What's the gun in the average "one gun household?"

One gun house here (hopefully not for long). I own an XDm 9 mm. I grew up with a .22 rifle and a 20 ga in the house.

My guess would be that it would depend on the age group. To my knowlege the only gun in my Grandpa's house was a single shot exposed hammer .410.

Probably the city folks today who are buying one gun for HD would be going Glock because that's what the cops use.

"Little old ladies" I would think would be going for .38SP.

I have seen similar estimates to the ones listed by Loosedhorse.

iirc, 258 million guns owned, by 45% of US households. Estimated current US population = 303 million.


I can't begin to guess at the most common 'single gun', because just about everybody I know have 0, or 2+.

I think most single gun households have a single shot bolt action 22 that used to be a repeater until Cousin Fred borrowed it and lost the magazine.

At first, my folks had a one gun household -- the only gun was Dad's .22 rifle that he had as a kid.

Then there were two guns, when my grandfather gave me his .22 rifle that he had used as a kid.

So, I'm going to go with a .22 rifle as most common.

I know quite a few folks belonging to one-gun households. The ones that are semi-rural/rural have a shotgun almost without exception. The ones who are more suburban/urban are usually handgun, though a fair number of scatterguns there, too.

The reason for the shotgun in more rural areas is obvious, and traces it's roots back to the days of the pioneers. While the Colt revolver and Winchester rifle got all the fame and glory, the shotgun was the real workhorse and is truly the gun that settled the west. Versatility was/is the name of the game if you can only afford/carry one firearm, and the shotgun has more of it than a handgun or rifle.

I only know one person who had a centerfire rifle as his only gun, and that was for about two weeks until he picked up a handgun.

An 870.

Yeah my guess would be a .22LR rifle, either a Marlin or a 10/22. Next most common would be a 12-gauge pump....870 or Mossberg of some sort.

I don't think handguns would be a common "only gun" in a house although my friend only has one gun (for now) it is a Davis P-32 his uncle had picked up somewhere along the way and passed along to him.

Around here I suspect it is a 12 gauge pump.