By Dan Zimmerman Shooting News Weekly
America is now home to an estimated 533 million privately owned firearms — a staggering figure that represents 1.55 guns for every man, woman, and child in the United States. It’s a powerful reminder that the right to keep and bear arms is alive and well in the land of the free.
But don’t get too comfortable. That number isn’t a victory lap. It’s a call to arms. Literally.
Record-Setting Gun Ownership
According to the latest data compiled from ATF manufacturing reports and NICS background checks, Americans have added over 20 million new firearms to their collections in the last year alone. Since 1987, when roughly 198 million firearms were privately owned, the number has nearly tripled.
That growth didn’t happen by accident. It happened because Americans know that every firearm in private hands is one more barrier between tyranny and liberty.
Why 533 Million Still Isn’t Enough
Let’s be crystal clear: we need more guns in this country, not fewer. Why? Because we’re still facing down a federal bureaucracy that thinks it can regulate our rights into oblivion.
Even now, with Joe Biden out of office and Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, the machinery of the deep state gun control apparatus is still up and running. The ATF, despite public backlash and legal setbacks, continues to exist.
Even after trying to redefine forced reset triggers as machine guns, criminalizing pistol braces, going after hobbyists with the “engaged in the business” rule, and attacking FFL holders using a “zero tolerance policy” to strip honest gun dealers of their licenses over missing commas and paperwork typos.
They’re not stopping unless we make them stop.
Every Gun Is a Vote Against Tyranny
The Founding Fathers didn’t include the Second Amendment so we could go skeet shooting. They enshrined it so that the people would always have a check on government power.
A gun in your safe is a vote for freedom. A gun on your hip is a deterrent against tyranny. And another gun in your collection is a firewall against the next ATF overreach.
The only way to ensure that the federal government never again kicks in a door at 6 a.m., tapes over a doorbell camera, and kills a peaceful American like Bryan Malinowski is to ensure the American people are so well-armed, so well-trained, and so well-organized that the government wouldn’t dare.
It’s Time to Stock Up and Speak Out
Buy another rifle. Buy two. Train with your firearms. Teach your children.
Support pro-gun organizations like Texas Gun Rights, who aren’t afraid to demand abolishing the ATF and repeal of the NFA. Tell your members of Congress to pass H.R. 221 to ABOLISH the ATF, and H.R. 335 to REPEAL the NFA.
And never, ever apologize for being a gun owner. With 533 million privately owned firearms, we’re not just the most well-armed citizenry in the world — we’re the most free.
But if we want to stay that way, we have to make 533 million look like a warm-up.
Because every new gun bought, every new gun trained with, and every new gun defended in court is another brick in the wall of American liberty.
Let the government bureaucrats count their rules. We’ll count our magazines.
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