A new study by Columbia University surveying 4,000 people found that one in three Americans are gun owners.
NBC News reported that owning a firearm varies between states and the local gun culture.
“One-third of Americans reported owning a gun, ranging from 5.2 percent in Delaware to 61.7 percent in Alaska. Gun ownership was 2.25 times greater among those reporting social gun culture than those who did not,” the report stated.
The Northeast has the lowest rate of overall gun ownership in any region.
In gun-friendly Vermont nearly 29 percent of residents own a firearm, dwarfing Rhode Island, which only has 6 percent.
Midwestern states have ranges from nearly 20 percent in Ohio to almost 48 percent in North Dakota.
In the South and mid-Atlantic, rates ranged from a little more than 5 percent in Delaware to nearly 58 percent in Arkansas.
The West had the highest rate of gun ownership by region. California had the lowest rate, at 20 percent, while nearly 62 percent of Alaskans owned firearms.
“Social gun culture was measured using four questions that assessed whether an individual’s ‘social circle thinks less of them if they did not own a gun’, ‘family thinks less of them not owning a gun’, ‘social life with family involves guns’ and ‘social life with friends involves guns’,” the study reported.
These numbers are very similar to a 2004 Harvard study and the latest General Social Survey, which found 38 percent and 32 percent of Americans reported owning at least one firearm, respectively.
