How many guns do you think the average gun owner has

[george burns]

Let's take members here. No one is asking how many you have, just how many do you think the average gun owner has. Of course no one is average, but just give it your best guess, is it 2 or 12 more or less? Pistols, rifles, shotguns, etc. Just like to see what members feel is average.

 

[huntsman]

6 total, 3 handguns 3 long guns.

 

[ljnowell]

1-3. Those of us who participate on Internet forums, have large collections, and/or have ccw's are in the minority.

 

[bmnloader]

Generally, I'd say somewhere around at least 1 handgun and a shotgun, maybe 2-3 rifles. For an average owner

lj-great tag line!

 

[sauer1911]

hmm, must not be average here in the southwest. I have atleast 6 sigs, and "others".

be safe

 

[Salmoneye]

Average?

3

 

[NOMI WASP]

From the SouthEastern Part

Wow thats not a data mining question at all.. I'll pass. They know enough about us already. :banghead:

 

[Blackbeard]

I'll guess 2.2 is the average among gun owners.

 

[marv]

Most people I knew during childhood and youth (late depression and WW II) had two, a .22 rifle and a shotgun. As they became more affluent they may have added more.

 

[WestKentucky]

Depends entirely upon how you derive your numbers. You ask me and I tell you 26 which is the number that are mine. You ask my wife and she will say 30 because that's how many are in my household family. So for a number per person the number will be rather low, probably 1 or 2. For a household the number will be higher, likely 3 or 4. Most of those will follow this order-bedside handgun, rim fire weapon, shotgun, with the possible fourth being a deer rifle or an inherited gun. MOST families are fine with this because all of their needs are covered. Other families who hunt as a family may not be satisfied with 4 and may build up a larger collection based upon each persons desires.

 

[NoVA Shooter]

Well, lets look at it pragmatically.

There are an estimated 300 million legal guns in America.
~34% of households have a gun.
There are 116.7 million households.
Average size of a household: 2.58 people.

Using these numbers we get an average of 7.56 guns per gun owning household.
Assuming every person in the household owns an equal share of the gun, we get ~3 guns per person.

Now, I think we can safely assume that not all people in every household with a gun owns guns, but if we say that statistically speaking, the number of gun owners will fall down the middle (between 1 per hh and 2.58 per hh) we can say that the average gun owner will have ~4 guns.

 

[Ed Ames]

It is fairly easy to estimate average guns per gunowner. About 3*. Not so easy to estimate guns per average gunowner with any info I have access to. Logically it seems necessary that the average owner owns fewer than average (meaning most owners own one or two guns, while a subset own 10, 20, 200+, etc., pushing up the average guns per owner but not the guns per average gun owner).

Anecdotally, I think 50+ percent of gun owners own a single long gun. 30% own a single handgun. 20% own more than two guns (of whatever sort). That's just a guess based on talking to people and observation though.

* Gun ownership is a regular survey question so there are numbers you can work from. Depending on the survey it is claimed that somewhere around 34% of all people in the US admit to owning a gun. 34% of the population is about 108m people. There are an estimated 300+ million guns. So the average guns per owner has about 3 guns. Interestingly, 108m is about half the population that legally can own guns (over 18, not in prison, etc).


HA! NoVa beat me to it. Great minds...

By the way, the numbers I have seen said 34% of all us residents.

 

[Onward Allusion]

Maybe around 5?

 

[AlexanderA]

I would say that the majority of gun owners -- those who own 1 or 2 guns -- don't identify themselves as "gun owners." The guns simply lurk in the background of their lives. (These are the people who the gun controllers like to cite when they say that the "majority" of "gun owners" agree that there should be further controls.) On the other hand, activist gun owners (such as the ones on this forum) own at least a dozen or more guns. We're talking about two distinct universes.

Surveys of gun ownership are notoriously unreliable, because many of the most activist gun owners won't admit on surveys that they own any guns at all. The paranoia runs deep when it comes to this issue.

 

[hso]

The "average member" here probably has 5, with at lest one being a .22

 

[JohnBiltz]

I think the average gun owner owns 1 gun and it is sitting in a desk drawer and has not been shot in a year. A hunter probably has a couple of long guns. Guys on gun forums tend to have from several to lots. Then there is Bac which just totally skews the average.

 

[herrwalther]

I would call it a logical fallacy to assume that the more guns a person has the more active they are in the RKBA. My brother and I are good examples. I have about 3 times as many firearms as my older brother. We are also both members of the NRA. He however takes a portion of every paycheck he earns to go toward the NRA in donations outside his dues, the gun club where he has membership, or toward some other activist cause. I am much more selfish with my money and would prefer to buy more ammo or components. Much of my activism is time in training other shooters.

To answer the original question, we all have "arsenals" according to the media since most have at least one firearm and some ammo.

 

[Ranger Roberts]

I'd say 1 to 3 for the everyday Joe. 1 shotgun, 1 handgun and a .22 of some sort, could be a rifle, could be a pistol.

For the average hunter I would say 5 to 7. Generally a mix of long guns and a handgun or two.

For the guys who sit on gun forums most of the day... well, I measure my collection in safes needed to store everything...

 

[Njal Thorgeirsson]

Well, technically speaking, the average number of guns a given gun owner has is simply (total number of guns in the US) divided by (total number of gun-owners in the US)

The common figure is 310 million guns in the United States. I think a fairly accurate estimate of total number of gun owners in the US is 20% of the population, or 63 million. 310 / 63 = 4.92 guns per gun owner. I think that's probably a very accurate average.

Of course, the average owned by 'gun enthusiasts' is going to be vastly higher than this average.

But, the standard deviation from this mean is probably significant. There are many people who own only one or two guns (perhaps they inherited it or were given it), and obviously there are many people who own vastly more than 5 firearms.

 

[mavracer]

Well, lets look at it pragmatically.

There are an estimated 300 million legal guns in America.
~34% of households have a gun.
There are 116.7 million households.
Average size of a household: 2.58 people.

Using these numbers we get an average of 7.56 guns per gun owning household.
Assuming every person in the household owns an equal share of the gun, we get ~3 guns per person.

Now, I think we can safely assume that not all people in every household with a gun owns guns, but if we say that statistically speaking, the number of gun owners will fall down the middle (between 1 per hh and 2.58 per hh) we can say that the average gun owner will have ~4 guns.

Sounds about right to me, but with some of the collections I've seen here at THR if the average is 4 there's a bunch of single gun familys out there lol.

 

[HankR]

Average owner or household?

I'd guess 2-4. My family that thinks I'm a gun nut, and nobody really needs guns, and there ought to be gun control, etc, well even they have 4 ( well, one was a present from me, so call it 3?) and 2. In the first case an older family member had a .22 revolver, a single shot .22 rifle, and a double barrel shotgun. A younger member just had a shotgun until last year. When his state passed tougher gun laws he ran out and bought a semi-auto pistol with a mag capacity above the new limit "just because".

Another family member had a shotgun and a .22, but then his kids got old enough to hunt and they had some problems with mountain lions coming in close when they were out working stock, so a couple of hunting rifles and a .357 revolver got added. They aren't gun nuts, just normal folks buying more tools as the need arises.

 

[george burns]

Either, personally I think there are a lot more guns than mentioned in this post in the country. I would say closer to 500,000 than 300,000, but that's just a guess on my part. There are so many guns that are unreported and handed down from generation to generation. My experience has been that most folks who deny having one, have more than one.
It's like the census, there are a lot more people living here than the Government admits, there is just no way to count them.
But I was speaking of the legitimate gun owner. We also have to factor in the people who are prohibited from having firearms. It would seem silly to think that they actually don't have one ,someware, that they could reach if needed.
If you broke the law at some point, why would one assume that they are abiding by it now.
It would be irrational to think that all of the bad guys, suddenly started following the same rules that the common everyday law abiding folks do.

 

[Wil Terry]

THis is somewhat akin to asking you what your wife's bra size is, or might be. YEEEEEE gads show I hate nosy people !! IF you are running your own affairs correctly you have no time to be sticking your nose in other folks affairs.
PS: I do not know anyone personally with less than one hundred.

 

[sota]

next week i'll have 1 more than I have this week

 

[openwell]

This week I'll have one more than now! LOL
It's nice to wonder who the average gun owner is?
I started with bb guns and archery equipment since my folks did not allow guns at home. Then thanks to my grandfather I made the step to hunter.
Everything just evolved from there. I started as a hunter. Stepping up from small game to big game. Moving on to target shooting. And eventually hunting with a handgun when it became legal in Indiana. Moving on to muzzle loaders to extend my hunting season. Then getting more powerful handguns to make harvesting game easier. Eventually into handguns for target shooting and home defense. Along the way, choices and choices; bolt-actions, lever actions, semi-autos and single-shots. Now unless you sell to move on and move up you get a gun collection that represents your lifetime of hunting and shooting sports. I know I am not "average" but I don't consider myself alone either. Not sure it's worth knowing what the "average gun owner" owns just that they use them responsibly.