Gun section in Stans Merry Mart Wenatchee

Gun ownership is the status of owning a

gun A gun is a ranged weapon designed to use a shooting tube (gun barrel) to launch projectiles. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns/cannons, spray guns for painting or pressure washing, pr ...

, either legal or illegal. In 2018,

Small Arms Survey The Small Arms Survey (SAS) is an independent research project located at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. It provides information on all aspects of small arms and armed violence, as a resour ...

reported that there are over one billion small arms distributed globally, of which 857 million (about 85 percent) are in

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...

hands.smallarmssurvey.org
Small Arms Survey reveals: More than one billion firearms in the worldsmallarmssurvey.org
Estimating Global CivilianHELD Firearms Numbers. Aaron Karp. June 2018 The Small Arms Survey stated that U.S. civilians alone account for 393 million (about 46 percent) of the worldwide total of civilian held firearms. This amounts to "120.5 firearms for every 100 residents." The world's

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

control about 133 million (approximately 18 percent) of the global total of small arms, of which over 43 percent belong to two countries: the Russian Federation (30.3 million) and China (27.5 million).

Law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws. Jurisdiction LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. LEAs ...

control about 23 million (about 2 percent) of the global total of small arms.

Global distribution of civilian-held firearms

The following data comes from the

. For more tables see:

Estimated number of civilian guns per capita by country This is a list of countries by estimated number of privately owned guns per 100 persons. The ''Small Arms Survey 2017''Percent of households with guns by country This is a list of countries that gives the percent of households with guns. It is further broken down by the percent of households with handguns. Also, by the percent of adults living in armed households. The data is from GunPolicy.org which is ...

Association with rates of violence in times of peace

2019 Gun ownership rates and gun homicide rates - developed world - scatter plot

Some studies suggest that higher rates of gun ownership are associated with higher homicide rates, although

Gary Kleck Gary Kleck (born March 2, 1951) is a criminologist and the David J. Bordua Professor Emeritus of Criminology at Florida State University. Early life and education Kleck was born in Lombard, Illinois, to William and Joyce Kleck. He attended Gle ...

argues that the highest-quality studies show that gun ownership does not increase homicide rates. Higher rates of gun ownership are also associated with higher suicide rates and higher accidental gun death rates. The availability of illegal guns, but not that of legal guns, is associated with higher rates of

violent crime A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violence, violent act is t ...

. Studies have shown that 36.3% of people had access to a gun and 5% carried the gun with them. However 7.3% stored their guns in an unsafe place. Certain people have blamed individuals with mental disorders for being dangerous and violent with the use of guns. Nonetheless, other studies have been conducted and show that 34.1% have access to guns. 4.8% carry a gun with them and 6.2% store the gun in an unsafe manner. The statistics show that gun ownership is significantly high in both sets of individuals, however, none of the figures show people with a mental illness are as dangerous with guns than people with perfect mental health. An international study by

UNICRI The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) is one of the five United Nations Research and Training Institutes. The Institute was founded in 1968 to assist the international community in formulating and impl ...

researchers from 2001 examined the link between household gun ownership and overall homicide, overall suicide, as well as gun homicide and gun suicide rates amongst 21 countries. Significant correlations between household gun ownership and rates of gun suicides for both genders, and gun homicide rates involving female victims were found. There were no significant correlations detected for total homicide and suicide rates, as well as gun homicide rates involving male victims. This study has been criticized for combining high-income countries (like

the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

) with middle-income countries (like

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

); if middle-income countries are excluded from the analysis, a strong relationship emerges between gun ownership and homicide. However the Hemenway study has been criticized in response as well. When removing the United States as an outlier and using the superior proxy of gun ownership in the study (percentage of firearm suicides over all suicides), the relationship ceases to be significant. The association between gun ownership and homicide rates across nations is dependent on the inclusion of the U.S. Studies in Canada that examined the levels of gun ownership by province have found no correlations with provincial overall suicide rates. A 2011 study conducted looking at the effects of gun control legislation passed in Canada and the associated effects in homicide rates found no significant reductions in homicide rates as a result of legislation. A case-control study conducted in New Zealand looking at household gun ownership and the risk of suicides found no significant associations.

Global distribution of civilian-held firearms

Association with rates of violence in times of peace

See also

References

Further reading