America has 20 million AR-15 style rifles in circulation, and more guns than people in the country

Since the federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004, the number of rifles in circulation in the US has gone up.

The November 2020 estimate comes from the National Shooting Sports Foundation. In the statement, its President and CEO Joseph Bartozzi called the AR-15 the most popular rifle sold in America.

The debate over gun ownership and the public sale of weapons like the one used in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting has intensified.

The semi-automatic weapon type has been used in other high-profile shootings and incidents, such as the massacre in Buffalo and the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted in November after fatally shooting two people.

Statistics show that the number of rifles owned by the American public has increased over the last two decades.

In the US before 1994, there were over 8 million AR-platform rifles in circulation, which were banned under a federal assault weapons ban.

After the law was enacted, the bill only applied to assault weapons.

The number of rifles in circulation stayed the same during the 10-year ban because they could be heavily modified so they didn&t fall under the bill, according to the AP.

The net import and manufacturing of AR-15 style weapons jumped from 314,000 in 2004 to more than 1 million in 2009, according to the latest firearms production report by the NSSF.

Since 2012 the production rate has stayed above 1 million per year.

Between 1990 and 1999 an average of 4.14 million guns were manufactured. Between 2000 and 2009, an average of 3.7 million were manufactured annually, according to a report by the Department of Justice. The annual average increased from 2010 to 2019.

US consumers own around 393 million firearms, both legal and illegal, according to data from the Small Arms Survey. There are more guns in the US.

Around 741,000 fully automatic machine guns are registered in the US, up from 457,000 in 2010, according to the ATF.

According to a November 2020 Gallup poll, 44% of Americans live in households with guns. The US has 122 million households and the Americans own hundreds of millions of firearms.