How Popular is the AR-15?

April 30, 2024 by Mike McDaniel

On April 13, American Thinker posted Should I Buy An AR-15? That article generated 99 comments, and suggested there are some 30 million ARs in private hands in America. I also suggested one of the best reasons to buy an AR-15 is the Mummified Meat Puppet Administration (MMPA) doesn’t want you to have one, that and you’re a free American and want one. It seems tens of millions of Americans agree:

Graphic: Colt AR-15. Author.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) recently released a “Firearm Production in the United States and the Firearm Import and Export Data” report which indicates that 28,144,000 modern sporting rifles (MSRs) have been put into circulation since 1990. MSR production increased 32 percent from 2020 to 2021 alone.

“Modern sporting rifle” has become the standard term for the AR-15 and its several variants, though it arguably encompasses such arms as the Ruger Mini-14, even semiautomatic AK-47/74 variants. “AR,” by the way, is not an acronym for Assault Rifle, nor for “Assault Weapon,” a designation that does not exist in firearm nomenclature, but is an invention of the anti-liberty/gun Left designed to scare the uninformed into thinking semiautomatic AR-15s are machineguns. The AR-15 platform was invented by Eugene Stoner, who then worked for Armalite, thus “AR,” Armalite Rifle. Stoner invented the AR-10 first, chambered in .308/7.62 NATO, but scaled it down to the AR-15 in .223/5.56 NATO for the Air Force, the first military branch to adopt it, with its iconic triangular handguard, in M-16 form.

AR-10s are still available in .308, and that platform, and the AR-15 are also available in a variety of other calibers by switching the upper receiver and magazine. As long as other cartridges will fit an AR-10/15 magazine/magazine well, they’ll work with the appropriate upper receiver. This too contributes to the popularity of the AR platform.

In 2021, according to the findings, more than half of the 21,037,810 total firearms made available for the U.S. market were either pistols or revolvers. In all, 12,799,067 were handguns, 4,832,198 were rifles and 3,406,545 were shotguns. The figure includes firearms domestically produced plus those imported (minus exported firearms).

Americans have always liked and purchased guns, but when liberty is more obviously, even blatantly, threatened they’ve responded by buying the means to deter and resist tyranny. By December 2023, Americans, judging by federal firearm checks, had purchased more than a million guns per month for 53 consecutive months. Make that 57 months by the end of April, 2024.  How many more? The December, 2023 number was 1.7+  million. With each firearm check, more than one gun may be purchased, which means the ultimate number, using that metric, is always larger than the number of individual checks. The American firearm industry, despite the worst efforts of leftists, continues to fill the arsenal of Democracy:

Total domestic firearm production reported in 2021 was 12,521,614—an increase of 28.6 percent over 2020 reported figures. 

Because guns, well maintained, are nearly eternal, it’s difficult to estimate ultimate numbers, but this is a reasonable attempt:

In all, NSSF estimated the total number of firearms in civilian possession from 1990 to 2021 is 473.2 million.

Again, that’s only from 1990 to 2021, and why the Japanese, during WWII, believed invasion of America was impossible. They’d be facing a gun behind every blade of grass. Domestic tyrants share that Japanese perspective, which is why they’re so desperate to ban and seize AR-15s and every other effective firearm.

Ammunition sales are equally high. Even in 2020, sales increased by 139% and contemporary sales are as robust.

These statistics are surely horrifying for those that want to establish “our democracy,” an eternal tyranny of the majority. For Normal Americans, people who want only to be left alone to live under the Constitution—our representative republic—and the rule of law, they’re heartening indeed.

Our military is currently trying to replace the AR platform for general issue, but that effort may or may not be going well. In the meantime, no rifle so represents American liberty and American’s determination to retain it as that little black rifle.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.  statelymcdanielmanor.wordpress.com.