Firearms ownership is more popular than ever, with one survey reporting that about 32% of U.S. adults own a gun and 42% live in a household with a gun. Pew Research maintains pretty decent data on this, the most recent of which is from 2023. It gives us all sorts of interesting demographic insight into firearms ownership, but it also answers a key question: Why do people own guns?
As you might expect, gun ownership is higher among Republicans (45% own a gun) than Democrats (20%) and higher among adults living in rural areas (47%) than those living in the suburbs (30%) or urban areas (20%). Gun ownership is also divided by gender, with 40% of men saying they own a gun versus 25% of women.
When it comes to the big “why” question, there’s more commonality: A whopping 72% of gun owners say a major reason for owning a gun is protection, and an additional 19% list protection as a minor reason. That’s dang near everyone—only 9% said protection is not a reason for owning a gun at all. Interestingly, the number of adults who own a gun primarily for protection is up from 2017, when 67% named protection as their major reason.
Moreover, 81% of gun owners say they feel safer owning a gun, while 71% say they enjoy owning a gun. Of those adults who do not currently own a gun, 47% said they could see themselves becoming a gun owner in the future. That’s an important statistic, because those are people we have a good chance of reaching with our message that the Second Amendment is vitally important to the structure of the United States, that the right to keep and bear arms should not be infringed, and that gun ownership is normal, safe and responsible.
But let’s go back to the “why.” Obviously, people own guns for more than one reason, so there’s considerable overlap in the survey answers. Protection is far and away the most common “major reason,” and the next is, as you might expect, hunting. In fact, 32% of adult gun owners listed hunting as a major reason they own a gun, with 20% listing hunting as a minor reason. About half—49%—said hunting is not a reason at all, which is actually a lower number than I would have guessed, indicating (if I’m understanding correctly) that about half of gun owners are hunters.
Sport shooting comes in a close third just behind hunting, with 30% of adults saying it’s a major reason they own a gun and another 29% listing it as a minor reason. This category includes everything from trap and skeet shooting to 3-gun competition and everything in between, as well as just plinking.
The last significant reason for gun ownership is “as part of a gun collection”—in other words, people who own guns just because they like guns. 15% of adults listed this as a major reason, while 26% listed it as a minor reason. The last category is “for their job,” and 7% of adults listed this as a major reason for gun ownership, while 8% listed it as a minor reason.
Looking at the numbers on paper makes gun ownership seem pretty straightforward, but at least for me, it’s more complex than “I like to hunt and shoot and I want to protect myself.” While yes, those things are all true and I would probably say protection is my primary purpose for owning guns if you twisted my arm, I have lots of other reasons that are hard to quantify in a survey.
I own guns because I like guns, but also because I can. It’s our right as Americans; a right we should never take for granted. And what good are rights if you don’t exercise them? To me, firearms are a symbol of liberty and the greatness of our unique, complicated, glorious, incredibly messy but extraordinarily important experiment in self-governance.
I also grew up in a family that hunts and owns guns—a blue-collar, rural family from farm country. Guns are tools to us, but they’re also precious heirlooms, made more special by the memories of time spent with loved ones in the woods and on the water. One day I will inherit firearms that four generations of men have used to shoot deer to feed their families. When my father passes, hopefully many years from now, the Remington 870 he saved up all summer to buy when he was 16 will take a place of honor in my safe as one of my most treasured possessions. These rifles and shotguns hold deep meaning to our family and tie us to tradition in a way that other objects simply don’t. It’s not even a thing I can fully explain—it just is. Firearms carry more weight as heirlooms than anything else short of great-grandmother’s wedding rings and the family Bible.
So I suppose that gun ownership, for me and for many others, can’t be boiled down to simple answers like “protection” and “hunting.” While those are perfectly valid reasons, I think I’m a gun owner because it’s simply who I am; who I’m supposed to be.
Chart from Pew Research Center
