The political candidate who either aggressively attacks or simply ignores law-abiding gun owners does so at their own peril. Such approaches may work in New York City or Chicago, but those locales don’t accurately represent the population as a whole.
A new expansive study revealed the truth: Roughly 88 million Americans own an estimated 461 million firearms.
Gun-owning Americans are in every walk of life
The 2026 National Firearms Survey, conducted by Georgetown University Professor William English, found that about 32.7% of the population owns at least one firearm. The survey drew on data from 51,398 U.S. adults in July and August 2026.
Americans have roughly 208 million handguns, 154 million rifles, and 99 million shotguns. Further, about 26.4 million adults possess AR-15s or similarly styled semi-automatic firearms, the same weapons detractors claim are not in common use.
And that scenario in which upstanding citizens defend life and property with a ready firearm is even more common than previously thought.
How often does this “rare” scenario play out?
Research showed over 2 million defensive gun uses annually
“The survey finds that 37.6% of gun owners have used a firearm to defend themselves, their property, a family member, or a member of their household, and it estimates that guns are used defensively by firearm owners in approximately 2.2 million incidents per year,” the report revealed.
In the vast majority of these defensive firearm uses (76.3%), the presence of a ready weapon and someone willing to use it ended the threat without a shot fired.
Further, a full 70% of gun owners reported that they carry at times for self-defense. An estimated 33.6 million members of the shooting community have carry permits and use them to protect themselves when away from home.
These are not outliers.
They are our families, neighbors, and friends.
There’s no better way to show your patriotism than with merch that speaks before you do.
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