"Gun Sales Rise as Crime and Accident Rates Fall"

The data below was collected from the NSSF. I strongly disagree with their positions on issues such as gun locks and their position on Project ChildSafe, because I think that it actually costs more lives by making people fearful of guns. In any case, they have updated some interesting data:

NEWTOWN, Conn.--New statistics show that firearm and ammunition sales are on the rise, coinciding with steady downward trends in gun crime, suicide and accident rates, in the U.S.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the shooting, hunting and outdoor industry, has released U.S. Dept. of the Treasury figures indicating that 2005 retail sales of firearms and ammunition rose 2.6 percent for a total volume of $2.1 billion.

For the year, approximately 4.7 million new guns were sold, bringing the estimated number of citizen-owned firearms in the U.S. to more than 290 million. The number of American households with at least one firearm is now estimated at nearly 110 million.

Of the various firearm types, the sharpest gains were seen in retail sales of handguns (pistols and revolvers). Handgun sales rose 3 percent while long-gun (rifle and shotgun) sales rose 1.8 percent.

Ammunition sales rose 3.5 percent. . . .