Considerably smaller shares say that a major reason they own a gun is for hunting (32%), for sport shooting (30%), as part of a gun collection (15%) or for their job (7%). Personal protection tops the list of reasons gun owners give for owning a firearm. About three-quarters (72%) of gun owners say that protection is a major reason they own a gun. 38% of White Americans own a gun, compared with smaller shares of Black (24%), Hispanic (20%) and Asian (10%) Americans.47% of adults living in rural areas report personally owning a firearm, as do smaller shares of those who live in suburbs (30%) or urban areas (20%).40% of men say they own a gun, compared with 25% of women.Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are more than twice as likely as Democrats and Democratic leaners to say they personally own a gun (45% vs.There are differences in gun ownership rates by political affiliation, gender, community type and other factors. These numbers are virtually unchanged since the last time we asked this question in 2021. adults say they live in a household with a gun, including 32% who say they personally own one, according to an August report based on our June survey. The number of federal background checks declined in 2022 and through the first half of this year, according to FBI statistics.Ībout four-in-ten U.S. The FBI reported a surge in background checks in 20, during the coronavirus pandemic. The FBI maintains data on background checks on individuals attempting to purchase firearms in the United States. Those surveys also find only modest changes in recent years. These numbers are largely consistent with rates of gun ownership reported by Gallup, but somewhat higher than those reported by NORC’s General Social Survey. In each of those surveys, 30% reported they owned a gun. These shares have changed little from surveys conducted in 2021 and 2017. About a third of adults (32%) say they own a gun, while another 10% say they do not personally own a gun but someone else in their household does. The Pew Research Center survey conducted June 5-11, 2023, on the Center’s American Trends Panel, asks about gun ownership using two separate questions to measure personal and household ownership. Unlike many demographic measures, there is not a definitive data source from the government or elsewhere on how many American adults own guns. Measuring gun ownership in the United States comes with unique challenges. Here are the questions used for the analysis on gun ownership, the questions used for the analysis on gun policy, and the survey’s methodology.Īdditional information about the fall 2022 survey of parents and its methodology can be found at the link in the text of this post. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. Everyone who took part in the surveys cited is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. adults conducted from June 5 to June 11, 2023. The analysis draws primarily from a survey of 5,115 U.S. We used data from recent Center surveys to provide insights into Americans’ views on gun policy and how those views have changed over time, as well as to examine the proportion of adults who own guns and their reasons for doing so. Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to summarize key facts about Americans and guns.

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