Rasmussen Report shows 47% of American households own guns, 27% of households with guns have bought one in the last six months

A new Rasmussen Report survey shows that 47 percent of American households own a gun, with 5 percent either not sure/refusing to answer the question. Assuming that 47 percent of those who aren’t sure or refusing to answer whether they own a gun actually do, half of American households own guns. (The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted August 5, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.)

While men were more likely than women to own a gun (54 to 41 percent) and whites were more likely than blacks (50 to 26 percent), those differences appear to be shrinking. Twenty-seven percent of household have bought a gun in the last five months. Women were more likely than men to buy a gun (32 to 23 percent), blacks were much more likely than whites (47 to 22 percent), and the young were much more likely than old (42 percent for those 18 to 39 versus 20 percent for those 40 to 64 and just 12 percent for those 65 and older).

Republicans and conservatives are more likely than Democrats or liberals to own a gun (59 and 58 percent to 40 and 35 percent), but sizable percentages of Democrats and liberals own a gun.