Summary
Gun ownership varies substantially across the United States, with some states & regions reporting far higher household ownership than others. Although the United States has a large number of privately owned firearms, those guns are not distributed evenly across the country.
Firearm ownership is generally much more common in rural communities than in suburban or urban areas. Rural residents are more likely to have access to hunting land, recreational shooting, farms, ranches, & other settings where firearms may have practical uses. Rural communities are also more likely to lean Republican, & political affiliation is itself strongly associated with gun ownership.
States in the Mountain West, South, & parts of the Midwest tend to report some of the highest household firearm ownership rates, while many Northeastern states report considerably lower rates. Population density, hunting traditions, access to land, political culture, state law, & attitudes toward self defense all help shape these differences.
Geography also affects firearm mortality. Some states with high ownership rates experience especially high firearm suicide rates, while other areas face greater problems with firearm homicide. State laws also vary considerably, meaning where someone lives can influence not only whether they are likely to own a gun, but how easily they can purchase, carry, store, or transfer one.
Analysis
Gun ownership varies dramatically from state to state. Montana has the highest estimated household firearm ownership rate at 66.3%, followed by Wyoming at 66.2% & Alaska at 65.5%. Idaho also exceeds 60%, while West Virginia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, South Dakota, & North Dakota all have estimated rates above 55%.
At the opposite end, New Jersey & Massachusetts have estimated household ownership rates of just 14.7%, followed closely by Rhode Island at 14.8% & Hawaii at 14.9%. New York sits below 20%, while Connecticut, Illinois, California, Maryland, & Delaware are also among the states with lower estimated ownership.
The difference is substantial. Montana’s household ownership rate is more than 51 percentage points higher than New Jersey or Massachusetts. The ten states with the highest estimated ownership rates average nearly 60%, compared with roughly 22% among the ten lowest.
These states are also geographically clustered. High ownership is common across the Mountain West & Big Sky region, including Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, & Alaska. Another concentration appears across parts of the South & Appalachia, including Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, & West Virginia. Many of the states with the lowest ownership rates are concentrated in the Northeast.
These figures are estimates rather than exact counts. The United States does not maintain a comprehensive national registry of privately owned firearms, so researchers generally rely on surveys & statistical estimates to determine how many people live in households with guns.
The rural divide is one of the clearest geographic patterns. Around 47% of rural adults report personally owning a firearm compared with 30% of suburban residents & 20% of urban residents.
Hunting helps explain part of this difference. Rural gun owners are more likely than urban gun owners to say hunting is a major reason they own a firearm. Rural residents are also more likely to live near farms, ranches, hunting leases, public lands, & private property where hunting or recreational shooting is possible.
Land availability matters as well. Someone living on a ranch or large rural property may be able to hunt, target shoot, or use firearms for agricultural purposes on their own land. Someone living in a dense urban neighborhood generally does not have the same opportunities.
Firearms can also serve practical purposes in agricultural communities. Farmers & ranchers may encounter feral hogs, predators, or other wildlife capable of damaging livestock, crops, or property. These situations can give firearms a practical role in rural households beyond recreation or personal protection.
Family tradition is another important factor. Americans who grow up around firearms are much more likely to own them later in life. Among people raised in rural areas, those who grew up in gun owning households are especially likely to become gun owners themselves. Rural gun owners are also more likely to report receiving or using their first firearm at a younger age.
Political attitudes overlap with these cultural differences. Republicans & Republican leaning independents are more than twice as likely as Democrats & Democratic leaning independents to report owning firearms. Gun owners are also more likely than nonowners to view gun ownership as connected to personal freedom. Geography therefore reflects not only access to land or hunting opportunities, but broader cultural & political attitudes surrounding firearms.
Regional patterns extend beyond the rural divide. The South has historically reported relatively high rates of personal gun ownership, while the Northeast reports considerably lower rates. The Mountain West also stands out, with states such as Montana, Wyoming, & Idaho regularly appearing near the top of household ownership estimates.
The Midwest contains a mix of both patterns. States with large rural populations & strong hunting traditions often report higher ownership, while major urban centers such as Chicago, Detroit, or Minneapolis create very different local environments.
The Northeast generally reports lower ownership. The region is more densely populated, more urbanized, & includes several states with comparatively restrictive firearm laws.
Still, regional labels can only explain so much. Texas & Mississippi are both Southern states but differ greatly in population, urbanization, demographics, & firearm death patterns. California contains some of the country’s largest cities but also large rural areas where hunting & recreational shooting remain common. Geography should therefore be viewed as a combination of factors rather than a simple cause of firearm ownership.
Where guns are common does not necessarily tell us how those guns are most likely to contribute to death. Firearm homicide, firearm suicide, & overall firearm mortality follow different geographic patterns.
Suicide accounts for a substantial share of firearm deaths nationally. Several states with very high levels of household firearm ownership, including Alaska, Wyoming, & Montana, also report high suicide rates. This does not mean firearm ownership alone causes these deaths, but it shows that the firearm problem in these states can look very different from places where homicide is the primary concern.
Mississippi provides another example. The state has one of the highest estimated household firearm ownership rates in the country & recorded an age adjusted firearm death rate of 28.0 per 100,000 residents in 2024. California, by comparison, had a much larger population & more firearm deaths in raw numbers but recorded an age adjusted firearm death rate of only 7.0 per 100,000.
This illustrates why raw numbers, ownership rates, & death rates should not be treated as interchangeable. Raw numbers show how many people died. Rates allow comparisons between populations of different sizes. Ownership estimates indicate how common access to firearms may be.
Geography also affects the legal environment surrounding firearms. States differ in rules governing purchases, concealed carry, waiting periods, background checks, storage requirements, magazine capacity, & access to particular types of weapons.
These legal differences often overlap with political & cultural differences. States with higher gun ownership frequently have political cultures that are more supportive of gun rights, while many states with lower ownership have adopted more extensive firearm regulations.
Those patterns alone do not prove that one particular law causes a higher or lower firearm death rate. States also differ in poverty, population density, demographics, crime, health care access, policing, & suicide risk. The effectiveness of specific firearm laws will be examined separately later in this series.
Geography affects not only how likely someone is to encounter or own a firearm, but also the rules governing how that firearm may be purchased, carried, stored, or transferred.
State borders complicate the picture further because firearms do not always remain where they were originally purchased.
A firearm may be legally purchased from a dealer before later being sold, gifted, stolen, transferred, trafficked, or recovered by law enforcement in another state. A gun originally sold under one state’s laws may therefore later appear somewhere with a very different regulatory environment.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives traces firearms recovered by law enforcement during criminal investigations. These traces can identify the original seller & purchaser, helping investigators understand how a firearm entered the legal market & how it later moved.
ATF also cautions that trace data should not be treated as a complete picture of all guns used in crimes. Not every firearm is traced, & the tracing of a firearm does not necessarily mean the original purchaser committed a crime.
Still, the data demonstrate that guns regularly cross state lines. Firearms initially purchased in one state can later be recovered elsewhere through resale, gifting, theft, trafficking, or other transfers.
Knowing where America’s guns are concentrated is therefore only part of the story. The next question is how Americans obtain those firearms in the first place, how legal purchases differ from private transfers or illegal acquisition, & how guns move from the legal market into secondary markets or criminal use.
Take Action
- Pew Research tracks & analyses data related to guns in the U.S.- https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/24/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/
- RAND publishes research on gun data- https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2026/09/the-recent-rise-of-women-gun-owners.html
- The CDC tracks data on gun related injuries & deaths- https://www.cdc.gov/firearm-violence/data-research/facts-stats/index.html