I don't want gun ownership to be strictly along partisan lines. The reason? If that's what happens, then gun rights stays a partisan issue and we will have to worry about what happens when the political pendulum shifts. After all, we came out of four years of constant threat to our gun rights and while we are probably safe for the next four years, if not more, we can't guarantee what will happen after that.
So the demographics of gun owners matter. After all, gun owners tend to become gun voters, which means we need gun owners from across the political spectrum.
The problem is that based on this report, the news is both good and bad.
Gun ownership in the United States has remained steady at about 31% over the past several years, but beneath this stability lies a sharp increase in ownership among Republican women, offsetting declines among Democratic and independent men.
This shift underscores the growing influence of political affiliation on gun ownership decisions.
According to a recent Gallup analysis of gun ownership trends from 2007 to 2024, the percentage of Republican women who own firearms has risen significantly. Between 2007 and 2012, 19% of Republican women reported owning a gun. That figure has jumped to 33% in the 2019-2024 period.
In contrast, gun ownership among Democratic men has dropped by seven percentage points, now at 29%, while ownership among independent men has fallen by five points to 39%. Republican men continue to lead all demographic and political subgroups, with 60% reporting personal gun ownership.
Shrinking Gender Gap, Growing Partisan Divide
Gun ownership remains more common among men (43%) than women (20%), but the gender gap has narrowed. From 2007-2012, the gap was 30 percentage points; by 2019-2024, it had decreased to 23 points as more women—particularly Republican women—report owning firearms.
Meanwhile, the partisan divide in gun ownership has grown. In 2007-2012, 38% of Republicans and 22% of Democrats owned guns, a 16-point difference. By 2019-2024, that gap had nearly doubled to 28 points, with 47% of Republicans and 19% of Democrats owning guns.
So the overall rate has largely remained unchanged, but Republican women gun owners are growing significantly while liberal and independent men owning guns are shrinking. Democratic women gun owners are also down, but only by about one point, and it's still higher among them than it was between 2007 and 2012...by about a point.
Overall, the increase in gun ownership by Republican women resulted in a five percentage point increase for women across the board, while male gun ownership has dropped two percent overall.
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But the drop in Democrat and Independent gun owners is troubling because it means at least some politicians are going to feel more emboldened to push for gun control and with lower gun ownership outside of the GOP, a particularly clever candidate might be able to shift opinions on gun control enough to make it important and a driving factor in some people's choice of candidates.
I love the idea of more women owning guns, regardless of their affiliation--please don't get me wrong there--but I'd really just like to see a world where the threat to our right to keep and bear arms was non-existent.
That's only going to happen with an expansion of the gun-owning demographics into groups that typically don't favor gun ownership. I mean, there are some out there who will own guns while thinking you shouldn't own guns, but I believe that they're the exception. I also don't think they'll stay that way indefinitely.
The right to keep and bear arms is a right for everyone. I only wish more people understood that, took advantage of it, and stopped trying to interfere with our right to keep and bear arms.
