging!) there’s hardware to fill the need at all price points. It’s the ammo that’s hard to keep up with! Also, safety (and skill) training could be a lot more universally accessible and applied.
The time to gain familiarity and proficiency is also a severely limiting factor, and of course the working class have less and less of it.
I think our general attitude and understanding about firearms (in the U.S/“West”) has been intentionally poisoned into some bizarre right-wing fetish thing specifically to make sure level-headed, educated, reasonable people who weren’t ultra-capitalists wouldn’t be the group statistically holding a stupidly unholy amount of them.
I guess my point is: Capitalism will sell you whatever you like. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a vetting process for its preferred audience. It simply adjusts the culture to make the very idea revolting to those it would prefer not selling to, and amplifying the signal to stupidly comical degrees to its target audience.
Well, the Mosin, being a bolt-action, was a bit of a meme funny inclusion…
…but technically the Garand, and any AK/SKS kinda rifle, are (or can be) semi-automatic wherein a pull of a trigger discharges a single round. And yes, Hi-Point also makes rifle models Lol.
Companies like Kel-Tec also market to the civilian affordability crowd.
I dunno, was I missing the point of this emphasis maybe? Let me know if something went over my head. :)
Sorry, I was short on time and only glanced at your comment.
The Mosin is bolt action, as you indicated.
Hi-Point sells carbine pistols but I didn’t see any rifles, and I’m not familiar with Kel Tec’s offerings I’m guessing they’re like Hi Point? This matters because in some jurisdictions those are sold as ‘pistols’ and require the same permitting.
As for cheap AKs or Garands, I haven’t seen any of those since before Obama’s first term. They are less expensive than a Springfield or Colt made Armalite style rifle but not cheap. I’d like to know where you live because I’d be happy to snap up a cheap Garand.
The least expensive semi auto rifles are going to be .22 caliber. Then we could get into the argument of if a revolutionary force was armed with a bunch of semi auto rifles, how capable would they be. At that point it’s moot because in the US they’d be going against the US law enforcement and military which will be far better equipped, that big ol’ ‘defense’ budget at work.
Ultimately it’s a difference in wording. If the OP had said firearms then I’d have said 150 million is conservative.
I’m speaking specifically about how many Americans have the legal ability to buy these weapons. The cost involved is why I added the “if they have the money” line.
I’m speaking especially about the Americans that have the legal ability to buy these weapons.
I get that but there’s about 258.3 adults in the US 18 or older, 196.8 adults 21 or older (some jurisdictions require a buyer to be 21).
If we apply the most conservative estimate of 30% of adults living paycheck to paycheck that leaves 180.81 million 18 or over adults, or 137.76 21 or over adults.
Averaging the 2 numbers gives us 159.285 million which is right in the ballpark of your estimate but we’d still have to account for the 32% that already own all the guns (there will be some overlap) and anybody precluded from owning a firearm (criminal record, active TRO/OFP etc.) and anybody who has to get a government issued permit first.
That’s why, while I agree with your point, I think your estimate is high at 150 million.
Your point is valid but I think your figure is high.
There’s a handful of states you’d need to have a permit which you can’t get right away.
There’s also the cost. Depending on where you look anywhere from 30% to 75% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck or are one large unexpected expense away from catastrophe. They likely don’t have the expendable income to go spends hundreds on a firearm at any given moment.
This is why, even though there’s somewhere between 300-500 million civilian owned firearms in the US, those firearms are owned by roughly 32% of the adult population in the country.
Hi-Point: The hole-puncher for the common folk.
Or auction house AK variants. Or strike old school fear into fascism with a Mosin Nagant or an M1 Garand (ping!).
Lol memes aside (and not judging!) there’s hardware to fill the need at all price points. It’s the ammo that’s hard to keep up with! Also, safety (and skill) training could be a lot more universally accessible and applied.
The time to gain familiarity and proficiency is also a severely limiting factor, and of course the working class have less and less of it.
I think our general attitude and understanding about firearms (in the U.S/“West”) has been intentionally poisoned into some bizarre right-wing fetish thing specifically to make sure level-headed, educated, reasonable people who weren’t ultra-capitalists wouldn’t be the group statistically holding a stupidly unholy amount of them.
I guess my point is: Capitalism will sell you whatever you like. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a vetting process for its preferred audience. It simply adjusts the culture to make the very idea revolting to those it would prefer not selling to, and amplifying the signal to stupidly comical degrees to its target audience.
“Semi auto rifle.”
Well, the Mosin, being a bolt-action, was a bit of a meme funny inclusion…
…but technically the Garand, and any AK/SKS kinda rifle, are (or can be) semi-automatic wherein a pull of a trigger discharges a single round. And yes, Hi-Point also makes rifle models Lol.
Companies like Kel-Tec also market to the civilian affordability crowd.
I dunno, was I missing the point of this emphasis maybe? Let me know if something went over my head. :)
Sorry, I was short on time and only glanced at your comment.
The Mosin is bolt action, as you indicated.
Hi-Point sells carbine pistols but I didn’t see any rifles, and I’m not familiar with Kel Tec’s offerings I’m guessing they’re like Hi Point? This matters because in some jurisdictions those are sold as ‘pistols’ and require the same permitting.
As for cheap AKs or Garands, I haven’t seen any of those since before Obama’s first term. They are less expensive than a Springfield or Colt made Armalite style rifle but not cheap. I’d like to know where you live because I’d be happy to snap up a cheap Garand.
The least expensive semi auto rifles are going to be .22 caliber. Then we could get into the argument of if a revolutionary force was armed with a bunch of semi auto rifles, how capable would they be. At that point it’s moot because in the US they’d be going against the US law enforcement and military which will be far better equipped, that big ol’ ‘defense’ budget at work.
Ultimately it’s a difference in wording. If the OP had said firearms then I’d have said 150 million is conservative.
I’m speaking specifically about how many Americans have the legal ability to buy these weapons. The cost involved is why I added the “if they have the money” line.
I get that but there’s about 258.3 adults in the US 18 or older, 196.8 adults 21 or older (some jurisdictions require a buyer to be 21).
If we apply the most conservative estimate of 30% of adults living paycheck to paycheck that leaves 180.81 million 18 or over adults, or 137.76 21 or over adults.
Averaging the 2 numbers gives us 159.285 million which is right in the ballpark of your estimate but we’d still have to account for the 32% that already own all the guns (there will be some overlap) and anybody precluded from owning a firearm (criminal record, active TRO/OFP etc.) and anybody who has to get a government issued permit first.
That’s why, while I agree with your point, I think your estimate is high at 150 million.