“An Armed Society is a Polite Society”

Robert Heinlein must be credited for the title to this post.  The complete quote is as follows.

An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.

I thought of this quote after reading the following headline.  USA Gun Owners Buy 14 Million Plus Guns In 2009 – More Than 21 of the Worlds Standing Armies Combined

The article also includes this information.

14,033,824,000 billions rounds of Ammo
Assuming each gun buyer bought 1000 rounds of ammo for each purchase, and you and I know that it is way, way more than that, that would be easily 14,033,824,000+ billions rounds of ammo fired by USA gun owners.

I must say, that in my errand runs today, ninety-nine percent (99%) of the individuals I interacted with were very polite, but then of course so was I.

Linked via Jeffrey Quick, who titles his post on this subject Got gunz?, and then quips.

Why hasn’t any firearms trade association given Obama an award for “salesman of the year”?

I say, got manners?

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/05 at 02:22 PM

  1. Before the election in 2008 American ammunition manufacturers were producing 5 billion rounds in a year (this number includes .22LR).  The US .gov and LEOs were purchasing 40% of the production.  Since the election (of 2008) ammunition production has increased to 9 billion rounds annually; the .gov(s) is now purchasing 22% of annual production the rest is going to the civilian market.  Ammunition prices skyrocketed because of fears and then scarcity, after the election, but they have since stabilized and somewhat declined.  The raw material prices needed for production have started to become more expensive so prices must again rise.

    Gun sales are not calculated from actual sales data but from the NICS background checks performed by the FBI.  One background check could be for the purchase of a single firearm or for multiple guns purchased at the same time.  It is guesstimated that annual firearms sales exceed 10 million weapons.

    The approximate combined strength of the US military, Federal, State and Local Law Enforcement personnel is 5 million souls.  The .gov estimate for firearms owning American citizens is 80 million. 

    I think the above data is interesting in and of itself but it occurs to me that we should ask ourselves many questions.  I think one of the more interesting questions is this:  What is the makeup of the citizenry populating the US military and civilian LEOs?  Whose fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, uncles, nephews, etc. are populating the military and police organizations?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  04/05  at  10:07 AM

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