Civilians in the U.S. own close to 400 million firearms, according to a new survey released this week, and the total number of firearms owned by private citizens vastly exceeds the police and military.
A report issued by the Small Arms Survey revealed that of the world’s more than one billion total firearms, 393,300,000 are civilian-owned in the U.S.
By comparison, the U.S. military holds about 4.5 million guns, and state and local police have just over 1 million.
And gun ownership in the U.S. also continues to rise.
According to FBI background check records, civilians purchased more than 2 million guns last month alone. In all of 2017, more than 25.2 million gun-related civilian background checks were processed by the FBI.
by Wade Bennett