What state has the highest percentage of gunnies

[Kodiaz]

What state has the most gunowners per capita anyone know.

 

[RCL]

I think any answer you get will be an educated guess, but my money would go on one of the northern or eastern states with a large population of hunters.

 

[jobu07]

Yeah, depending on your definition of "gunnie" your answer could change drastically. If you are talking about those of us who are collectors or into serious plinking versus those of us who are mainly hunters the numbers will sway a lot. Either way, I think you'd be suprised at what state your answer is.

 

[Herself]

Seems darned hard to get these numbers -- even just state-by-state per capita gun ownership would be useful.

Census may have it but finding it on their site....not easy.

NRA and others seem to content themselves with hand-waving: "...nearly half of all households..." and similar generalities. Sheesh!

--Herself

 

[loumarch]

I've heard, but not seen, that Texas is #1 and Pennsylvania is #2.

 

[Zen21Tao]

Without a national registry (which isn’t something we want) I seriously doubt that Census would be able to calculate this. The only source they would have would be FFL forms which, without collecting names, doesn’t say whether the gun is going to someone that owns other guns thus not constituting another gun owner or whether it is going to a first time buyer which would be an additional gun owner. Also, FFL forms don’t account to private party sales.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I'd be inclined to guess Texas leads.

 

[WayneConrad]

I'd put my money on Alaska.

 

[BigRobT]

I'd put my money on Alaska.

Alaska's population is comparatively small versus it's land mass. I'm thinking Texas or maybe one of the northern midwest states, like MN or WI.

 

[M-Rex]

I can't remember where I read it, but I swear I read somewhere that California has the highest number of firearms sales in the United States. If this is true, it is probably based on sheer numbers alone.

 

[trickyasafox]

he asked for percentage of gunnies. if you do percentage of gunnies vs regular state population i too am betting on alaska

 

[carebear]

It's per capita not per square foot.

There's 670,000 people in AK now. I could conceivably arm 15 of them besides myself out of what's on hand and I'm sure the rest of the AK TFL/THR crowd could hold up their end(s) as well.

I have to figure we've got at least 2 or 3 firearms per person without looking into attics and such.

 

[mp510]

I am not sure where this ranks, but I heard online that 75% of homes in Vermont have one or more guns in it.

 

[joab]

My purely uneducated guess would be tha Fla (The Gunshine State) would be somewhere in the top of the heap.
I honestly do not know of any body that does not have at least one gun here, even those that you would expect not to

 

[LAK]

I've heard, but not seen, that Texas is #1 and Pennsylvania is #2.

Coincidence; Pennsylvania came to mind first for me, followed by Texas. Both are known to have a high number of hunters.
--------------------------------

http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org

 

[PlayboyPenguin]

Growing up in Werst Virginia I think that my home was the only home I knew of that did not have guns in it. I was raised by my grandparents and my grandfather was completly anti-gun. He was a WWII, Korea, Vietnam vet who had more purple hearts, medals on honor, comidations for valor, etc than I could count (I still have the medal and flag Ronald Reagan presented him at a ceremony honoring Pearl Habor survivors) so I can understand where he was coming from. He had seen enough guns and blood shed in his life.

 

[pete f]

I would say wyoming. small population no great University town or city to dilute the the numbers with liberal educators, Maybe idaho. too many big cities in texas.

i would also say this is not guns per capita, this is % of population who have a gun. i would also say that Minnesota despite it left leanings in politics we have five million residents, we sell some where near a million deer licenses (firearms, archery, muzzleloaders) about a half million duck pheasant and small game licenses. these numbers do not reflect on those who purchase out of state licenses nor those who are just competetion shooters like trap and skeet and or sporting clays. Although ther is some cross over of upland, waterfowl, big game and target sports, the percentage would still say we have about a fifth to a quarter of the population that actively pursues shooting sports. Add probably another million or so who have not purchased a license lately or who have a firearm and do not used it regularly and i would guess you are close to 50% of the population. I will say that in my time in the rural areas while working, I have NEVER encountered a home without a firearm. Infact several homeowners have told me right out where the .22 is to clean out raccoon, squirrel, or skunks when working on the house.

 

[AStone]

What state has the most gun owners per capita?

Gunutsylvania!

 

[geekWithA.45]

Using the tables in "More Guns, Less Crime", (pp 41-42):

The book was copyrighted in 1998, so I assume these figures are from the mid 90's

In terms of pure # of gunowners:

California: 6 million
Texas: 6.1 m
Florida: 3.6 m
Michigan: 2.5
Pennsylvania: 2.2


In terms of percentage of gunowners:

Mississippi 40%
New Mexico 38%
Texas 38%


The top 5 "shall issue" states in terms of percentage of eligible adults having carry permits:

(http://blogostuff.blogspot.com/2004/12/percentage-of-adults-with-carry.html)

7.45% South Dakota
6.79% Indiana
6.76% Pennsylvania
5.23% Connecticut
5.12% Washington

Oddly, Texas is WAY down the bottom, @ a mere 1.62%

 

['Card]

I remember reading an article a few years ago in a pro-gun magazine that listed West Virginia as having the highest percentage of gun owners per-capita. The point of the article was to demonstrate that a high percentage of gun ownership deters criminal activity (instead of encouraging it, as the anti-gun lobby claims). West Virginia was used to demonstrate the point because it has a high poverty level, the highest percentage of gun ownership, and one of the lowest crime rates in the US.

It's been several years ago since I read it, so I'm not sure if that's still accurate or not. I also don't remember what source they cited for their information, so you may want to take it with a grain of salt. I'd tend to believe it personally, simply because I grew up in rural WV (though I'm not lucky enough to live there now) and I can't think of a single household (then or now) that didn't have at least one or two firearms in it.

 

[U.S.SFC_RET]

Growing up in Werst Virginia I think that my home was the only home I knew of that did not have guns in it. I was raised by my grandparents and my grandfather was completly anti-gun. He was a WWII, Korea, Vietnam vet who had more purple hearts, medals on honor, comidations for valor, etc than I could count (I still have the medal and flag Ronald Reagan presented him at a ceremony honoring Pearl Habor survivors) so I can understand where he was coming from. He had seen enough guns and blood shed in his life.

PlayboyPenguin I am totally honored that you shared that with us. Your grandfather must have been a giant among men when you knew him.

 

[TallPine]

I don't know of any homes around here that don't have guns in them.

 

[stevelyn]

Having growed up in WV myself, I didn't know of any home that did not have multiple guns in it.
Here in AK the only ones that I'm aware of that don't are either out-of-staters or folks that are just plain afraid of guns (yeah we have have a few ).

 

[PlayboyPenguin]

PlayboyPenguin I am totally honored that you shared that with us. Your grandfather must have been a giant among men when you knew him.

Looks like WV is coming from behind with a few votes now. As for my grandfather, he was a complex guy. In many ways he was a hero...in many others a broken man. I was raised by him and my grandmother and I could count on my fingers the number of nights he did not pass out drunk in either the living room floor or the front yard shortly after returning from work. But after all the things he saw and did I find it hard to fault him. He saw "real" combat...hand to hand bayonette kind of stuff more times than he could count. I only came under fire a few times in my career.

 

[PCGS65]

I don't know which state is, but I can tell you which one isn't......ILLINOIS!!