30 million + ‘Black Rifles’ in Circulation
Back in 1986, the Colt AR-15A2 HBAR was where its at…
Recent firearms industry production numbers point to modern semi-auto sporting rifles, such as AR-15s and AK variants, as being extremely popular with consumers.
The figures, updated via the recent ATF Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Exportation Report– which includes data on guns made and imported in 2022– combined with past reports by federal regulators, show some 30,711,000 such rifles entering the market since 1990 and 2022.
The data, compiled by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade organization for the American firearms industry, details the rise in demand and production of “black rifles” over 32 years.
In 1990, with such guns tightly regulated by the federal “assault weapon” ban, just 74,000 were produced or imported– and those had to be made compliant via featureless stocks and 10-round magazines.
By 1994, when the ban had expired, those figures had climbed to 274,000.
They approached 500,000 in 2007 and hit 1 million in 2009– a span covering the campaign of President Obama for the White House and his first year in office.
In 2013 it hit over 2 million.
In 2021, 3.7 million.
That’s per year, btw.
Figures don’t even count…
Detachable magazine semi-auto rifles have been a go-to for Americans for generations.
Remember that these figures don’t include privately made firearms crafted from 80 percent AR lowers or AK/G3 receiver flats, or guns that entered the marketplace before 1990.
While black rifles were not as common as they are today, Colt produced SP-1 sporter-style ARs going back to the mid-1960s, the Ruger Mini-14 entered the market in 1973, and the Springfield Armory M1A in 1974.
“If you’re a hunter, camper, or collector, you’ll want the AR-15 Sporter,” reads the circa-1963 ad copy. By 1969, something like 15,000 SP1s had been made.
Plus you have more than 250,000 M-1 Carbines that were sold as surplus through the Director of Civilian Marksmanship program during the 1960s along with warehouses of clones made specifically for consumers by companies like Universal (426,000 made), Iver Johnson (96,700 made) and Plainfield (112,000 made).
These things were sold by the hundreds of thousands in the 1960s-80s