Having a deeper understanding of the nexus between gun sales, gun crimes, and gun deaths is important to bridging the political divide and enacting gun violence legislation. We wanted to look at where in the United States gun sales, crimes, and deaths were most common, and see what connections and correlations we can draw between those states.<\/p>\n
Retail Gun Sales<\/h2>\n
The question of how many guns are sold in the United States every year isn\u2019t a straightforward one. A patchwork of state and federal laws makes it so that some, but not all guns, are purchased through licensed retailers who are obligated to run background checks on customers. Even when dealers are required to conduct background checks, they don\u2019t have to report whether customers ended up purchasing a gun, what kind of gun they purchased, or how many guns they purchased. Also, some legal gun purchases are made through sources other than licensed retailers, such as online or through friends.<\/p>\n
Researchers of gun ownership have created a formula for estimating gun purchases in a given year using the FBI\u2019s background check data<\/a>. For the purposes of this study, we\u2019ve used that formula<\/a>, and you can read the full details in our methodology section at the bottom of this page.<\/p>\n According to our analysis of federal background check data, about 22 million guns were purchased through licensed dealers in 2020. That represents a 64 percent increase from 2019, when an estimated 13.4 million were purchased, and it\u2019s the highest number of guns purchased through licensed dealers over the past two decades.<\/p>\n Four states \u2013 Texas, Florida, California, and Pennsylvania \u2013 had at least a million estimated gun sales. Hawaii\u2019s number is the lowest, but this is due to differences in how the state reports gun sales to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The District of Columbia has some of the nation\u2019s strictest gun laws, which is reflected in its low estimated number of purchases through federally licensed dealers. Many of the other low-purchase states are low in population as well.<\/p>\n In terms of sheer number, the most populous states have the highest gun sales, which shows a correlation between population size and gun purchases. The states with the highest retail gun sales were Texas (1.870 million), Florida (1.658 million), and the nation\u2019s largest state, California (1.208 million).<\/p>\n Raw numbers don\u2019t paint the whole picture though. Adjusting for population differences will allow us to see the gun purchase rate in a state. Let\u2019s compare gun sales to the number of adults living in a state to see where gun purchases are most common.<\/p>\n The population-adjusted gun sale statistics tells a completely different story. For example, while only about 87,500 guns were sold in Wyoming (8th lowest, excluding Hawaii), it has the highest gun sales per 1,000 residents with 208. That\u2019s 14 more sales than the next state, Montana (194 per 1,000 residents), which is 14th lowest overall in terms of total gun sales. After Montana, we have Alaska (193 per 1,000 residents), which is 9th lowest overall in total sales.<\/p>\n On the other end of the spectrum, California with the third highest total sales was at the bottom 10 in the population-adjusted rankings. Only 41.3 sales were made per 1,000 residents (7th lowest), which is only 20-percent of Wyoming\u2019s population-adjusted rate. The District of Columbia had the lowest rate overall at just 6.5 per 1,000 residents.<\/p>\n Alabama is the only state to appear in the top 10 both for absolute sales and population-adjusted sales rates, while Iowa, Nebraska, and D.C. appear in the bottom 10 of both lists. D.C.'s rate of 6.5 per 1,000 inhabitants is just a fraction of Wyoming\u2019s, and it\u2019s about one-third the rate of the second-to-last state, Iowa.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, estimated gun sale rates in the West are the highest of the four major regions of the country.<\/p>\n In keeping with the recorded increases in gun background checks in most states, all but one state has seen the population-adjusted rate of estimated gun sales rise over the past 10 years. Moreover, a dozen states have seen these rates rise by triple digits, led by D.C., where the rate has expanded by a staggering 900 percent in the past decade. Nebraska is the only state where this rate fell over the past decade, though the decline was slight (just over three percent).<\/p>\n Nearly three-quarters of murders in the U.S. involve firearms<\/a>, which makes guns the most common murder weapon in America by far. Guns are also the most common weapons used in armed robberies, accounting for about 37 percent of all robberies. Guns are also involved in about 27 percent of aggravated assaults.<\/p>\n Did You Know:<\/strong> According to our research on robberies<\/a>, the average value stolen from a residence is $4,600.<\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n \n<\/div>\n\n Generally, crimes involving guns follow a similar pattern on the state level, but there are some notable differences, depending on the state. For example, in Missouri and South Carolina, about 86 percent of murders involve guns; that rate is only 28 percent in Hawaii.<\/p>\n High population-adjusted rates of gun purchases don\u2019t necessarily equate to higher rates of guns being used to commit crimes. For example, Wyoming, which had the highest population-adjusted rate of gun purchases in 2020 (208.3 per 1,000), had a below-average rate in guns used in homicides, robberies, and aggravated assaults (69 percent, 32 percent, and 14 percent, respectively, versus national rates of 75 percent, 37 percent, and 27 percent).<\/p>\n LEARN MORE:<\/strong> Read about homicide statistics<\/a> based on the FBI\u2019s most recent 2019 data.<\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n \n<\/div>\n\n This doesn\u2019t hold true for every state or crime category, though. Mississippi, which ranks seventh for gun purchases (166 per 1,000), is among the top 10 states for gun involvement in murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults (81 percent, 61 percent, and 48 percent). It\u2019s also important to note here that many of the firearms used in crimes are purchased illegally or stolen.<\/p>\n We know from FBI data that the majority of homicide victims are killed with guns. Guns are also the most common method by which Americans take their own lives. Overall, gun-related injuries kill tens of thousands of people a year; in 2019, for example, nearly 40,000 people died of gun-related injuries according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>.<\/p>\n Where are the rates of gun-related deaths the highest, including intentional and unintentional deaths as well as law enforcement intervention and other causes? Generally, gun homicide rates are highest in the South, while gun suicide rates are highest in the West. For example, the South\u2019s average gun homicide rate is 7.5 per 100,000, which is about 83 percent higher than the next-highest region (the Midwest at 4.1 per 100,000). On the other hand, gun-related suicides occur at an average rate of about 11.4 per 100,000 in the West, about 24 percent higher than any other region (the South is second at 9.1 per 100,000).<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/app\/uploads\/2021\/05\/gun-1.jpg\")
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<\/p>\nGun Crimes<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nGun Deaths<\/h2>\n
Homicides<\/h3>\n
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