In case you are worried that guns haven't sufficiently permeated American culture, here are some startling facts compiled by Jack Date, Pierre Thomas and Jason Ryan of ABC News.
- There are ~14,869 more gun stores in America than grocery stores. Specifically, there are 51,438 gun retailers and 36,536 grocery stores.
- There are almost as many gun dealers in America as gas stations. There are a total of 129,817 gun dealers in the country, which include retail stores (51,438), "collectors" (61,562), pawn shops (7,356), and importers and manufacturers. Meanwhile, there are 143,849 gas stations.
- There are more than twice as many gun stores in America as McDonalds restaurants. There are only 14,098 McDonalds.
- American gun companies made 5.5 million new guns in 2010 and 95% of them were sold to Americans.
- These ~5 million guns weren't nearly enough to satisfy American demand for guns in 2010, so an additional 3.3 million guns were imported.
- There were 16.5 million background checks for gun purchases in 2010. You can get a gun unless you have a criminal record or are evidently insane.
- 47,856 people were murdered in the U.S. with guns from 2006-2010. This was more than twice as many people as those killed by all other methods combined.
That's only the beginning.
And there are a whole bunch of additional staggering American gun statistics here >
One of the favorite talking points of those who want military-grade assault weapons to remain freely available to anyone who wants them is that there aren't enough guns in America. These statistics should reveal that argument for what it is: Laughable.
SEE ALSO: I'm Just Not Ready To Accept That We Have To Have Gun Massacres All The Time
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