This is the kind of shit I like to understand. ...
You can see the CFTC's Commitment of Traders (COT) report here:
CFTC Commitments of Traders Long Report - Other (Combined)
This is the viewable version of the most recent release of the Other disaggregated long form futures only commitments report.
www.cftc.gov
Scroll down a little bit to find the Silver data. In the table, you can see the long and short positions for Swap dealers. I see 80,128 short and 27,804 long for a net short position of 52,324. Each contract represents 5,000 troy ounces, so the net short position is 261,620,000 troy ounces.