+52%

Data from the ATF show that recoveries of firearms in calibers associated with assault weapons rose from about 25,000 in 2020 to nearly 40,000 in 2024—a 52 percent increase.

Everytown Research analysis of ATF, “Top Calibers Recovered and Traced in the United States and Territories,” 2020 and 2024 data, https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/data-statistics/firearms-trace-data-reports. Analysis includes total crime gun recoveries with .223 caliber, 5.56mm, and 7.62mm reported on the trace requests. The data also includes the “multi” caliber entries, a designation used for AR-15s. Tannuja D. Rozario and Paige Tetens, “Assault Weapons and High-Capacity Magazines,” Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, June 24, 2026, https://everytownresearch.org/report/assault-weapons-and-high-capacity-magazines/.

Last updated: 10.5.2026

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In mass shootings, four times as many people are shot when an assault weapon or high-capacity magazine is involved compared with incidents involving neither.

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90%

90 percent of people killed by on-duty police are killed with a firearm.

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+62%

From 1990 to 2017, the use of high-capacity magazines in high-fatality shootings resulted in a 62 percent increase in the average death toll of mass shootings.

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If the federal ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines had remained in effect from 2005 through 2022, an estimated 38 public mass shootings could have been prevented.

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