What percent of American families own at least one gun?

Howdy garyking-ga,

It depends on the source, but it looks like 32-39% of households will
contain at least one firearm.

"2001 National Gun Policy Survey of the National Opinion Research Center:
Research Findings" by Tom W. Smith.
http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/online/guns01.pdf

"The proportion of households with a firearm has been in slow decline over
the last quarter century (Table 6). In the early 1970s about 50% of adults
lived in households that kept a firearm. This now has fallen about 34-35%.
Similarly, the percent of adults living in a household with a gun fell from
a high of 51% in 1977 to a low of 32-33% in 2000-2001."

Harris Interactive
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=298

"ROCHESTER, NY, May 30, 2001 ? Two in every five adults (39%) live in
households where one or more guns are owned. ... These are the results of
The Harris Poll of 1,014 adults surveyed by telephone between April 26 and
May 5."

"Prevalence of Household Firearms and Firearm-Storage Practices in the 50
States and the District of Columbia: Findings From the Behavioral Risk
Factor Surveillance System, 2002" by Catherine A. Okoro, David E. Nelson,
James A. Mercy, Lina S. Balluz, Alex E. Crosby and Ali H. Mokdad from
Pediatrics 2005;116;370-376 DOI: 10.1542/peds.2005-0300
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/116/3/e370

"Methods. We analyzed data from the 2002 cross-sectional Behavioral Risk
Factor Surveillance System survey of 240735 adults from randomly selected
households with telephones in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Results. Nationally, 32.6% of adults reported that firearms were kept in
or around their home."

If you need any clarification, please feel free to ask.


Search strategy:

Google search on: "gun ownership" households 2001..2005
://www.google.com/search?q=%22gun+ownership%22+households+2001..2005

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Excellent! Lots of information there.

Thanks for the kind comment and 5 star rating, garyking-ga.

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

I wonder if the decrease in the percentage results from the increase
since the early 70s in the number of households without an adult male:
 more single mothers and single women living alone?

Good question, Myoarin.  Some have postulated that part of the perceived
decline might be partially attributed to an increasing reticence of gun
owners to be truthful when asked about their gun ownership.

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher