Guns3 percent of U.S. gun owners own half of all privately owned firearms in U.S.

Half the guns in private hands in the United States own are owned by just 3 percent of American adults, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard University and Northeastern University.

The study says that an estimated 7.7 million adults in the United States – a group of gun super-owners – are stockpiling between eight and 140 firearms per person. On average, these super-owners own seventeen guns each.

The study is now undergoing peer review, and is scheduled for publication next fall by the Russell Sage Foundation. Earlier this week the researchers shared a summary of the research’s findings with the Guardian and The Trace.

The Washington Post reports that the summary published by the two outlets quote some people who own a large numbers of firearms to say that they were dedicated collectors, firearms instructors, gunsmiths, hunters, or competitive shooters. Others admitted to “survivalist” concerns, saying they were stockpiling not only weapons, but also food, water, medications, and other supplies in preparation for a natural or man-made disaster.

Other super-owners told the researchers that they had been buying guns in small numbers over time – some of the guns were inherited from parents, grandparents, and other family members — and ended up with small arsenals without intentionally planning to do so.

The survey found that half of the estimated fifty-five million gun owners in America own either one or two guns.

Other findings:

• The percentage of Americans who own a gun has decreased slightly between 1994 and 2015, from about 25 percent to 22 percent.
• The total number of guns owned by Americans increased during that same time by about 38 percent, or 73 million guns, to an estimated 265 million guns — a figure that outnumbers the 242 million adults living in the United States.
• There has been a particularly sharp increase in the number of handguns. There were an estimated 111 million handguns nationwide in 2015, a 71 percent increase from the 65 million handguns estimated in 1994.
• Nearly two-thirds of gun owners told researchers that protection against other people was one of the primary reasons they own a gun. “Protection against other people” was the most commonly cited reason for gun ownership.

The researchers say that the trend was puzzling because the gun homicide rate in the United States has declined significantly nationwide since the early 1990s (although it is much higher in the United States than in other developed countries).

“The desire to own a gun for protection — there’s a disconnect between that and the decreasing rates of lethal violence in this country,” Matthew Miller, one of the study’s authors, told the Guardian. “It isn’t a response to actuarial reality.”

Deborah Azrael, the lead author of the study and a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, said that, to her, the central question is: “Who are they protecting themselves from?”

“What is creating this sense that they have a need for protection, particularly in a world where the actuarial risk of victimization is low?” she told the Boston Globe.

Azrael said part of what may be stoking people’s fears is marketing by the gun industry.

“There have been pretty big efforts to convince consumers that they need guns for protection,” she said.

— Read more in Lois Beckett, “Gun inequality: US study charts rise of hardcore super owners,” Guardian (19 September 2016); Brian Feskos, “Up to 600,000 guns are stolen every year in the US – that’s one every minute,” Guardian (20 September 2016); Kate Masters, “Fear of Other People Is Now the Primary Motivation for American Gun Ownership, a Landmark Survey Finds,” The Trace (19 September 2016); and Alex Yablon, “This Is What the Modern Gun Owner Looks Like,” The Trace (20 September 2016)