Earlier this year, Townhall covered how figures shared by The National Shooting Sports Foundation showed that the number of new gun owners equals the population of the Republican state of Florida.
NSSF noted that halfway through 2020, first-time gun owners accounted for approximately 40 percent of buyers, according to retailers. Typically, it is around 20 to 24 percent.
This week, new figures show that gun ownership is increasing steadily among one particular group.
A new survey from Gallup found that gun ownership among Republican women has increased in recent years.
The figures show that the percentage of Republican women who own a gun has increased from 19 percent in 2007 to 2012 to 33 percent in 2019 to 2024.
At the same time, the rate has fallen seven percentage points among Democratic men, to 29 percent, and is down five points among men who are Independents, to 39 percent.
Predictably, Republican men are the most likely gun owners among gender and party identification subgroups, at 60 percent, Gallup noted (via Gallup):
Men (43%) are more than twice as likely as women (20%) to own a gun. However, the gender gap has shrunk from 30 points in 2007-2012 to 23 points in 2019-2024.
While the gender gap has shrunk, the political party gap has expanded. In 2007-2012, personal gun ownership rates differed by 16 points among Republicans (38%) and Democrats (22%). Now the gap is 28 points (47% and 19%, respectively).
"According to six-year groupings of Gallup’s annual measurement of personal gun ownership since 2007, the percentage of Republican women who own a gun has increased from 19% in 2007-2012 to 33% in 2019-2024." https://t.co/NVOquXt0cg pic.twitter.com/tJHNksZk7l
— John Gramlich (@johngramlich) November 21, 2024
Gallup noted that gender is still “the strongest predictor” of gun ownership, but that influence is weaker today than in the past.
“A steady 31 percent of U.S. adults personally own a gun, while another 13 percent say there is a gun in their household that belongs to someone else,” Gallup concluded. “The stability in the overall figures obscures an increase in ownership among women in general, driven by Republican women. At the same time, fewer Democratic and independent men own guns, suggesting that gun ownership decisions may be influenced by one’s political beliefs more than in the past, likely because of the salience of the gun issue in political campaigns and political culture today.”