EXERCISE YOUR RIGHTS: Two New Analyses Provide a Clearer Picture of the Almost Half a Billion Guns Americans Own.

The 2026 National Firearms Survey, conducted by Georgetown University professor William English, estimates the private stock includes roughly 208 million handguns, 154 million rifles, and 99 million shotguns. It also estimates that about 32.7 percent of U.S. adults—approximately 88 million people—personally own firearms.

The survey was administered online in July and August to a representative sample of 51,398 U.S. adults. It identified 16,688 internally validated gun owners who completed detailed ownership questions. The average validated gun owner reported owning about 5.2 firearms.

Those estimates aren’t a physical count of every firearm in the country. But a separate analysis by AmmoLand writer Dean Weingarten found that the survey’s breakdown among handguns, rifles, and shotguns closely matches proportions derived from historical federal manufacturing, import, and export records.

That comparison doesn’t independently prove that 461 million firearms currently exist in private hands. It does provide another useful check on whether the survey’s reported mix of firearm types resembles what more than a century of firearms-commerce records would lead researchers to expect.

I suspect perhaps not everyone was completely honest about whether they own any firearms, or how many.