A Factual Look at Guns in America

44% of U.S. Households Own a Gun

393 Million Guns Owned by U.S. Citizens

57% Felons More Afraid of Armed Citizen Than Cop

Guns Used in Self Defense

According to the National Research Council study done during Obama’s presidency, guns are used for self defense between:

500,000 – 3 Million Times Every Year

(1,369 – 8,219 Times Every Day)

Because many cases of self defense are not reported to the police, this number may be even higher.
We have illustrated the low end of this estimate by putting five hundred thousand dots below.

Graphic showing 500,000 dots for every time a gun is used in self defense each year

Now imagine 2.5 million+ MORE dots to illustrate the possible full extent guns are used for self defense.

Every single dot represents a citizen’s life or livelihood that was able to be saved with a gun – usually without firing a single shot.

Criminal Acquisition of Guns

Politicians will often talk about “the gun show loophole”
and make it seem as if that was a primary source of guns being used to carry out crimes in America today.

However, a U.S. Department of Justice survey of prison inmates who had used a gun to carry out their crime found that only:

0.8% of Criminals
Purchased Their Gun at a Gun Show

A similar study carried out in Pittsburgh, found that nearly 80% of criminals caught with a firearm were not the legal owner of that gun.

Guns vs. Homicide

While the number of guns manufactured in the U.S. each year has increased dramatically,
the homicide rate has continued to fall at the same time.

Sources: Statista & Macrotrends

Concealed Carry

An analysis of the FBI crime statistics found that U.S. counties that adopted
Concealed carry laws saw a REDUCTION OF:

8.5%
Murders

5%
Rapes

7%
Assaults

3%
Robberies

94%

Of Mass Shootings Occur in Gun Free Zones

Source

U.S. Rifle Stats

Whenever people start trying to ban guns, “assault” rifles such as the AR-15 are usually where they start. However, the number of homicides committed by rifles in the U.S. is very low. There are approximately 20 million rifles in circulation in the U.S. today, yet they only accounted for 364 murders in 2019.

This equals a rate of:

1 Murder per 55,000 Rifles Owned

The first dot in the top left is red to indicate a murder that was carried about by a criminal with a rifle. There are 54,999 other dots that represent rifles that are owned and were not used for murder. To get an even more accurate idea of the scale of law abiding citizen owned rifles, you would have to multiply this chart 364 times.

Chart of 55,000 dots showing the number of times a rifle was used for murder vs. number of rifles owned.

Things That Kill More People Than Rifles

Here are a list of 5 things politicians could ban that would actually save more lives than an assault rifle ban.
You are nearly twice as likely to be murdered by being punched or kicked than you are from a rifle.

Fists, Hands & Feet	600 Murders
Knives	1,476 Murders
Clubs, Hammers & Bats	397 Murders
Falling From Stairs	1,307 Accidental Deaths
Falling Out of Bed	650 Accidental Deaths

Data from FBI & MongaBay. Rifle homicides in 2019 were 364.

Police vs. Armed Citizens

Law enforcement can be invaluable if you are in a life threatening situation, but they are not always around.
Citizens have recently surpassed police in the number of justifiable killings of a criminal to protect their life or the life of another person.

Source: Statista

When the average school shooting lasts just 12 minutes, every second of response time saves lives.
How do police compare with armed citizens in this aspect?

Law Enforcement

Response Time: 18 Minutes
Size: 813,500 Officers

Armed Citizens

Response Time: Already On-Site
Size: 81.7 Million Armed Citizens*

*Number of Armed Citizens calculated by multiplying 32% gun ownership rate x 255 Million Adults