gun ownership per capita by state
Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York have the four lowest number of gun deaths. Three-in-ten American adults say they currently own a gun, and another 11% say they dont personally own a gun but live with someone who does. Some states require registration upon purchase, but for the most part, gun ownership, per capita is an estimate based upon overall gun sales and independent polls. Alaska Soldiers during a gun training in Alaska. Wyoming has "more guns per capita than any state"-yet they have a gun-related murder rate that is below the national average. The Falkland Islands -- a British territory in the southwest Atlantic Ocean, claimed by Argentina and the subject of a 1982 war -- is home to the world's second-largest stash of civilian guns. Those who advocate for gun control support increased regulation of gun ownership; those who advocate for gun rights oppose increased restriction of gun ownership. 2. Both Massachusetts and New Jersey have some of the strictest gun ownership laws in the United States. They were made to safeguard freedoms against tyranny, and are not granted by the Government, but considered a God-given right and are not to be infringed upon by any government. About eight-in-ten of those ages 65 and older (84%) and 73% of those ages 50 to 64 cite hunting as a reason; a narrower majority of adults ages 30 to 49 who grew up in a gun-owning household (60%) and about half of those younger than 30 (52%) cite hunting. An NRA convention-goer holds a 24-karat-gold-plated Desert Eagle pistol at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. Both Israel and Switzerland probably have much higher gun ownership rates, but including them, the way the Small Arms Survey does, biases the results so that those countries look lower than they actually are. Around 49.2% of Georgian adults live in homes with guns. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. In April, gun sales were down 23% compared with the . Here, a Bush Master AR-15 semi-automatic rifle is displayed at Firing-Line gun shop in Aurora. Back in 2017, for every one hundred people in the United States, there were one hundred twenty firearms in the hands of the general public. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. These once-illegally-owned guns were seized by the New York Police Department in 2013. Alaska, Montana, and South Dakota, which are all among the 10 smallest states, rank in the top five for estimated per-capita gun sales. Assessments vary between gun owners and those who dont own guns across community types, but differences are particularly pronounced among those who live in urban or suburban areas. But gun ownership per capita has dropped by 23% during the same time, said Associate Prof Philip Alpers from the University of Sydney. Approximately 30% of adult Americans legally own at least one gun, and make up a total of 43% of all households in the United States. Some states require registration upon purchase, but for the most part, gun ownership, per capita is an estimate based upon overall gun sales and independent polls. Learn more about how Statista can support your business. America's Complex Relationship With Guns. Here, Jerry Ilo teaches a hunter-education training course in Honolulu. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are more than twice as likely as Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents to say they own a gun (44% vs. 20%). This figure displays three-year rolling averages for household gun ownership rates in each state and the nation overall. Here are the 10 states with the highest gun deaths per capita: Alaska (24.5 per 100k people) Alabama (22.9 per 100k people) Montana (22.5 per 100k people) Louisiana (21.7 per 100k people) Mississippi (21.5 per 100k people) Missouri (21.5 per 100k people) PaoliLion NJPSU Are you interested in testing our corporate solutions? Here's the latest ranking, along with the RAND numbers, which reveal insights into America's love of guns. A woman practices holding a handgun at a National Rifle Association virtual shooting booth in National Harbor. Bret Reid shows off a Remington 700 hunting rifle and a Remington 1100 shotgun at Atlantic Outdoors gun shop in Stokesdale. And many who dont currently own a gun, including those who have never owned one, may be open to doing so in the future. Gun Ownership By Gender 39% of men own a firearm, while 22% of women say the same. Moreover, the data is in -- the states with the most guns per capita and laxest firearm ownership laws have the highest gun fatality per capita rates. The United States owns more guns per resident, at around 0.89, than any other nation in the world. An estimated 55.5% of adults in Alabama have guns at home. The study shows that the states with highest gun . The United States is ranked number one globally when it comes to gun ownership. Politically, Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to own a gun. . Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. About six-in-ten Americans who dont own a gun (61%) say society has a negative view of gun owners, while 38% say societys views are generally positive. Additionally, given that not every person in the U.S. owns a gun, many people own multiple or many. Opinions are more mixed among gun owners themselves: 54% say society tends to have a negative view and 45% say it has a positive view of most gun owners. For example, while 66% of urban gun owners say people in their community generally have a positive view of most gun owners, less than half of those who do not own guns in urban areas say this is the case (42%). Yemen came second to the US with 52.8 guns per 100 residents, or less than half the US figure. Thirty-nine percent of men say they own a firearm, while 22% of women do. While her husband looks on, Madelie Sellers shoots a .45 caliber pistol at Precision Guns and Indoor Range in Baton Rouge. TheRAND Corporationpublished a 2020 study on adults who say they live with at least one gun. About half of men who grew up with guns in their homes say they went hunting often (27%) or sometimes (23%). For example, unlike many demographic questions, there is not a definitive data source from the government or elsewhere on how many American adults own guns. Among those who live in rural areas, 46% say they are gun owners, compared with 28% of those who live in the suburbs and 19% in urban areas. The founder and president of H&H Gun Range smiles at a Henry Golden Boy rifle at his store in Oklahoma City. New York is the only other state with gun ownership less than 20% at 19.9%. Additionally, ProjectGunner.com participates in various other affiliate programs, and we sometimes get a commission through purchases made through our links. Gun violence in the United States by state - Wikipedia Gun violence in the United States by state This article is a list of the U.S. states, with population, murders and non-negligent manslaughter, murders, gun murders, and gun ownership percentage, then calculated rates per 100,000. ", Gallup, Percentage of households in the United States owning one or more firearms from 1972 to 2022 Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/249740/percentage-of-households-in-the-united-states-owning-a-firearm/ (last visited January 18, 2023), Percentage of households in the United States owning one or more firearms from 1972 to 2022 [Graph], Gallup, November 15, 2022. Fortitude Ranch is a survivalist retreat in Mathias. In many ways, these differences mirror the patterns in gun ownership. Across all regions, gun ownership varies considerably between those who live in rural and urban areas, with rural dwellers far more likely than those who live in urban areas to say they own a gun. The household ownership of firearms has declined in recent decades. Although a pressing argument by many non-gun owners is that crime increases with every gun sold, this simply isnt the case. This is the case in many other states, so it's important to remember that the majority of guns in the U.S. are not registered. Besides demographic differences, clear partisan divides emerge when it comes to gun ownership. Of those who do not own a gun, 36% claim they are not opposed to ownership in the future. In the United States over 300 million people own firearms. Thirty-three percent of Americans aged 50 and older own at least one gun. https://www.thoughtco.com/gun-owners-percentage-of-state-populations-3325153 (accessed January 18, 2023). Tiffany Teasdale, owner of Lynnwood Gun and Ammunition, demonstrates a Daniel Defense DD5 semi-automatic rifle on April 2, 2020. Because demographic information is not collected upon time of purchase, it may take a few years to have a clear picture of firearm ownership. In Tennessee, 51.6% of adults have guns in their homes. In addition to Wyoming, several other small states are near the top of the list when it comes to per capita gun sales. And with record gun sales since, it's no wonder we have the highest rate of gun homicides, (3.21 per 100,000 people), among the world's wealthy nations. Among all current and past gun owners, the average age at which Americans say they first became gun owners is 22 years. For example, men who have never owned a gun are more likely than their female counterparts to say they have fired one (64% vs. 50%). While this is particularly the case among those who own or have owned a gun (95%), about half of those who have never personally owned a gun say they have fired one (55%). Perhaps not surprisingly, those who see owning a gun as central to their overall identity are particularly committed to gun ownership. In fact, most gun owners who cite only one reason for owning a gun say they own a single gun (65%); in contrast, 74% of those who say they own a gun for more than one reason report having at least two guns. About four-in-ten adults (42%) report that there is a gun in their household, with three-in-ten saying they personally own a gun and 11% saying they dont own a gun but someone else in their household does. In Ohio, 40% of adults have at least one firearm at home. The South is the region with the most guns (about 36%), followed by the Midwest and West (32% and 31%, respectively) and the Northeast (16%). Alaska has the highest rate of gun ownership in the U.S., with nearly 62 percent of adults owning a gun. Sales in Kentucky are at or near the top of the FBI list most months. Law Enforcement Approaches for Reducing Gun Violence, Personal Firearm Storage in the United States, The Challenges of Defining and Measuring Defensive Gun Use, Methodological Challenges to Identifying the Effects of Gun Policies, state-level estimates of household firearm ownership from 1980 to 2016. She is a three-time delegate to the California Democratic Party and a former federal elections official. statistic alerts) please log in with your personal account. Overall, 69% of all U.S. adults and 75% of those who own a gun say the world has become a more dangerous place. The SAS found that gun ownership among civilians . But higher shares of male than female gun owners say hunting (43% of men vs. 31% of women) and sport shooting (34% vs. 23%) are major reasons they personally own a gun. 17-19% of 40-45 million adults own a handgun. Show publisher information For the purpose of this article, were focusing on the total percentage of gun ownership in relation to the states population. State gun ownership rates were obtained from the July 2019 American Journal of . Around 46% of all 857 million guns in civilian hands around the world belonged to people living in the United States in 2017, a survey has found. This database was first released in 2020 and is available free to the public. One of the many reasons why there are more guns in the United States than there are people, is our Constitutions 2nd Amendment that reads, A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.. Now, lets take a look at gun ownership by state. With a steel-constructed body constituting its thickness measured in gauges and secured with one (or more) of the three major lock . A majority of Americans say that society tends to have a negative view of gun owners, a perception that is somewhat more common among non-gun owners than among those who own a gun. The following statistics portray current gun ownership statistics in the US. You need a Statista Account for unlimited access. "Far fewer people now have a gun in their home but some . By Larry B. Wilson January 9, 2023. But a key challenge for researchers in this area is that direct measures of state-level firearm ownership exist for only a few years. The new survey asked about gun ownership differently than previous Pew Research Center reports. Below is a table of each state's total registered guns and the number of registered guns per 1,000 people. Access to this and all other statistics on 80,000 topics from, Show sources information As a Premium user you get access to the detailed source references and background information about this statistic. Customers peruse the merchandise at a gun show in Mansfield. All of these variables are higher in states with higher rates of . For people between the ages of 30 and 49, 28% own a firearm. Read our research on: Congress | Economy | COVID-19. These social gun cultures have rarely been formally studied but may be important determinants of gun ownership," the study's authors wrote. Guns are in the households of an estimated 30.2% of Maryland adults. 10. The lowest is 3 per 1,000 people in Rhode Island and New York, to 229 per 1,000 people in Wyoming. Canada, on the other hand, ranks 13th on the study's list, with 9.95 million firearms or 31 per 100 residents. An estimated 45.1% of adults in Colorado say they live in homes with guns. Parker, Kim, et al. Reasons for having had guns in the household growing up vary considerably across community type. Massachusetts and New Jersey have the lowest gun ownership rate of 14.7%, followed by Rhode Island, with 14.8%, and Hawaii, with 14.9%. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. This figure displays mean estimated household gun ownership rates for each state for 2007 to 2016. This is even more remarkable considering the state's population is fairly small. Percentage of households in the United States owning one or more firearms from 1972 to 2022 [Graph]. Wed love the chance to answer any questions you may have in the comments below, and, as always, please share! One-in-ten men who didnt grow up with guns in their household say they went hunting often or sometimes, compared with 5% of women. While one state may have more guns, the population may also be higher. Among adults who didnt grow up in a gun-owning household, few say they went hunting or shooting when they were growing up. Consistent with patterns in gun ownership, a higher share of men than women who dont currently own guns say they could see themselves doing so at some point; 62% of men who dont own guns say this is the case, compared with 45% of women. Republicans are twice as likely to own a gun than Democrats, and Southern households are more likely to own firearms (36%) than other regions of the U.S. City-Data.com compiled the list (We should note there's no source posted for the city-data list) and created the map.It was then spread by a reddit user. According to the data, the US has 120.5 guns per 100 residents in 2017 meaning more guns than people. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Please create an employee account to be able to mark statistics as favorites. For example, New Jersey requires guns to be registered, requires a permit to purchase, a permit to carry, and does not allow open carry. Interestingly, gun owners who see their local community as unsafe are not significantly more likely than those who say they live in a safe community to say protection is central to why they own a gun. That's due in large part to lack of national standards for licensing and registering firearms, which is left to the states and their varying degrees of regulation. New Hampshire, which has the second-highest guns per capita, has some of the most relaxed firearm laws in the U.S., including no requirement to register your gun. Gun sales have . You can find those results here. Park County Sheriff Scott Steward told CBS News there are so many guns in Wyoming that those who do not own one "are very much in the minority.".