More than 4.5 million people in Russia have permission to own firearms with over seven million weapons currently in private hands, the first deputy commander of Russia’s National Guard, Colonel-General Sergey Melikov, told TASS on March 31.
Civilian firearms make up the large majority of the total at around seven million, while roughly 150,000 combat rifle weapons, 95,000 service weapons, and 3,000 cold steel weapons are owned by the public.
However, the figure still pales in comparison to the 270 to 310 million firearms in the hands of Americans. According to a poll conducted by Gallup in 2015, 35 to 42 percent of U.S. households have at least one gun.