What state buys the most guns? (Guam twice as many as the District of Columbia?)

The Daily Caller ^ | January 3, 2013 | Mike Piccione, editor, Guns & Gear

[2ndDivisionVet]

If we use the National Instant Criminal Background Check System , or NICS, as a proxy for gun sales we see that Kentucky is the runaway leader in gun sales for 2012.

Four states exceeded one million Federal Bureau of Investigation NICS checks; Kentucky, Texas, California and Illinois. Kentucky is the only state to exceed two million background checks.

Background checks are only a proxy measure for gun sales. A buyer may purchase more than one gun through a gun dealer, depending on the local laws, once the background check comes back authorizing the purchase.

The list of states and their 2012 total NICS background checks is compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

State and Total NICS checks for 2012:

States with over 1,000,000 background checks in Bold.

Alabama 431,356
Alaska 85,342
Arizona 339,663
Arkansas 246,193
California 1,132,603
Colorado 414,838
Connecticut 237,496
Delaware 30,724
District of Columbia 449
Florida 834,319
Georgia 465,560
Guam 930
Hawaii 17,428
Idaho 136,482
Illinois 1,036,061...

[umgud]

WOW! CA & IL (2 worst for gun control) were the big bombers.

California 1,132,603
Illinois 1,036,061...

[matt04]

Connecticut 237,496

I'm surprised that that many were purchased in CT, considering a total population of 3.5 million.

[ConservativeInPA]

Someone that I know in PA (cough) has purchased two guns at a time, three times in 2012 in PA. Anyways ... A better measure would be the percentage of the adult population that purchased a gun in 2012.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Actually, Kentucky and then Texas are #1 and #2.

[Red Steel]

"Kentucky 2,589,358" Love their guns in Kentucky.

[Jgerald]

Concealed handgun permit holders have monthly NICS checks ran on them in Kentucky. Hence, the numbers for Kentucky are overinflated.

The numbers for other states are under-reported as there are alternatives to NCIS.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/general-information/nics-participation-map-as-of-april-2011

[WKUHilltopper]

Go Kentucky!!

You’ll never get those guns from those old boys in the hills.

[Girlene]

Wow. Impressive.

[Girlene]

You’ll never get those guns from those old boys in the hills.

Yep.

[phugg]

Ever since Louisville beat Florida, it has sounded like a war zone here in the state. The celebratory gunfire should die down in a few days.

Go Cats!, Go Cards!

[ThomasThomas]

% of population that applied for a new gun permit / Population of state

Doesn’t show gun already owned.

Kentucky 59.67%
Louisiana 57.12%
South Dakota 37.88%
Hawaii 34.22%
West Virginia 28.02%
Montana 13.59%
North Dakota 12.62%
Alaska 12.02%
Wyoming 11.24%
Oklahoma 9.81%
New Hampshire 9.74%
Alabama 9.02%
Idaho 8.71%
Georgia 8.61%
Missouri 8.57%
Arkansas 8.44%
Utah 8.36%
Minnesota 8.31%
Wisconsin 8.25%
Colorado 8.25%
Illinois 8.07%
Washington 7.72%
Mississippi 7.49%
Kansas 7.39%
Indiana 7.34%
Oregon 6.97%
New Mexico 6.96%
Maine 6.91%
South Carolina 6.67%
Connecticut 6.64%
Texas 5.71%
Virginia 5.61%
Vermont 5.51%
Nevada 5.42%
Arizona 5.31%
North Carolina 5.13%
Iowa 4.85%
Nebraska 4.70%
Florida 4.44%
Michigan 4.35%
Delaware 3.42%
Massachusetts 3.21%
California 3.04%
Maryland 2.37%
Rhode Island 2.28%
Pennsylvania 2.10%
New York 1.75%
Tennessee 1.39%
New Jersey 0.98%
Ohio 0.74%

[Secret Agent Man]

More guns than kids in Kentucky.

[BillyBoy]

Neither Guam nor D.C. is a state...

[2ndDivisionVet]

Yet they’re on this list, as are PR, the Marianas, etc.

[Boiling point]

I see TN is close to the bottom of the list. That’s because I only buy unregistered guns.

[TigersEye]

That’s just in ONE year! I was happy to see CO citizens bought over 414k guns last year.

[FredZarguna]

As somebody has pointed out, Kentucky is wrong. Here's a table of legal guns per/1000 inhabitants based on the information anyway...

State	Guns/1000 People	Population	#Guns
Kentucky	596.71	4339367	2589358
Montana	135.89	989415	134455
North_Dakota	126.18	672591	84867
West_Virginia	121.74	1852994	225580
Alaska	120.16	710231	85342
Wyoming	112.41	563626	63356
South_Dakota	108.63	814180	88447
Oklahoma	98.09	3751351	367976
New_Hampshire	97.36	1316470	128178
Alabama	90.25	4779736	431356
Idaho	87.07	1567582	136482
Missouri	85.71	5988927	513303
Arkansas	84.43	2915918	246193
Utah	83.58	2763885	230999
Minnesota	83.14	5303925	440992
Tennessee	82.59	6346105	524122
Wisconsin	82.53	5686986	469375
Colorado	82.49	5029196	414838
Illinois	80.75	12830632	1036061
Washington	77.21	6724540	519209
Pennsylvania	76.25	12702379	968534
Mississippi	74.92	2967297	222297
Kansas	73.94	2853118	210972
Indiana	73.35	6483802	475607
Louisiana	71.98	4533372	326290
Oregon	69.70	3831074	267041
New_Mexico	69.65	2059179	143419
Maine	69.13	1328361	91834
South_Carolina	66.68	4625364	308408
Connecticut	66.45	3574097	237496
Texas	57.11	25145561	1436132
Virginia	56.09	8001024	448754
Vermont	55.15	625741	34507
Ohio	54.54	11536504	629215
Nevada	54.20	2700551	146363
Arizona	53.14	6392017	339663
North_Carolina	51.31	9535483	489307
Iowa	48.48	3046355	147700
Georgia	48.06	9687653	465560
Nebraska	47.01	1826341	85860
Florida	44.38	18801310	834319
Michigan	43.55	9883640	430405
Delaware	34.22	897934	30724
Massachusetts	32.14	6547629	210453
California	30.40	37253956	1132603
Maryland	23.66	5773552	136604
Rhode_Island	22.85	1052567	24050
New_York	17.47	19378102	338619
Hawaii	12.81	1360301	17428
New_Jersey	9.76	8791894	85851
Guam	5.84	159358	930
Puerto_Rico	4.17	3725789	15545
District_of_Columbia	0.75	601723	449

[FredZarguna]

Correction: NCIS gun checks/1000 people.

[FredZarguna]

Yeah, this is misleading, and not a very good proxy for gun ownership. Everyone in PA already owns about 10 guns. Percentage of NRA memberships was 2nd in PA (only behind Texas) and highest percentage of NRA members in the US in percentage of population.

A good rules of thumb is one pistol and one long gun per hand per family member in rural PA, several bows and at least two chainsaws (because Zombies are more fun to kill with those.)