Americans and the Prevalence of Gun Ownership

Updated October 2017

One of the problems with getting accurate gun ownership statistics in the United States is that no agency keeps complete statistics on the prevalence of gun ownership.  As well, pro-gun advocates are understandably keen on keeping gun ownership data private because of fears that future legislation may lead to confiscation.  A recent study published in the journal "Injury Prevention" does provide us with an interesting attempt at getting an accurate idea of the prevalence of gun ownership in the United States.

Dr. Bindu Kalesan of the Department of Epidemiology and his fellow researchers assessed gun ownership rates by using data from a nationally representative sample of 4000 American adults.  These adults were from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.  The authors then measured social gun culture using four questions that assessed whether an individual's:

1.) social circle think less of them if they did not own a gun?

2.) family thinks less of them if they did not own a gun?

3.) social life with their family involves guns?

4.) social life with their friends involves guns?

By answering "yes" to any of the above questions, the authors determined that the individual respondent was exposed to gun culture.  Of the 4000 individuals, 528 or 13.7 percent reported a "yes" answer to at least one of the social gun culture questions and 0.8 percent reported a "yes" to all four of the social gun culture questions.

The authors measure gun ownership status by using six questions that queried the status of gun ownership:

1.) did the respondent own a gun?

2.) was the gun a gift?

3.) was the gun bought before or after the year 2000?

4.) was the gun used for hunting?

5.) did the individual attend gun safety classes?

6.) did the owner advocate for responsible gun ownership?

By answering yet to any of these six questions, the individual was classified as a gun owner.

Here is a graphic showing the measure of gun ownership status:

Here is a graphic showing the gun ownership rates for each state:

Among all 4000 respondents, the prevalence of gun ownership rates by state varied from a low of 5.2 percent in Delaware to 61.7 percent in Alaska compared to a national gun ownership prevalence of 29.1 percent.  It is interesting to look at the wide state- and region-level variation in gun ownership rates by state.  In the northeast, gun ownership rates vary from 5.8 percent in Rhode Island to 28.8 percent in Vermont.  In the midwest, gun ownership rates vary from 19.6 percent in Ohio to 47.9 percent in North Dakota.  In the south, gun ownership rates vary from 5.2 percent in Delaware to 57.9 percent in Arkansas and in the west, gun ownership rates vary from 20.1 percent in California to 61.7 percent in Alaska.  As you can see, on average, gun ownership was lowest in the northeast states and highest in the southern states.

The authors also looked at the demographic characteristics of gun ownership.  Predominantly, gun owners were non-black males older than 55 years of age with annual income greater than $25,000 annually and were generally either married or living with a partner.  Not surprisingly, exposure to social gun culture was closely associated with gun ownership.  The link between the two suggests that there is a strong mutually reinforcing mechanism as people adopt the beliefs, values and social behaviours that are most acceptable to those who are in their community.