Gun section in Stans Merry Mart Wenatchee

In 2018, the

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 A civilian is a person who is not a member of an armed force. It is war crime, illegal under the law of armed conflict to target civilians with military attacks, along with numerous other considerations for civilians during times of war. If a civi ...

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 survey stated that USA civilians account for an estimated 393 million (about 46 percent) of the worldwide total of civilian held firearms, or about 120.5 firearms for every 100 American residents. From 1994 to 2023, gun ownership increased 28% in America. In 2023, about 16.7 million firearms were sold in the U.S. In the first four months of 2024, nearly 5.5 million firearms were sold, averaging around 1.3 million per month. About 72% of gun owners say they own a gun primarily for protection. The world's

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

control about 133 million (approximately 13 percent) of the global total of small arms, of which over 43 percent belong to two countries: Russia (30.3 million) and China (27.5 million).

Law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for law enforcement within a specific jurisdiction through the employment and deployment of law enforcement officers and their resources. The most common type of law enforcement ...

control about 23 million (about 2 percent) of the global total of small arms. Gun ownership is a protected right in countries such as the United States and Yemen.

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 people. The ''Small Arms Survey 2017''Percent of households with guns by country This is a list of countries by the estimated percent of households with guns. It is further broken down by the estimated percent of households with handguns. Also, by the estimated percent of adults living in armed households. The data is from ...

Association with rates of violence in times of peace

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 G ...

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 (law), force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violence, vio ...

. 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 imple ...

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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

) with middle-income countries (like

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

); 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.

Maps

Global distribution of civilian-held firearms

Association with rates of violence in times of peace

Maps

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading