The U.S. is the clear global leader when it comes to gun ownership among private citizens. In the Small Arms Survey of 2018, the U.S. doubled the next closest country in guns per 100 citizens with 120.5 – the only country on the planet with more guns than people. Still, some states take their gun ownership much more seriously than others.
In data collected by CBS News from U.S. Census data and other publicly available sources, Wyoming holds the top spot in gun ownership with nearly 200 registered guns per 1,000 people in the state. That triples the next highest area in the U.S., with the District of Columbia having 66 registered guns per 1,000 people. Arkansas, New Mexico and Virginia round out the top five with each state having over 30 registered guns per 1,000 people.
Compare those numbers to the bottom of the list, where New York, Rhode Island and Delaware all have under five registered guns per 1,000 people.
Texas, the state perhaps most famous for gun use, has surprisingly only around 12 registered guns per 1,000 people. Still, the data collected doesn’t account for unregistered gun users, and Texas may have many more of those as they don’t require citizens to register guns by law.
