According to recently published data compiled by the Pew Research Center, the majority of Americans who have a gun in their home are white conservative republican males living in rural environments with children under the age of 18.
To examine the demographic and political characteristics of gun owners and their households, Pew reviewed data gathered from 3,243 adults from April 29 to May 27. Of those, 1,196 said they or someone in their household owned a gun, pistol or rifle.
The survey spans the entire continental United States with 34 percent located in the west, 35 percent in the midwest, 38 percent in the south and 27 percent in the northeast, and with that regional differences emerge.
“White southerners are significantly more likely to have a gun at home (47%) than whites in other regions,” explains Rich Morin, senior editor at the Pew Research Center’s social and demographic trends project. “But because blacks disproportionately live in the South and are only half as likely to have a gun at home as whites, the overall rate for the southern region falls to 38%.”
“While blacks are significantly more likely than whites to be gun homicide victims, blacks are only about half as likely as whites to have a firearm in their home (41% vs. 19%),” Morin said, referencing data collected between 1994 and 2010. “Hispanics are less likely than blacks to be gun homicide victims and half as likely as whites to have a gun at home (20%).”
Americans who keep a gun inside the home also see themselves differently than those who don’t, Morin said.
Adults in gun-owning households are more likely to think of themselves as an “outdoor person” (68% vs. 51%) or “a typical American” (72% vs. 62%), and to say “honor and duty are my core values” (59% vs. 48%).
“Not surprisingly, members of gun-owning households are more than twice as likely to identify themselves as a ‘hunter, fisher or sportsman’ (37% vs. 16%),” he said, and added that “About six-in-ten gun household members (64%) say they ‘often feel proud to be American.’ In contrast, about half (51%) of other adults say this.”
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