About eight-in-ten Black adults (82%) say gun violence is a very big problem – by far the largest share of any racial or ethnic group. Considerably smaller shares gave other reasons, including hunting (40%), nonspecific recreation or sport (11%), that their gun was an antique or a family heirloom (6%) or that the gun was related to their line of work (5%).Īttitudes about gun violence differ widely by race, ethnicity, party and community type. Roughly six-in-ten (63%) said this in an open-ended question. In a Gallup survey conducted in August 2019, gun owners were most likely to cite personal safety or protection as the reason they own a firearm. Personal protection tops the list of reasons why gun owners say they own a firearm. The largest comparative percentage point difference occurred in July 2020 – when about 3.6 million background checks were completed, 44% more than were conducted in July 2019. In 2020, the number of monthly federal background checks for gun purchases was consistently at least 20% higher than in the same month in 2019, according to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. And 41% of adults living in rural areas report owning a firearm, compared with about 29% of those living in the suburbs and two-in-ten living in cities.įederal data suggests that gun sales have risen in recent years, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic. Men are more likely than women to say they own a gun (39% vs. For instance, 44% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they personally own a gun, compared with 20% of Democrats and Democratic leaners. There are differences in gun ownership rates by political party affiliation, gender, geography and other factors. adults say they live in a household with a gun, including 30% who say they personally own one, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in June 2021. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.įour-in-ten U.S. 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 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. Methodology for each Pew Research Center poll can be found at the links in the post. Data about the number of monthly gun background checks comes from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. We used data from our own polling and from Gallup 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 themselves and their reasons for doing so. In the aftermath of several recent mass shootings in the United States, Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to share key facts about Americans and guns.

Statistical calculations on gun control