Here is a list of all the insights pages on the site.
Gun ownership is another controversial topic, like nuclear power, that polarizes people's opinions. Some don't want to be around any gun owners, while others think more gun ownership creates safer streets, even if they don't own guns themselves.
Although gun rights are guaranteed in the US by the Bill of Rights, states have managed to circumvent these rules in some cases, with Massachusetts and California in particular making it very difficult for individuals to purchase certain types of guns. At the other extreme, some states have active gun cultures with few rules besides the standard federal background check and waiting period.
This broad disparity in state by state attitudes about guns has led to a wide range of per capita gun ownership rates. We'll take a look at the states with both the most and the fewest guns below. (In this dataset, gun ownership is defined as the percentage of households in that state owning guns, which avoids skewing the data based on small groups of outliers owning a high number of guns.)
States with the most gun ownership:
States with the least gun ownership:
California is a few more spots up from the bottom with 28% of households owning guns. Massachusetts and California's tough regulations evidently succeed, at least partly, in preventing people from owning guns.
Surprisingly, Florida also has one of the lowest rates of gun ownership, with only 35% of households owning guns—counterintuitively, both New Hampshire and Washington state have higher gun ownership rates. Despite its reputation, Texas is also in the middle, with a 46% mark, while Oregon and Vermont lead the blue states with slightly over half of households owning firearms in each.
Gun ownership stats aren't in our free quiz that gives you a personalized list of places you'd love to live. But many other factors are. Take the quiz now!