37 Surprising Facts About Guns in the United States

The FBI – the top investigatory and law enforcement agency in the country – offers precise definitions as to what constitutes “mass murder” and “active shooter incidents.’ It does not, however, define the term “mass shooting.” In the absence of a single, authoritative description, other groups have established their own guidelines.

The widely-cited non-profit organization Gun Violence Archive, for example, defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot, not including the shooter. According to the GVA, there were 646 such incidents in the United States in 2022.

Rates of gun violence are on the rise in the United States. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 26,031 murders in the U.S. in 2021. Of those, 20,958 – or 81% – involved a firearm. Based on CDC data going back to 1968, 2021 was the worst year for gun homicide in the U.S., both in total number of incidents, and as a share of all homicides.

Concealed carry is legal to some degree in every state. But in the last decade, over a dozen states have previously passed laws allowing legal gun owners to carry a concealed firearm in public places without a special permit – not including three states enacting such laws in 2023. In these and other states, concealed weapons, typically semi-automatic pistols or revolvers, can be carried under clothing, or in backpacks or purses.

Currently, 22 states require a permit to carry a concealed weapon – not counting Louisiana, a state where permitless concealed carry is allowed only for those who have served in the military.

Recently, firearms have become the leading cause of death for children in the United States. In 2020, the number of children age 11 and younger killed by firearms hit 1,001, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a 44% increase from 2019, when 696 children in the same age group were shot to death.

The U.S. is the only country in the world with more civilian-owned guns than people. However, the majority of Americans do not own a firearm. According to a report published by the Pew Research Center in 2021, four-in-ten American adults have a gun in their household, and only three-in-report personally owning a firearm.

America has more civilian-owned firearms than any other country in the world – and by a wide margin. The United States accounts for just 5% of the global population, but is also home to 45% of the world’s privately owned guns, according to 2018 data from the Swiss company Small Arms Survey.

Though several Latin American countries have higher gun death rates than the United States, the U.S. is an outlier among developed nations, with far more gun deaths per capita than countries like Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and Spain.

Geography appears to play a considerable role in firearm ownership rates in the United States, with more than twice as many gun owners in rural America than in the cities.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and amid widespread unrest over police brutality, FBI background checks for firearm purchases spiked dramatically. There were 9.9 million total background checks in the first five months of 2020, up 69% from the same period in 2019. Meanwhile, background checks for handguns specifically spiked by 80%.

With a spike in background checks, 2020 was a record breaking year for firearm sales in the United States. According to estimates from Small Arms Analytics, a consulting firm based in Greenville, South Carolina, Americans bought nearly 23 million guns in 2020 – considerably higher than the previous record of 15.7 million in 2016.

Americans own guns for a wide variety of reasons – whether for target shooting, hunting, collecting, or simply because they can. But a 2019 Gallup poll found that personal safety/protection is by far the most common justification, cited by 63% of gun owners.

Along with Mexico and Guatemala, the United States is one of only three countries in the world where gun ownership is a constitutional right. And attitudes towards firearms among American gun owners reflect the importance of that right. Nearly three quarters of gun owners in the United States – 74% – say that the right to gun ownership is essential to their own sense of personal freedom, according to a poll from the Pew Research Center.

Gun homicides are 12 times more likely to impact Black Americans than white Americans. And attitudes towards gun violence in the United States along ethnic and racial lines reflect this disparity. A 2021 poll from the Pew Research Center found that 82% of Black adults say gun violence is a very big problem, compared to 58% of Hispanic adults, and just 39% of white adults.

While incidents of gun violence are on the rise in the United States, Americans are losing interest in gun control reform. A recent Pew survey found that only 53% of Americans wanted stricter gun laws in 2021, down from 60% in 2019.

Guns are a politically divisive issue in the United States, particularly around the question of how to address the pressing issue of mass shootings. A 2021 Pew poll found that 49% of the public agree that tighter restrictions on gun ownership would reduce mass shootings. Meanwhile, 42% of Americans say restrictions would make no difference, and 9% think restrictions would lead to more mass shootings.

Gun violence has personally impacted a considerable share of the U.S. population. While only about 3% of American adults have personally been shot – either accidentally or intentionally – a 2017 Pew poll found that 44% of Americans know someone who has.

The relationship between firearms and crime is complicated politically, as the public is divided on the issue. A recent Pew survey found that 31% of Americans think crime rates would fall if more Americans were armed. Meanwhile, 34% of the population think crime would rise with gun ownership, and another 34% think more guns on the street would not impact crime rates.

Political party, perhaps more than any other distinction, is the best indicator of attitudes towards guns in the United States. An estimated 81% of Democrats and left-leaning independents say gun laws should be stricter than they currently are, compared to just 20% of Republicans and right-leaning independents, according to a recent Pew survey.

Deaths resulting from firearm related injuries hit an all-time high in 2021. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 48,830 Americans were killed by guns that year – whether through homicide, suicide, or accidents. The record-breaking year for gun deaths came immediately after the year firearm sales hit their highest level in U.S. history.

A majority of states – 30 out of 50 – have so-called “stand your ground” laws on the books, meaning individuals are not required to attempt to de-escalate and remove themselves from a dangerous situation, even in public. In these states, residents carrying guns can use them as a first resort in virtually any circumstance in which they feel they or others are at risk of serious bodily harm.

According to the Giffords Law Center, a gun violence prevention organization, as many as 50 people are killed every month in the United States because of these laws.

While Republicans generally favor expanding gun rights more than other Americans, there are divides within the party, and some of them appear to be influenced by place of residence. For example, 71% of Republicans in rural areas support allowing teachers to carry guns in K-12 schools, compared to just 56% of Republicans in urban areas.

Gun violence in the Prohibition Era, often carried out by gangsters like Al Capone, prompted President Roosevelt to sign the National Firearms Act into law in 1934. The law, which remains in effect, and has been expanded over time, imposed a tax on fully-automatic weapons to discourage their sale. Today, civilian ownership of new fully automatic weapons is effectively banned in the United States.

Though millions of Americans believe more guns will lead to lower rates of crime and violence, the data tells a different story. Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a 2016 study published by Mother Jones found that states with more guns have higher rates of gun violence, particularly homicides and suicides.

The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions have a high concentration of states with strict gun restrictions. States like Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island have some of the toughest gun laws in the country. Among these states, the share of households that own a firearm ranges from 8% to 18% – some of the lowest for any state in the country, according to a 2020 RAND Corporation study.

Restrictive firearm laws are generally designed to keep gun violence and keep guns out of the wrong hands. And data shows that many of these laws appear to be effective. According to a study conducted by the non-profit organization Everytown for Gun Safety, states with strong gun control laws tend to have lower firearm death rates, while death rates tend to be far higher in states that have adopted a hands off approach to gun control.

Injuries resulting from gunshot wounds are the second leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the United States. According to a 2016 study from The New England Journal of Medicine, firearm deaths – including homicides, suicides, and accidents – accounted for 15% of deaths among American children and adolescents, trailing only motor vehicle accidents, which accounted for 20%.

American gun owners are at a higher risk of suicide than non-gun owners. A study published by the Harvard School of Public Health found that those who died by suicide were twice as likely to have a firearm in their home than those who attempted suicide and failed and those who never attempted suicide.

Some of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history have occurred on college campuses, including the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, and the 1966 shooting at the University of Texas. As of 2020, only 16 states expressly prohibit the concealed carry of firearms on campus (with exceptions made for official security personnel), while 11 states expressly permit it. In the remaining 23 states, colleges are free to set their own policies around firearms.

Though not on pace to exceed totals from 2020, the worst year for gun violence in the U.S., firearm deaths remain near historic highs in 2023.

In 1976, a law effectively prohibited residents of Washington D.C. from owning a handgun. However, in a five to four decision in 2008, the Supreme Court ruled the law was an unconstitutional violation of residents’ Second Amendment rights, and overturned the prohibition. The decision also overturned a law requiring D.C. residents to store their rifles and shotguns unloaded, and either disassembled or under lock and key.

The vast majority of homicides in the United States – 85.7% in 2021 – are carried out with a gun. And about 40% of all convicted murderers in the United States committed the crime while under the influence of alcohol.

Firearms are a defining feature of many social circles in the United States. A Pew study found that 49% of American gun owners say that all or most of their friends also own at least one firearm.

The National Rifle Association, or NRA, is the most powerful gun rights lobbying group in the United States. About one in every five gun owners in the U.S. reports being a member. The non-profit charges $45 for one year of membership and offers discounted rates for longer term commitments.

Older gun owners are less likely to belong to a gun range or hunting club than their younger counterparts. According to a Pew study, 18% of gun owners ages 18 to 49 are members of a gun range, double the 9% share of gun owners 50 and older who are. Similarly, 13% of gun owners between 18 and 29 belong to a hunting club, while only 3% of gun owners over age 30 do.

The majority of American gun owners have a demonstrated commitment to firearm safety. According to the Pew Research Center, about 70% of gun owners have taken a training course in hunting or firearm safety. It is important to note that in much of the country, safety classes are a prerequisite for legal ownership of certain firearms.

A study published by the American Journal of Public Health found that women who live with an abusive partner are five times more likely to be murdered if that partner has a firearm.

Handguns, such as revolvers and semi-automatic pistols, are more likely to be used in homicides than long guns, like rifles or shotguns. According to the FBI, of the 13,620 gun murders in the U.S. in 2020, 59% were committed with a handgun.