A new report from veteran pollster Rasmussen says for the past five years, “Americans have been buying firearms at the rate of more than 1 million a month,” identifying the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) as the source of information.
According to Rasmussen, 45 percent of American adults believe it is too easy to buy a gun in this country, while only 13 percent think it is too difficult and 33 percent believe the “level of difficulty is about right.”
However, that would depend upon whether the would-be gun buyer lives in a state such as Montana or Texas, instead of California, New York, New Jersey, Washington or Maryland.
Rasmussen said the survey was conducted April 7-9 among 1,185 adults with a +/- 3 percentage point sampling error and a 95 percent level of confidence.
Another revelation of the survey shows the division along political lines regarding gun rights. “Republicans (71%) are more likely than Democrats (60%) or those not affiliated with either major party (61%) to believe self-defense is the main reason most people buy guns,” the survey found.
Rasmussen reported that Democrats are more likely to think it is too easy to purchase a firearm these days, while Republicans are more likely to acknowledge they or someone in their immediate family bought a firearm during the past year.
Another discovery in the poll was that “a majority (54%) of government employees believe it’s too easy to buy a gun nowadays, compared to 45% of private sector workers and 40% of retirees,” Rasmussen reported.
According to the NSSF, an analysis of data for 2024 found that “no less than 15,239,011 checks were for likely retail gun sales. Further, 2024 continued a now 65-month trend of consumers purchasing over a million firearms monthly.” NSSF removes data associated with checks and rechecks for firearms permits to come up with what it calls “adjusted” data from the FBI’s National Instant Check System (NICS).
The Rasmussen survey also found that more men (21%) than women (16%) acknowledge someone in their immediate family bought a gun during the past 12 months. Women are more likely than men—by a 47-42 percent margin—think it is too easy to buy a gun.
