Percentage of population that owns firearms

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browneu

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I searched and found different reports on how many people own firearms. Some reports state that 21% owns while other reports are as high as 90%.

Does anyone have a definitive idea of what percentage of the US population that owns a firearm?

Or is this information hard to determine since there is no national registry.
 
I would guess that the actual number of firearms owners is higher than any report, simply because most owners don't like to share that information with some random surveyor.

And your last sentence should answer your question :)
 
I can honestly say that everyone I know has a firearm of some type in their home. I would guess that rural areas are much higher than urban areas due to sporting use.

The folks in WI and IL are pretty tight lipped about their handguns. This may skew any surveys. I know folks in Chicago who would share their social security number with you before they admitted to having a .357 in their nightstand drawer.
 
browneu said:
I searched and found different reports on how many people own firearms. Some reports state that 21% owns while other reports are as high as 90%.
Click to expand...


browneu said:
Does anyone have a definitive idea of what percentage of the US population that owns a firearm?
Click to expand...

No
browneu said:
Or is this information hard to determine since there is no national registry.
Click to expand...

It's not hard to determine, it's impossible to determine........... just as it should be.
 
The Bureau of Justice Statistics Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics lists results of 14 Gallup surveys from 1959 through 1997. The results were as follows, including the '95 entry from another source. The sampling error of these surveys is generally just 1 or 2 percent (not percent of the percentages).

Code: 
YEAR  59  65  68  72  75  80  83  85  89  90  91 MAR93 OCT93  95  96  97
%YES  49  48  50  43  44  45  40  44  47  47  46  48     51   35  38  42
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(sorry I can't get the numbers lined up better) mod note -^- hope that helps

The number of guns seems to usually be quoted as just under 1 gun per person, however most gun owners own multiples. The page I pulled that survey from (http://www.gunsandcrime.org/numbers.html)goes on to discuss the data and why dips appear even though they are implausible. Obviously people lie when surveyed, especially when guns are under attack(see the dip between '93 & '95). I would put money on the real number being above 50%. Everyone I know has a gun in their house. A number of these are inherited guns, but they are still gunOWNERS. I think the 25% you see might be an accurate guess for people who shoot a gun regularly (by which I mean at least annually).
 
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I would not admit to owning a firearm to anyone. It is no more their business than what I have in my retirement account. I think many would feel the same.
 
I would not admit to owning a firearm to anyone. It is no more their business than what I have in my retirement account. I think many would feel the same.
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You don't like talking guns with people? One of the best parts of my job (I work in hospitality in Alaska) is gunchatting with the various guests who come through for hunting.

One thing that makes me a bit "sad" for the country is how defensive some people get when I ask 'em what they have in their (usually overpriced) hardcase. It is rare for anyone to open up until I mention hunting with my 700 in aught six. (With half of them pulling a double take and asking if I didn't feel it was underpowered. . . Heh)
 
I would not admit to owning a firearm to anyone.
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I respect your right to be taciturn, but don't get it. Why so secretive? When it comes up naturally in conversation I jump at the chance to talk about guns, theirs OR mine.

I would also happily take part in a legitimate survey.
 
I grew up in NJ, spent 20 years in Mass. I now live in Maine for the past 11 years, and it's been very hard to realize that people won't act negatively towards me when I talk about guns, or even hunting. Especially in NJ, it was just something that "nice" people didn't do.

I suspect that in rural areas, gun ownership is near 100%.
in big cities I'm not sure, but I'd bet it is well under that, probably near or below 50%, and that's including grandpas old BB gun that's collecting dust and rust in the basement.
 
To come at it another way does anyone have a good source for the annual sales figures of guns AND ammo? Thanks for that Gallup stuff.
 
Around 25% isn't a bad number. I would think we would have more ability to deter gun laws but that is another discussion.
 
Here is a 2005 Gallup survey:
"The poll, conducted Oct. 13-16, finds that 4 in 10 Americans report they have a gun in their homes, including 30% who say they personally own a gun and 12% who say another member of their household owns it. These results show essentially no change since this question was last asked in 2000....
The poll also shows that most gun owners use their guns for each of these three purposes: crime protection (67%), target shooting (66%), and hunting (58%)."
http://www.gallup.com/poll/20098/gun-ownership-use-america.aspx
 
There would never be an exact number, even if guns did become registered. In fact, a registry would probably skew the numbers more.
 
I think it is somewhere around 37%.

At least I remember a member here posting a survey or study of some sort, and it used that number. Interesting thing is, those gun owners own enough guns to arm close to every last man, woman, and child in this nation. Only 37% of Americans own guns, but they own enough guns to arm the remaining unarmed 63%.
 
Its certainly higher since Obama got elected. Not being political but I remember what it was like in gun stores back then.
 
Any figure you get will have some errors in it. Count on it. There just is no way to reliably get that info.

Assuming that people are honest when they answer the question (which won't happen 100%), some polls are often user selected, or have bias built into them, which will skew numbers, or they are phone polls, which skews numbers. Using sales figures isn't reliable, nor are NICS numbers.

Gallup is usually pretty good, but they have issues too. Polls have a lot more that go in them than a lot of people realize; they are difficult to do well, especially on a national scale.
 
I say closer to 75% of homes have a firearm, even if they don't admit it.
 
Twain weighs in on this thread ...

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

- Mark Twain
 
CoRoMo said:
I think it is somewhere around 37%.

At least I remember a member here posting a survey or study of some sort, and it used that number. Interesting thing is, those gun owners own enough guns to arm close to every last man, woman, and child in this nation. Only 37% of Americans own guns, but they own enough guns to arm the remaining unarmed 63%.
Click to expand...


According to the census numbers, that is 113,592,424 ONLY 37 percent sounds small until you actually work out the numbers. We have OVER 100 million gun owners in this country. That is if you use the census from this year.

Congrats...We just became the largest Army in the world...
 
Unfortunately most people I know don't own guns. This really gets on my nerves. I don't have anyone to talk about guns with. It also bothers me that my own family members refuse to have the ability to defend themselves.
 
Why would anyone own a gun?

Every one knows the only thing to do is run away from a problem.
And, how could it POSSIBLY be fun to shoot a gun.
 
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