Results of a Pew Research survey released late last month found that roughly 42 percent of all adults in the United States live in a home with at least one gun under its roof. Of those who participated in the study, 32 percent said they own a firearm.
Despite the record-setting pace of gun sales during the Covid-19 pandemic and widespread social unrest, “The shares have changed little from surveys conducted in 2021 and 2017,” the organization announced in the results. “In each of those surveys, 30 percent reported they owned a gun.”
The well-documented volume of first-time gun owners who fueled that demand—eager for their purchase to remain private due to peer pressure or privacy concerns—may have clouded results. Demographic results in the survey showed increases or identical numbers.
The percentage of female owners in 2023 came in at 25 percent. In 2017 and 2021 the findings held steady at 22 percent. Forty percent of men owned a gun last year, however, a figure that has varied little in the three surveys conducted by Pew Research.
The percentage of gun owners in each of the three “community type” groups employed for the research increased as well. In 2023, the statistics showed 47 percent of adults living rural regions had a firearm, suburbs 30 percent and urban residents came in at 20. In 2017, by comparison, the numbers were 46, 28 and 19, respectively.
The volume of Hispanic gun owners increased to 20 percent in 2023 from 15 percent in 2017. The number of African-Americans who owned a gun in 2017 stood at 24 percent. The figure was identical last year, but interestingly “…56 percent of black nonowners say they could see themselves owning a gun one day, compared with smaller shares of white (48 percent), Hispanic (40 percent) and Asian (38 percent) nonowners,” according to the study.
