A new report in Injury Prevention says 78.8 percent of all U.S. firearm owners say their primary reason for owning a gun is personal protection, and that just over 58 percent of those gun owners “carried a firearm outside their home” during the 12 months prior to the study, conducted in 2023.
According to CNN, gun sales “surged” during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that in 2021, “48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the US, the highest number on record.”
CNN is also reporting that the rise in the percentage of Americans owning guns for personal protection “appears to have risen over the past 25 years.”
“No single study has tracked the reasons for gun ownership over time, making comparisons inexact, but similar studies have found that about 26% of Americans reported owning a gun for protection in 1999. Various studies suggest that between 60% and 70% of gun owners said protection was their main motivation for having a firearm from 2017 through 2021,” CNN said.
How many gun owners are there? A report which appeared at Ammo.com said more than 82.8 million Americans owned at least one firearm in 2023, and so far this year, several million more guns have been purchased.
“Based on NICS background data and manufacturing records,” the Ammo.com report said, “it is estimated that there are 393 million civilian-owned firearms in the U.S.”
Another finding was that an estimated 43 percent of U.S. households have at least one firearm, but between 2017 and 2023, gun ownership actually declined in the 18-19 age group by 22 percent. But this raises a question about whether the apparent decline was simply due to gun owners in that age group getting older, in the “20-something” category.
Another interesting point noted in the Ammo.com report is that gun ownership is growing fastest in the Hispanic population, up by 33 percent between 2017 and 2023. Also, firearm ownership among women climbed by 177.8 percent since 1993.
Interestingly, when the FBI released its crime report for 2022—the most recent year for which data is available—it revealed that national violent crime decreased by about 1.7 percent from 2021. Here are the high points, which suggest proponents for more gun control are wrong when they contend that more guns result in more crime. According to the FBI:
- Murder and non-negligent manslaughter recorded a 2022 estimated nationwide decrease of 6.1% compared to the previous year.
- In 2022, the estimated number of offenses in the revised rape category saw an estimated 5.4% decrease.
- Aggravated assault in 2022 decreased an estimated 1.1% in 2022.
Only robbery increased by an estimated 1.3 percent nationally, the FBI said.
