Reply #123: The number of "assault weapon" owners...

[benEzra]

is somewhere between 15 million and 40 million, depending on how you define them, and whether or not you include over-10-round firearms in the definition. To put that into perspective, consider that only ~13 to 15 million people hunt in this country.

I read a few years ago that there were an estimated 7 million SKS's alone in civilian hands, and that was then. And from BATFE stats, it appears that at least 1 in 5 centerfire rifles sold in the USA annually is an AR-15, with least 33 different manufacturers making them. The AR-15 is the 1911 of civilian rifles.

Whenever I go to my local shooting range, around half the guns on the rifle side are generally "assault weapons" as defined by H.R.1022 et seq.