“Accessing accurate data for small arms is always a difficult task. In the arms trade, small arms are considered the cancer of any society, as they facilitate human rights abuses, criminality, insurrection as well as murder, particularly in developing countries or countries subject to war,” said Martin Drew, British arms trade expert and government consultant.
Civilians own 85% of world’s 1bn firearms, survey reveals.
“The cancer of any society.” You gotta love the poetic bullshit even if they contradict themselves farther down the article. So who has the biggest case of cancer?
The United States has just 4% of the world population, but the survey estimates that civilians in the US possess almost 40% of the world’s firearms – 393m weapons – equivalent to 121 firearms for every 100 residents.
Dude! 393 million weapons mostly by far in the hands of civilians. here is a cute bit of information;
In terms of weapons held by law enforcement agencies, Russia is estimated to have the greatest sum at 2.4m, followed by China with 1.9m, then India at 1.7m. For military stocks of small arms, Russia is again top with 30.3m. China has 27.5m and North Korea 8.4m. The US military is estimated to have 1m small arms in its possession.
So, NRA members alone have more firepower than the combined police forces of Russia, China and India. And that is one gun per NRA member. The top three armies only represent about two and a half years of firearms’ sales to civilians in the US.
“The indications are that US civilians will continue to acquire firearms with acquisition averaging around 14m guns annually during the last five years … the US contributes disproportionately to the increase of the global firearms stockpile,” said Aaron Karp, Small Arms Survey’s senior consultant.
The Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Export Report, published by the US Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives states that US companies have manufactured more than 150m firearms since 1986, the majority of which were sold domestically.
The above is based on an ATF report that has manufacturing only till 2015 and I still think they don’t have all the numbers right IMHO. Mr. Kaplan’ statement that the average acquisition of guns for the last five years is 14 million guns kinda falls short some 6 million.
The latest findings suggest that developing countries often associated with violence show the greatest reduction in weapons held per capita: an indication that gun ownership may continue to correlate with rising levels of wealth.
So basically, the poorest the country then the less guns. The richer the country, more guns. It makes sense Socialist countries hates for the serfs to have guns and they are miserable because of rampant crime.
I have to go back to that number: 393 million weapons in the US, 40% of the guns in the planet are in our homes. More and more the idea of Gun Control in the US is simply a dream of dancing unicorns and skating Pegasus.
And yes, we are a cancer…for Socialists all over the world.
“… survey estimates that civilians in the US possess almost 40% of the world’s firearms – 393m weapons – equivalent to 121 firearms for every 100 residents.”
That number is off. POTG know that. 😉
‘Murrica!
Guns are durable. With proper maintenance, firearms can last nearly indefinitely. How many firearms are in civilian hands that never were listed on a 4473? Even today, we occasionally find full auto “bring backs” from WWII that were never registered as NFA items. If I had ro speculate, I would guess that the “formal” estimates of civilian small arms underestimates the actual numbers by at least 30%. There will be lots of problems if armed citizens have if opposition to a tyrannical government becomes necessary, a shortage of arms won’t be one of them.
It appears that Our Betters do NOT really believe that “(all) guns are bad…”. rather, simply OUR guns are bad. Blue helmeted rapists’ guns? OK. FBI guns? OK. Armed private security for Our betters? OK. Ma and Pa being armed? Not so OK.
[…] Small Arms Survey: “Guns are bad, M’kay?” […]
Despite the YUGE number of citizen firearms, gun control activists simply continue to try.
That is liberalism in full display.
“the US contributes disproportionately to the increase of the global firearms stockpile.”
Personally, I despise this statement and its implications. When I read/hear about the “global firearms stockpile”, I envision a firearm version of a county food pantry — a collective resource provided by volunteers and donations, and open to whoever wants/needs what’s inside, for whatever purpose — and I have no doubt this mental image is intentional.
As an analogy: Do you own a car/truck/SUV? So do most Americans, and we own more than most other nations (there are nearly as many motor vehicles in America as there are guns). Ergo, it could be said that “the US contributes disproportionately to the increase of the global arms-smuggling/human-trafficking vehicle stockpile.” Are there any other objections to the implied assertion that your family car contributes to child sex-trafficking?
I don’t know about you, but my firearms are mine, for my personal use and that of my family. They are not part of some globally-accessible arsenal, available for use by genocidal warlords on another continent.
My private property, stored in my home, is not part of the “global … stockpile,” and I’ll have issues with anyone who comes to my home to claim my personal, lawfully-owned property for their personal, potentially-illicit use.
Aye, Archer, Aye! I suspect that it might prove, at least, “entertaining”, should some enterprising soul attempt to access my “share” of the “global firearms stockpile”. Might prove the fallacy of the assertion that they “…facilitate human rights abuses, criminality, insurrection as well as murder….”. Unless you consider protecting myself, my family, and my property from predators to be any of those things. Of course, Our Betters likely consider protecting myself, my family, and my property to be all of those things!