How many guns do you think the average gun owner has

[GBExpat]

I think that "average" gun owners probably have 5 or 6 firearms: one shotgun, a .22RF rifle, a centerfire rifle and one or two handguns (if two, one is probably a .22).

 

[BSA1]

I'll wager that in the States that have very restrictive guns laws and/or require registration the number of gun owners in those States are decreasing.

By that I mean if they are not reporting them to the Government than they must not own any.

 

[skoro]

My guess is 3 - 4.

I doubt that members of this forum would be a cross section of average gun owners, though.

 

[tubeshooter]

I would actually say 1.something-or-another, to be honest.

I suspect that there are millions of "one gun" households out there. They would easily counterbalance the numbers you'd expect to see from enthusiasts' households.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

More than most would ever think.

 

[P5 Guy]

My Two Cents

Just one. It is sitting in with Dad's socks and underwear. He inherited it when his Dad passed. Along with the box of cartridges missing 6 or 7 from the only time Grand Pa fired it.
From the ones I've seen at estate sales that is the norm.

 

[TIMC]

Are we talking before or after the boating accident?

 

[Nugilum]

TIMC: Are we talking before or after the boating accident?

After. Definitely after...

 

[Manny]

My guess on the average owner would be one, probably hardly ever fired with a single partial box as the complete ammo supply. And they probably figure just owning it automatically grants competence & accuracy.

 

[TRX]

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.

I've used my Dad as an example of that. He bought his first gun in 2010; a .38 revolver. When he mentioned it was odd having a gun in the house, I pointed out he'd had the 12 gauge for 60 years and the .22 rifle for 40 years. But he didn't see them as "guns"; they were just pest-control tools to him, even after we talked about it.

I've met a few other people who "don't have guns" who have long arms in a closet; when they think "gun", they're only thinking of handguns and black rifles.

 

[steelerdude99]

I think you're looking for the median number, or which number of guns do MOST owners have.
In that case I would say the median is probably 1.
I bet more people have 1 than have any other quantity.

But the most people have zero.........and that's a shame.

I just started with this thread today, but anyhow as Shytheed Dumas and OptimusPrime have said, median is a much better statistic to use. It reduces the effect of the few who have many. Using economic wealth, you'll often hear the statistic of "median household income". In this case, the median will lessen the effects of Bill Gate's income as compared to the many many average Joe's. Such income is so rare and so high, it will throw the arithmetic average way off.

Like OptimusPrime said, I too I expect that the number of guns that "gun owners" have is one.

chuck

 

[BobTheTomato]

I think there is a bi modal distribution. One average at 2.5 and one at around 10.

 

[sig228]

The "average" gun owner, in my opinion, is probably not a gun enthusiast, a gun collector, or a gun nut like some of us. He or she probably doesn't waste time on online forums contemplating these type of things. The average gun owner could probably care less about what type of guns he or she owns. Im thinking the average gun owner owns probably two: a revolver due to its simplicity and a pump shotgun of some sort.

 

[Sauer Grapes]

I would venture to say, 50% of gun owners have 1 or 2. I would also bet that 10% of the gun owners own 30-40% of the guns in this country.

 

[Thermactor]

There is a sharply contrasting dichotomy.

They either have one gun, or they have many guns.

 

[Mastrogiacomo]

I have ten and no where near "done." Sold some and now, planning on buying replacements....I'm think I'm very conservative given my income, I'm careful with my money but I do try and leave something left over for my guns....Edit to add, my brother would probably be considered average...he has one gun - a Gen 2 Glock 19 - lives in NH so I'm sure he could have afforded a Gen 3 or 4 but he lives simply....unlike me....

Laura

 

[The M]

Must gun owners I know have either one or two.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms (conducted 1994, published 1997) usually ref'd as NSPOF.
Key Findings (relevant to thread question)

o In 1994, 44 million Americans owned 192 million firearms,
65 million of which were handguns. ... 25 percent of
adults actually owned firearms; 74 percent of gun owners
possessed two or more.
o Sixty-eight percent of handgun owners also possessed at least
one rifle or shotgun.
o The most common motivation for owning firearms was recreation.
Forty-six percent possessed a gun primarily for protection
against crime.
o There were 13.7 million firearm transactions in 1993-1994,
including 6.5 million handguns. About 60 percent of gun
acquisitions involved federally licensed dealers.*
. . . .
Those who have one gun usually have several . . . .
NSPOF data indicate that the top 20 percent of firearm owners
possessed 55 percent of privately owned firearms. Of gun
owners in 1994, 10 million individuals owned 105 million guns,
while the remaining 87 million guns were dispersed among 34
million other owners.

That would indicate that real gun buffs owned an average of 10 guns;
typical gun owners owned an average of 3 guns.


_____________________________________
* Off-topic maybe, BUT, the Obama Admin stat 40% of gun acquisitions not from FFLs came from the 1994 NSPOF.
40% breaks down to:
19% gifts
5% inheritances
13% private sales of used guns
3% private swap or trade of used guns

I notice also that the Obama Admin did not use the 1985, 1991, 1997, 2004 armed felon surveys of prison inmates by DOJ or NIJ (less than 15% from FFLs usually straw purchase, 85%+ from illicit sources such as 20% or so from illegal drug dealers). Gun control is not aimed criminals, it is aimed at the sample of the NSPOF: ordinary citizens who own guns. Us.

 

[kcofohio]

And that, C. Brown, was 20 years ago. That would probably be the last survey you'd find gun owners openly participating in. With the greater mistrust of our government nowadays.

We get a general number of firearms sold year to year. But how many are destroyed or scrapped per year, numbers, I haven't seen.

 

[Ed Ames]

And that, C. Brown, was 20 years ago. That would probably be the last survey you'd find gun owners openly participating in. With the greater mistrust of our government nowadays.

I doubt those numbers are accurate because there was already plenty of mistrust in 1994. Waco was in 1993, the federal AWB was passed in 1994 which means it was being actively talked about for some time. Some of the worst state laws were recently passed in 1994 e.g. the California AWB in 1989. 1994 was arguably a worse time for gun owners in terms of the feeling that laws and politicians were targeting owners than 2014.

I know that had anyone in my family been asked those questions in 1994 we would have denied owning guns (as a family we had 10+ in 1994) and we did deny owning guns in other contexts. We would have argued that it wasn't mistrust though, but old fashioned milldle class American "don't talk about your tools or nice things because nothing good will come of it" values.

 

[Sarge]

Hell, I've got as many Mortars (3) as some claim to be the average for individual ownership of firearms in general.
Then there are the SMGs, MP 40s for example - I have 9.
In addition to these I also have several other gunz!
Sarge