A report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) indicates Americans own over 700 million ammunition magazines with a greater than ten-round capacity.
NSSF’s Detachable Magazine Report (1990-2021) found an estimated total of 963,772,000 ammunition magazines in circulation. Of those, an estimated 717,900,000 have a capacity of greater than ten rounds.
These findings led NSSF to point out that magazine capacity of greater then ten rounds is “standard” in America. Moreover, “46 percent of the magazines estimated in this study are rifle magazines with 30+ round capacity.”
NSSF senior vice president and general counsel Larry Keane commented on the findings, “The data establishes that law-abiding gun owners overwhelming choose magazines that have a capacity to hold more than ten rounds for lawful purposes including self-defense, target shooting and hunting.”
On January 12, 2024, Breitbart News pointed to NSSF figures showing there were an estimated 473.2 million firearms in U.S. civilian hands by the end of 2021.
Additionally, according to an NSSF press release, there are 28,144,000 rifles in circulation that fit the Democrat’s “assault weapons” descriptor.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, and a pro-staffer for Pulsar Night Vision. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Beef is his favorite vegetable. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
