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Americans and their guns

One might have thought that with an ongoing spate of killings involving guns that the Americans would say enough is enough!   We need some measure of controls introduced here.   No way, seems to be mantra still afoot from a robust lobby group, the NRA, supported by Republicans.

Some sobering stats from a piece on CNBC:

"$13.5 billion

Annual revenue of gun and ammunition manufacturing industry, with a $1.5 billion profit. (IBIS World)
$3.1 billion

Annual revenue of gun and ammunition stores, with a $478.4 million profit. (IBIS World)
10,847,792

The number of pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns and miscellaneous firearms manufactured in the U.S. in 2013, the latest full year available. That's 4,441,726 pistols, 725,282 revolvers, 3,979,570 rifles, 1,203,072 shotguns, and 495,142 miscellaneous firearms. (ATF)

4%

Percentage of the above guns which were exported. Of those 10.84 million guns, 10,413,880 stay in America. (ATF)

270-310 million

Estimated of number of guns in the U.S. (Pew Research Center)

263,223

Number of full-time jobs related to the firearm industry, up from 209,750 in 2012. (NSSF)

$42.9 billion

Estimated overall economic impact of the firearms and ammo industry in the U.S. (NSSF)

20,968,273

Number of firearm background checks initiated in 2014. Because a background check is required before a gun is bought, this numbers gives insight into gun sale trends. However, just because a background check was initiated doesn't mean a gun was purchased. (FBI)

9,138,123

Number of firearm background checks in 1999. (FBI)"

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