There are nearly twice as many guns in the average gun-owning household today as there were nearly 20 years ago, according to new Wonkblog estimates based on data from surveys and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In 2013, there were an estimated 8.1 firearms in the typical gun-owning household, according to these data. In 1994, the average gun-owning household owned 4.2 guns.
These numbers comport with what survey research has shown for several years now: The share of gun-owning households has been declining over the past 20 years and possibly more, according to numbers from Gallup and the General Social Survey. On the other hand, domestic firearm production and imports of firearms have risen sharply, particularly in recent years. If those numbers are correct, it follows that increasing gun purchases are being driven primarily by existing owners stocking up rather than first-time buyers.
Plenty has been written about the decline in overall gun-ownership rates. Many of these stories are based on the General Social Survey’s data, which show household ownership rates falling from over 50 percent in the 1970s to around 32 percent today. Some gun-rights advocates dispute these numbers, preferring to use Gallup’s household-ownership rates instead, which have remained essentially flat over the same period.
But even Gallup’s numbers show a decline in ownership since the early 1990s, from 54 percent of households in 1993 to 43 percent as of this fall.
