Do you mean you received your permit *to purchase* a pistol? A permit *to carry* a pistol here in the People's Republic is virtually impossible except for retired LEOs and politically connected Democrats!
A few weeks ago I walked out of a the local gun store with three (3) long guns in boxes without any anything except for my FPID, driver's license and a credit card. (Two were target rifles -- I've promised my daughter that I would teach her how to shoot.) It felt weird, but the only purchase in NJ that requires a specific permit beyond the FPID is for a pistol.
Some interesting fun facts:
According to the Washington Post, there are 8.1 guns in the average gun-owning household.
According to the US Census Bureau, there were 115,610,216 households in the US in 2013.
According to Gallup in 2015, 45% those polled reported that they had a gun in their home or elsewhere on their property.
That produces an estimate of, 8.1 x 115,610,216 x 0.45 = 421,399,237 privately owned modern firearms in the United States.
Nearly half a billion which which is a number that could send hoplophobes back to their "safe space" sucking their thumbs! Happy Anthropogenic Global Warming Snow Shoveling Day!!!
I think your assumptions and math is/are sound. Still I can’t escape the “feeling” that that total number is low - by a lot. I personally know three persons that have well over 100 guns each. One of them I think has well over 500, so many that I have never seen them all and he likes to show them off. One of the local truck stops has about 150 on display.
Very interesting. The 421 million figure is pretty close to the 396 million figure that I posted for the end of 2015:
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2016/01/2015-record-year-for-firearms-sales-and.html
Well as that Chinese dude said, “we will never invade America because there will be a gun behind every blade of grass”