AK Popularity numbers

[Yellowfin]

I had an interesting encounter with family over the holiday week. I mentioned that I was building an AR at the moment and when asked what I'd like for Christmas I replied an AK kit. Well, my mom is strangely fearful of guns a bit and my dad's a Fudd, so naturally they parroted a bunch of BS about "I don't want you getting put on a terrorist watch list!" and "Only bad people have those!" etc. Coming from the mouths of my own family that's just plain sickening. So naturally to refute that, not only from them but anyone else I encounter, I'm digging up info on how vastly more common EBR's are these days and it's not one or two weirdo extremists but probably 1/3 to 1/2 of gun owners. I found some articles on how abundant AR's are and that 337,000 were sold in 2008 and that it was around 22% of rifle sales, and between 1986 and 2008 around 2.5 million sold. Is there any similar data on AK's, to add them to the total? I'm a hunter education instructor and looking to be an NRA rifle instructor so this kind of information is very important to me for what I do.

[nfafan]

There are probably stats out there, there's stats for everything these days...

But my conjecture is that there is probably almost as many "AKs" owned as ARs or even good ol 30-30 levers.

IE: The dirt-cheapness of WASRs - and the freshness in everyone's mind over the AWB and sunset of same - probably has a lot to do to push even casual shooters to snag at least one "AK" for the collection. The "ya never know if there will be another ban" mentality so as to make sure they don't miss out again.

[shortthrow50]

You only need one AR. However, you can never have too many AK's.

[West Chester]

You only need one AR. However, you can never have too many AK's.

Darn Socialist rep system... I tried to give you some for that

[ByAnyMeans]

Darn Socialist rep system... I tried to give you some for that

Don't worry, I got him for you.

[crashland]

I can't get beyond thinking that AK are nothing but commie guns and I remember the soviet soldier silhouettes bearing AKs that we used while training in the 80s... Rationally I know that they are cheap, fun to shoot and damn near indestructible and I really do need to have one or more in the safe but I just haven't been able to pull the trigger.

Although it won't help with your current goal of AK numbers, there are some interesting stats available on the ATF site, http://www.atf.gov/statistics/ I find the growth in NFA firearms interesting. Nice big jump there and those types of guns are certainly higher on the evil scale than a semi-auto AK

[CHEMICAL]

The bulgarian milled guns are supposed to be the best. Try Arsenal.

[CenterTree]

Oh, I thought this thread was about ALASKA'S growing popularity.

[lucky-gunner]

Due to the cheaper cost of the AK and the general population understanding the durability. I would say there is probably just about as many AKs as there are AR's in circulation. I would bet that there are still more registered AR's though. That probably has more to do with the amount of stripped lowers out there.

I couldn't find any hard data on the exact amount of AK's that were sold. I have always looked at the AK as a tool. The tool user decides if the tool will be used for good or bad purposes. It seems similar to the mentality that the anti gunners have. I just divorce the action from the tool.

[nfafan]

Due to the cheaper cost of the AK and the general population understanding the durability. I would say there is probably just about as many AKs as there are AR's in circulation. I would bet that there are still more registered AR's though. That probably has more to do with the amount of stripped lowers out there.

<snip>

Could be. But the details aside, I know I have many more AKs than ARs. Not a zealot, just that's the way the economics worked out...

Still don't understand that given the VAST numbers of AR parts houses and parts sources and manufacturers out there - in commodity-like scales - why are ARs still so expensive?

We just had a thread the other day where the OP wanted an AR for ~$500.00; he's gonna have to hope a Franken-AR shows up in the classifieds for that price. Meanwhile, a VARIETY of AKs can be found that are at/below that price-point.

Whatever.