Gun Ownership

08 Jul, 2015

Trends in gun ownership remain difficult to quantify due to a lack of appropriate data. The most widely used source to gauge long-term trends in gun ownership in the US–primarily due to its standardized survey techniques over the last 40 years–is the General Social Survey. GSS asks subjects to self-report an answer to the following question:

Do you happen to have in your home (IF HOUSE: or garage) any guns or revolvers?

The interactive visualizations below depict trends in response to this question (% who own gun) among various demographics. Notably, these data show a growing gap in gun ownership based on ideology and politics, a trend more pronounced at higher income levels (see Figure 2).

Figure 1: Trends in Gun Ownership (GSS 1972-2014)

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Figure 2: Demographic Interactions (pick different demographics for Axis & Color)