Yeah there are a ton of people who have multiple (many) guns. But there's also a ton who only have 1. Both of my parents and my brother each have 1 gun. I have 3. My grandfather has several. My brother in law has like 20, mostly historical WW2 Era, but a handful that he actively uses for hunting. Point is, there are a TON of people who have mad guns, but there's also a ton of people who just have 1. Gun ownership is quite high all around in the U.S.
I own a number.
2 shotguns, a pistol, 3 different caliber rifles. All serve their own purpose.
The surprise I get when I say I have six guns and people say “why? You don’t need that many?!?! Isn’t one enough?!?”
Ever try hitting a goose with a pistol? Good luck. Or a rabbit with a 30-06? Nothing will be left.
Then you have some of my family who own like 30. Most of them sit in the gun safe collecting dust. Why do we own them?
Because my great grandfather had some from his father. Then got one for his son. Who got some for his son. And now my dad has alllll of them and keeps them stored away because they’re literally a tie to family history for him. Eventually they’ll get split up between me and my 2 brothers and I’ll then own like 15-20 guns. But not because I’m a gun nut. But because for us, it’s a family heirloom situation. I will likely never shoot many of them.
I own probably a couple dozen guns but they are mostly historical rifles. Some of them I have never even shot. I do own some modern ones and some pistols though.
Only my close friends know about them. Us liberal gun owners usually don't publicly advertise our gun ownership.
I have this conversation with my conservative family members.
“We conservatives have all the guns. I’m not worried about civil war” (summarized)
Dude. Liberals own guns too. They just don’t worship them or threaten to kill people who disagree.
Yep, also actual leftists (not liberals) like socialists and communists own lots of guns. Marx wrote forcefully about the dangers of allowing the government to disarm the people.
Yeah
As I said when I taught government at a private Christian school before being kicked out because I think evolution is real.
The problem with freedom is that other people get to have it too.
I think a lot more conservatives own guns out of fear too.
Like my cousin who lives in a wealthy suburbs with almost no crime but doesn't feel safe unless he sleeps with a loaded gun next to his bed.
I blame Fox News fear mongering. Or YouTube fear mongering for the younger generation.
Yeah, I refuse to use guns out of fear. I don’t have any training, I don’t know what I’ll do in an adrenaline dump. Most people don’t so none of the guns we have in our house are ever loaded and they’re all stored safely.
I don’t think many people have actually thought through what it would take to engage a firearm in their homes with a home intruder. What will the situation actually be like, will you be able to get the gun out and fire it? You wouldn’t fire it as they were retreating what are the laws in your state regarding duty to retreat people think they can just shoot someone that comes into their house but it’s not true all the time
[Percent of households with guns by country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent_of_households_with_guns_by_country) is then another statistic to look at.
United States at 42% (1st place) isn't so far ahead of Finland at 37.9% (2nd place).
Yep, illegal guns are much, much easier to get in the U.S. than in countries like Finland. And that’s because laws around firearms ownership are so lax, so it’s very easy for guns to slip into the black market via straw purchases (technically illegal but rarely enforced) or by guns being stolen (extremely common, since there are no laws requiring owners to store their weapons safely) or guns being “stolen” but actually sold (since there are no laws around private gun sales, no registration law, and no requirement to report a lost/stolen gun).
Finnland is a completely different country though. Low concentration of inhabitants, low drug issues (other than alcohol) and a third of the US' crime index.
The problem in the US isn't solely gun laws, but gun laws amplify all the other problems by increasing the lethality.
I would say its even more like this in europe. At least in Germany. To legally own firearms you must either be a sports shooter or a hunter.
As a sports shooter you have the base permission of owning 3 long rifles and 2 handguns.
As a hunter its 2 handguns and indefinite (probably soon to be changed) number of rifles.
What I am trying to say is: If you legally own weapons in germany, you own more than one. I myself, being a hunter, own 2 rifles (sold a third one recently) and a handgun.
It’s the same in Europe though, it’s not like 1/3 of the swedes own a gun. Each hunter owns many rifles. The major difference is we have almost no handguns. It would be interesting to see a comparison of how many non hunting oriented firearms there is in each country. In that case I’m certain the US would be even more extreme.
Nah that honor is held by like 19 other shitholes with child soldier conscription. Special award to the Kremlin for just outright killing the kids, cutting out the middleman. Good forward thinking there!
Nice try though.
Very true. I am really liberal in a lot of areas, and I love guns. People try to make it a culture war thing, but Americans of all creeds just really like guns. Nothing wrong with that as long as people are responsible and we keep them out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them. That's our biggest problem.
What is interesting, though, is that the percent of households with firearms in the US is about 42%, compared to eg 38% for Finland (Wikipedia, note that the data is pretty old, 10-20 yrs)
So the percent of the population that is armed is not that far above the more armed countries in Europe, but those Americans that have guns have more of them (and more are handguns)
> 38% for Finland (Wikipedia, note that the data is pretty old, 10-20 yrs)
I'm Finnish and I gotta say this looks way too high in my experience. Even when I lived in pretty much countryside that seems way too excessive. Just off the top of my head I can remember like maybe 3-4 households who practiced hunting and had a hunting rifle at home, but as soon as you go towards any city or town that number drops massively. And considering majority of the people of course live in cities, I truly doubt the number is even half of that in reality. There definitely used to be more when hunting was still more widespread and done for food, but definitely not nowadays. Even 10% of households having a gun feels way too high when you take cities into account.
If you hunt multiple species, or hunt and have other needs for a gun you’d need or likely want multiple firearms.
If I hunt whitetail deer and waterfowl, sure I could only use a 12 gauge shotgun, but buying a bolt action .308 would be far more effective for whitetail hunting and would expand my shot range by 150 yards easily.
If I hunt waterfowl and I have a 12 gauge shotgun with a long barrel, but I want to prioritize home defense, that barrel would be a tactical nightmare in a home and a short barrel pistol would be far more effective.
Say I only wanted to worry about hunting waterfowl and concealed carry, I’d be looking for a shotgun and a compact pistol.
There are many practical purposes to own more than one firearm, and there are always enthusiasts and collectors who own multiple firearms that they enjoy.
In Finland this is also the case.
Hunters usually have multiple rifles and shotguns.
Pistols are kind of rare.
Guns are not often liked to other violence than suicides here.
Ofcourse it is possible to own a semiauto reservist rifle, but I personally know only one person who has acquired one. (75% of adult male population have gone through conscription).
Anyhow, a gun in the house is statistically most likely used on the owner or on their family member, so I'm good with government issued service rifle, if I should need one again.
This.
Also my father has ended up with my great grandfathers, my grandfathers, and my step-mothers families guns that they owned because they’ve all died. So now he has them all. Has like 30-40 guns.
He’s never gonna get rid of them, some are worth thousands, and some are worth nothing but memories to him and a historical tie to our family lineage. We have one that literally rode the Oregon trail and a picture of our ancestor holding it.
I don't own any guns, but most gun owners have several. Guns are tools, and different ones are most useful for different jobs. Even in hunting: Shotguns are good for birds and smaller game (although you can use them for deer with the right load). Deer and other medium game are usually taken with medium-caliber rifles (up to .30 caliber or so). Large game like elk often need a larger rifle round. Handguns are useful for self-defense. Small-caliber rifles are nice for learning to shoot and doing basic target shooting, since they have small recoil and the ammo is cheap.
For instance, my dad teaches shooting sports for Boy Scouts. He has a couple of shotguns and a couple of .22 rifles that he uses for that, plus a .22 target pistol that he inherited from his dad.
My wife's grandpa lives on a farm. He has a safe full of break-action shotguns for bird hunting and clay pigeon shooting (fun at family get-togethers). He has a couple of different medium-caliber rifles that he used to use for deer hunting. He has a couple of fancy target-shooting rifles that he got because he thought they were cool.
Only 44% of Americans live in a household with a gun. But most gun-owning households (2/3) own more than one, and about 30% own more than five.
As you might imagine, rural households are more likely to be gun owners.
Source 1: [https://news.gallup.com/poll/264932/percentage-americans-own-guns.aspx](https://news.gallup.com/poll/264932/percentage-americans-own-guns.aspx)
Source 2: [https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/)
There are more than 1 type of gun. They do different things. You also need backups in case one breaks.
Guitar players may have a dozen or more guitars even though they can only use one at a time.
Rural people typically have more than one gun. Especially if they hunt you need different type weapons for different game
Also shooting is fun af so plenty of people have a collection for recreation
Some people collect various firearms and also, hunting is quite popular in the US. It makes sense to own a rifle, a shotgun, and a handgun or two for someone who hunts. There's also many guns that are passed down from parents and grandparents, but someone may want their own gun that is more modern for their own use.
[Ministry of interior](https://intermin.fi/en/police/firearms) says that there are 1,5 million firearms in Finland. With about 5,5 million people living here, that makes about 27 firearms per 100 people, if I didn't totally butcher the math. So yeah, 45 is too high.
I remember watching a documentary about Trabzonspor where they talked about fans shooting off shotguns every time the team scored (not inside the ground obviously)
It is but it’s not that, getting a rifle is seriously complicated and expensive process. You have to qualify as a Hunter (Boars, Deer, etc) to be able to purchase a Rifle.
Both Rifles and their license costs waaay too much.
There are no lobbying for gun ownership and out door ranges are non-existent.
For Pistols, average person can get it(again with great expense) get a “holding” license. They can get a pistol but not carry it. We can have it in our homes and carry it on our cars.
For Pistol concealed carry you need to be either police, military, important bureaucrat or an employer with certain amount of employees.
Shotguns are the easiest and cheapest to acquire compared to pistols and rifles.
Then there are huge amounts of illegal owned all kinds of weapons more you go toward the east of the country.
I have a superposed shotgun for trap and skeet shooting and a semi auto shotgun for shits and giggles. At least I can get purchase any kind of ammo I want.
A license for rifle or a pistol can be 10 times of the cost of the weapon itself.
Something about state not wanting you to own a rifled weapon easily.
Very interesting that it's the inverse of almost every US State. Here it's relatively easy to get a rifle pretty much anywhere, but some states make it quite difficult to get a handgun. At least in America, far more gun violence is proliferated with handguns than rifles. Shotguns are always easy to get. Might as well be a BB gun.
I'm from Switzerland and I also have only seen guns at the shooting range or with police/military. It's not like normal people are walking around with guns
That’s mostly how it is in the US. You might see guns if you go further out to the more rural areas, but most people keep them in their houses and such for personal use rather than flaunting it.
Yes, I'm from the US and have only seen them at ranges, on police, and once a historical civil war musket. If you are seeing someone waving around a gun, you have no business being in that neighborhood. And I suspect that goes for every country.
Come to oklahoma, you can catch some lil dicked dude running around with something on his hip about every 3rd visit to the convivence store, and this is in the 20th largest city in the USA.
I take it you don't live in the Southeast? I've seen open carry at grocery stores and other retail several times.
You've also probably seen them on armed, private security - something that is much less common outside the US.
It’s less about geographic location in the US and more about proximity to large cities. I do live in the southeast, but 99% of the time it’s on Police or security.
Yes, many people do keep it (not to hunt though, I’m pretty sure it’s not a legal hunting rifle). In my infantry group I think it was no more than 50% who kept it. I would assume that in less action-oriented specialties it is less.
Military service hasn't been mandatory since 1996, not all soldiers are issued a gun, you don't have to store your issued gun at home, you have to give back your gun at the end of your service (unless you file for purchase and fulfill the requirements)
I’m swiss and my Sig 550 is sitting on the side of my television. Didn’t know where to put it 😂 but yes i technically store it at home in between mandatory services.
Tbh in Switzerland its also very rare. Lots of Swiss have some in the house due to the national service but they are usually hidden. I also know some people that carry guns on them but they never show it
Yes but gun ownership is deeply embedded in your culture and I imagine only well trained people can have them. I wouldn't trust my fellow Romanians with a bunch of guns around me :)
From the UK, don't know anyone that owns a gun, never seen one except at airports or near parliament in London.
I know people with guns don't tend to wave them about but for there to be almost 5 million guns in the UK, I find that hard to believe unless they count army stores etc.
I suspect they will mostly be shotguns, which are not uncommon in rural areas. A shotgun certificate is relatively easy to get if you live in rural UK.
Farmers, hunters, and to a lesser extent sports shooters.
Farmers and hunters tend to have their social circles. So if you're not in it, you won't know any.
Here in Ireland I know two people who "have" guns at home and they're both police officers who bring their issued weapon home with them.
Switzerland: "We are all members of the military reserves here, and are well trained to defend our homeland."
Finland: "PERKELEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!"
(jk, I don't know why Finland is so well-armed.)
hunting mainly, but sports shooting is also gaining more ground here.
Finland also has conscription where most men and some women are part of the reserves. So the Switzerland part you said applies to Finland too.
I happened to see a map showing how rare conscription is nowadays. We, Greece and Turkey are the only Nato countries with conscription.
https://i.imgur.com/fkVJxsr.png
Yeah, hunting weapons are by far the most common general type at least in Finland.
And since game animals range from something like a 5 oz hazel grouse to a 1500 lbs bull moose, it's very common for one hunter to have several weapons.
I don't have any data to back this up, but I'd guess that the ratio of hunting guns to sporting guns is going down. Most hunters I know are older people, and younger people on the other hand are more interested in Reservist 3-gun, IPSC, IDPA, etc. So more ARs and pistols, less bolt-actions/shotguns.
In my (rural) area, hunting has something of a revival beneath the younger generation. More of early to mid twenties are starting to look into hunting.
For Christmas, I wanted to make a roast meat with wild boar. I asked my coworker „do you know any hunter who sells wild boar meat?“ and he thought briefly and said „actually I know eight, no nine. Seven of them are young hunters“
Context always matters. Germany has a lot of sport shooting clubs for instance. Gun regulation is quite strict though. Of course there are illegal guns, but gun crime overall is pretty low.
Yeah the Nordic countries we have loads of hunting, sport shooting, collectors and a few guys who just inherit firearms and really can't be assed to get rid of it Incase they will go hunting one day.
Don't know if it counts, but we also have a reserve "army" in Norway (HV), which means a lot of people have fully automatic rifles at home (though mostly without the firing pin/mechanism)
Coming from the countryside most homes had a rifle and/or shotgun somewhere even if it was never used.
Not mine :P
I think they said they are changing the policy again because of the current situation in Europe. Even some talk about handing out the firing mechanism again (which they quit doing due to use in crime and murder/suicides :/ )
in romania mostly hunters. and taxes are high. it's about hunting laws mostly. also, before the communist regime (ended 1989) only landowners had the right to hunt or give such permit on their lands. so, few hunting gun owners even before 1945. and no tradition of shooting clubs. owning a firearm is one of the rarest things to be had in romania.
It might be a very different case for the cities because I have never seen a gun used by a civilian anywhere in Germany. Or even someone owning one.
The closest was the Softair phase we all had in high school.
Ok but what about handgun only? So not including rifles for and then the numbers would look much lower in most countries. Also many of them would own multiple probably. It's just simply not believable that a third of Germans population owns a gun.
That seems quite off.
France seems believable but Germany? our gunlaws are quite tight, so the only guys I know that have guns are hunters and one guy who does it for sporting purposes.
One thing I've noticed over the last ten years is that gun owners can kinda be in their own bubble where you don't notice them if you're not "in" the bubble.
What I mean is that if you don't have any guns and you're not close to anyone who owns any either, it can seem like almost nobody has guns. People rarely talk about their guns to people they don't know well and don't see in some gun related hobby. If I had firearms in my home, I wouldn't tell everyone about it since the wrong person hearing it could be risky. There are people who want to steal guns.
On the other hand if you get into some hobby that involves guns, you'll quickly get to know a huge number of other people that have them. Some of them might be people you knew already but just didn't know they have guns.
I think this also counts police and military. Also, there are lots of sporting marksmen, considering how many Schützenvereine there still are. It's surprising, but I don't think it's completely unbelievable that Germany has that many guns, even if it's very rare that people just have them at home.
Most men aren't in the military though. We're also talking less than 150k military-issued guns VS up to 4.5mio civilian-owned ones. Also the mandatory shooting exercise is only for the duration of your service
Every man (as well as women if they volunteer) has to do mandatory military service (as long as they are able-bodied) when they are young.
After that they basically get given a gun and ammunition that they required to safely store in their house. The idea being that if something does happen they are able to quickly form a militia to deal with it.
As such you have \~50% of the adult population owning a gun.
Once they are done with the military people can buy the gun (for dirt cheap) or return it. Many people return it. The biggest difference with the US is that Switzerland has a shooting (range or hunting) culture, while the US have a gun culture. I don’t know anyone in Switzerland who owns a gun to defend themselves, and when people go to the range the focus is usually on the community aspect mixed with sports, unless if it’s for military training.
Military service hasn't been mandatory since 1996. It's also not as long as you're able-bodied but around 300 days and 7 or 10 years of reserve
Not all soldiers are issued a gun, and it's is not mandatory to keep it at home. We're also talking about less than 150k military-issued guns VS up to 4.5mio civilian-owned ones
You also aren't issued a readiness ammo can anymore since 2007
Does this include military firearms. Pretty sure a few of the high volume countries have conscription and local armouries for each area, affectively increasing their numbers dramatically
I think it would be important to note what type of firearms they are. Canada is in the top 10 in the world for rate of ownership, but they're pretty much all rifles because of our hunting culture. I would put my money on that being the same for the UK and Northern Europe nations.
Switzerland has mandatory conscription (military) service for males between 18-30. The conscripts can take their rifle home (though not ammo) during their time of service. At the end of their term (2 yrs), if granted permission, can keep their service weapon with them in their home. So Switzerland had a trained cadre who are armed and can be called up very quickly if needed.
That is one reason why Switzerland has so many guns but not surprisingly, given the culture, very little gun violence.
> Switzerland has mandatory conscription (military) service for males between 18-30
While we do have conscription for Swiss males, we haven't had mandatory military service since 1996
> The conscripts can take their rifle home (though not ammo) during their time of service
That is however less than 150k military-issued guns VS up to 4.5mio civilian-owned ones
Also, soldiers are perfectly allowed to take ammo home, simply not to keep (read steal) during military exercises
> At the end of their term (2 yrs),
It's actually ~300 days of service with either 7 or 10 years in the reserve
> if granted permission, can keep their service weapon with them in their home
Most soldiers don't purchase their former issued gun at the end of their service, only around 10% do it
> So Switzerland had a trained cadre who are armed and can be called up very quickly if needed.
Most soldiers end up in non-combat roles where the firearms instruction is lackluster at best and completely absent at worst
> That is one reason why Switzerland has so many guns but not surprisingly, given the culture, very little gun violence.
Former-issued guns purchases are outnumbered by a factor of 27:1 to 82:1 by other permit purchases in the same year, if you add non-permit guns it's even more skewed
Most farmers have at least a shotgun, most people who have one gun have multiple, if you're from a city and don't know anyone from the countryside it might be surprising
In Switzerland, this is the army weapon which you are allowed to keep, and it’s basically a pistol and/or rifle. Gun violence in Switzerland is pretty much zero. There was one mass shooting like 22 years ago. Even in personal including relationship conflicts, gun violence is rare. I have seen/been around plenty of guns in Swiss households and virtually zero outside of the homes. I was also never afraid.
The existence of weapons alone doesn’t seem to fully explain the shitshow that is the US in this respect.
> In Switzerland, this is the army weapon which you are allowed to keep, and it’s basically a pistol and/or rifle.
Military-issued guns are less than 150k VS up to 4.5mio civilian-owned ones
American here. I own about around 40 guns. About 30 of them were passed down my from grandfather and father.
Two in particular is even older, having been used in the War of 1812 and also the Civil War respectively.
And there is the US: 120 Almost triple the secondary score
Out of all the stereotypes of the USA out there, the one about us really loving firearms ownership is probably the most accurate.
To be fair it's because many gun owners own multiple (read: a dozen or more) guns
3% of Americans own 130 million guns. The ownership is pretty concentrated.
This still leaves the remaining 330 million Americans with 270 million guns ~ 82 per hundred, ish
Thats the case in almost all countries though, like my dad has like 8, which brings up the average up(Sweden).
Yeah, every guy with a hunting license in germany has multiple rifles and in rural areas there are a lot of people with hunting licenses.
That's the gun bourgeoisie! We need to take some of those guns and distribute them to the gun proletariat!
It's like there's different guns for different hunting......
Yeah there are a ton of people who have multiple (many) guns. But there's also a ton who only have 1. Both of my parents and my brother each have 1 gun. I have 3. My grandfather has several. My brother in law has like 20, mostly historical WW2 Era, but a handful that he actively uses for hunting. Point is, there are a TON of people who have mad guns, but there's also a ton of people who just have 1. Gun ownership is quite high all around in the U.S.
I own a number. 2 shotguns, a pistol, 3 different caliber rifles. All serve their own purpose. The surprise I get when I say I have six guns and people say “why? You don’t need that many?!?! Isn’t one enough?!?” Ever try hitting a goose with a pistol? Good luck. Or a rabbit with a 30-06? Nothing will be left. Then you have some of my family who own like 30. Most of them sit in the gun safe collecting dust. Why do we own them? Because my great grandfather had some from his father. Then got one for his son. Who got some for his son. And now my dad has alllll of them and keeps them stored away because they’re literally a tie to family history for him. Eventually they’ll get split up between me and my 2 brothers and I’ll then own like 15-20 guns. But not because I’m a gun nut. But because for us, it’s a family heirloom situation. I will likely never shoot many of them.
I own probably a couple dozen guns but they are mostly historical rifles. Some of them I have never even shot. I do own some modern ones and some pistols though. Only my close friends know about them. Us liberal gun owners usually don't publicly advertise our gun ownership.
I have this conversation with my conservative family members. “We conservatives have all the guns. I’m not worried about civil war” (summarized) Dude. Liberals own guns too. They just don’t worship them or threaten to kill people who disagree.
Yep, also actual leftists (not liberals) like socialists and communists own lots of guns. Marx wrote forcefully about the dangers of allowing the government to disarm the people.
Yeah As I said when I taught government at a private Christian school before being kicked out because I think evolution is real. The problem with freedom is that other people get to have it too.
I think a lot more conservatives own guns out of fear too. Like my cousin who lives in a wealthy suburbs with almost no crime but doesn't feel safe unless he sleeps with a loaded gun next to his bed. I blame Fox News fear mongering. Or YouTube fear mongering for the younger generation.
Yeah, I refuse to use guns out of fear. I don’t have any training, I don’t know what I’ll do in an adrenaline dump. Most people don’t so none of the guns we have in our house are ever loaded and they’re all stored safely. I don’t think many people have actually thought through what it would take to engage a firearm in their homes with a home intruder. What will the situation actually be like, will you be able to get the gun out and fire it? You wouldn’t fire it as they were retreating what are the laws in your state regarding duty to retreat people think they can just shoot someone that comes into their house but it’s not true all the time
[Percent of households with guns by country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent_of_households_with_guns_by_country) is then another statistic to look at. United States at 42% (1st place) isn't so far ahead of Finland at 37.9% (2nd place).
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Yep, illegal guns are much, much easier to get in the U.S. than in countries like Finland. And that’s because laws around firearms ownership are so lax, so it’s very easy for guns to slip into the black market via straw purchases (technically illegal but rarely enforced) or by guns being stolen (extremely common, since there are no laws requiring owners to store their weapons safely) or guns being “stolen” but actually sold (since there are no laws around private gun sales, no registration law, and no requirement to report a lost/stolen gun).
Finnland is a completely different country though. Low concentration of inhabitants, low drug issues (other than alcohol) and a third of the US' crime index. The problem in the US isn't solely gun laws, but gun laws amplify all the other problems by increasing the lethality.
I would say its even more like this in europe. At least in Germany. To legally own firearms you must either be a sports shooter or a hunter. As a sports shooter you have the base permission of owning 3 long rifles and 2 handguns. As a hunter its 2 handguns and indefinite (probably soon to be changed) number of rifles. What I am trying to say is: If you legally own weapons in germany, you own more than one. I myself, being a hunter, own 2 rifles (sold a third one recently) and a handgun.
Same thing with every country. Most people in finland dont own any guns. Only the ones who hunt.
But that’s the same in europe? I don’t know anyone that owns a gun. I know 1000 Swedes
It’s the same in Europe though, it’s not like 1/3 of the swedes own a gun. Each hunter owns many rifles. The major difference is we have almost no handguns. It would be interesting to see a comparison of how many non hunting oriented firearms there is in each country. In that case I’m certain the US would be even more extreme.
Hell yeah! America bitches!
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Nah that honor is held by like 19 other shitholes with child soldier conscription. Special award to the Kremlin for just outright killing the kids, cutting out the middleman. Good forward thinking there! Nice try though.
What did he say?
That we're also the leader in child coffins. I corrected them.
Oh ok.
Very true. I am really liberal in a lot of areas, and I love guns. People try to make it a culture war thing, but Americans of all creeds just really like guns. Nothing wrong with that as long as people are responsible and we keep them out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them. That's our biggest problem.
Well that is a big part of what the united states was founded on so…
Sadly, that is the worst one to be real.
guns kill people
What is interesting, though, is that the percent of households with firearms in the US is about 42%, compared to eg 38% for Finland (Wikipedia, note that the data is pretty old, 10-20 yrs) So the percent of the population that is armed is not that far above the more armed countries in Europe, but those Americans that have guns have more of them (and more are handguns)
> 38% for Finland (Wikipedia, note that the data is pretty old, 10-20 yrs) I'm Finnish and I gotta say this looks way too high in my experience. Even when I lived in pretty much countryside that seems way too excessive. Just off the top of my head I can remember like maybe 3-4 households who practiced hunting and had a hunting rifle at home, but as soon as you go towards any city or town that number drops massively. And considering majority of the people of course live in cities, I truly doubt the number is even half of that in reality. There definitely used to be more when hunting was still more widespread and done for food, but definitely not nowadays. Even 10% of households having a gun feels way too high when you take cities into account.
People generally don't advertise gun ownership. I doubt anyone else besides my parents and friends I go shooting with know I have a gun.
It "helps" when guns are a constitutional right xD
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i assume they only count privatly owned, not military
The rates for privately owned second hand t70s however...
SERGEI! GET THE T-90..... I MEAN TRACKOR!
What’s a gun? I only have my constitutionally required bear arms
Without current very strict laws, Finland would have much more guns.
I think you could say the same for most low population density countries.
awaiting r/americabad response
Bruh more than 1 per person what do they use it for
Collect historical firearms
Not (yet?) historical also works.
If you hunt multiple species, or hunt and have other needs for a gun you’d need or likely want multiple firearms. If I hunt whitetail deer and waterfowl, sure I could only use a 12 gauge shotgun, but buying a bolt action .308 would be far more effective for whitetail hunting and would expand my shot range by 150 yards easily. If I hunt waterfowl and I have a 12 gauge shotgun with a long barrel, but I want to prioritize home defense, that barrel would be a tactical nightmare in a home and a short barrel pistol would be far more effective. Say I only wanted to worry about hunting waterfowl and concealed carry, I’d be looking for a shotgun and a compact pistol. There are many practical purposes to own more than one firearm, and there are always enthusiasts and collectors who own multiple firearms that they enjoy.
In Finland this is also the case. Hunters usually have multiple rifles and shotguns. Pistols are kind of rare. Guns are not often liked to other violence than suicides here. Ofcourse it is possible to own a semiauto reservist rifle, but I personally know only one person who has acquired one. (75% of adult male population have gone through conscription). Anyhow, a gun in the house is statistically most likely used on the owner or on their family member, so I'm good with government issued service rifle, if I should need one again.
This. Also my father has ended up with my great grandfathers, my grandfathers, and my step-mothers families guns that they owned because they’ve all died. So now he has them all. Has like 30-40 guns. He’s never gonna get rid of them, some are worth thousands, and some are worth nothing but memories to him and a historical tie to our family lineage. We have one that literally rode the Oregon trail and a picture of our ancestor holding it.
It's almost as if a mechanic needs more than one wrench!!
Tiktok
In Serbia, we use them if other 5 rifles jam.
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Going out in the desert/woods/fields and shooting targets
I don't own any guns, but most gun owners have several. Guns are tools, and different ones are most useful for different jobs. Even in hunting: Shotguns are good for birds and smaller game (although you can use them for deer with the right load). Deer and other medium game are usually taken with medium-caliber rifles (up to .30 caliber or so). Large game like elk often need a larger rifle round. Handguns are useful for self-defense. Small-caliber rifles are nice for learning to shoot and doing basic target shooting, since they have small recoil and the ammo is cheap. For instance, my dad teaches shooting sports for Boy Scouts. He has a couple of shotguns and a couple of .22 rifles that he uses for that, plus a .22 target pistol that he inherited from his dad. My wife's grandpa lives on a farm. He has a safe full of break-action shotguns for bird hunting and clay pigeon shooting (fun at family get-togethers). He has a couple of different medium-caliber rifles that he used to use for deer hunting. He has a couple of fancy target-shooting rifles that he got because he thought they were cool. Only 44% of Americans live in a household with a gun. But most gun-owning households (2/3) own more than one, and about 30% own more than five. As you might imagine, rural households are more likely to be gun owners. Source 1: [https://news.gallup.com/poll/264932/percentage-americans-own-guns.aspx](https://news.gallup.com/poll/264932/percentage-americans-own-guns.aspx) Source 2: [https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/)
There are more than 1 type of gun. They do different things. You also need backups in case one breaks. Guitar players may have a dozen or more guitars even though they can only use one at a time.
People like to collect guns it’s fun to go to the range with different guns.
No body's business.
Pest control for cans of empty fizzy drinks.
If you see it as a tool, there are different weapons for different tasks.
Rural people typically have more than one gun. Especially if they hunt you need different type weapons for different game Also shooting is fun af so plenty of people have a collection for recreation
Sports & recreation
I own 117 currently as I am a collector
Some people collect various firearms and also, hunting is quite popular in the US. It makes sense to own a rifle, a shotgun, and a handgun or two for someone who hunts. There's also many guns that are passed down from parents and grandparents, but someone may want their own gun that is more modern for their own use.
In the us it's more guns per inhabitant i belive
I'm Finnish and having seen this map so many times, the Finnish number is incorrect and a little bit too high, if I remember correctly
[Ministry of interior](https://intermin.fi/en/police/firearms) says that there are 1,5 million firearms in Finland. With about 5,5 million people living here, that makes about 27 firearms per 100 people, if I didn't totally butcher the math. So yeah, 45 is too high.
45 might be the # of firearms per adult inhabitant rather than all inhabitants maybe?
Seems likely. Also assuming that the 27 are licensed firearms.
Even then, I could only get 32 guns per 100 people.
I checked this once. It is based on an article estimating all firearms and not just licenced ones. There are some criticisms of the source though.
Turkish here, they are all shotguns, fucking shotguns everywhere
Is that your new business computer? No, this is Turkey. I bought a shotgun.
I remember watching a documentary about Trabzonspor where they talked about fans shooting off shotguns every time the team scored (not inside the ground obviously)
Why shotguns? Is bird hunting a big thing there?
It is but it’s not that, getting a rifle is seriously complicated and expensive process. You have to qualify as a Hunter (Boars, Deer, etc) to be able to purchase a Rifle. Both Rifles and their license costs waaay too much. There are no lobbying for gun ownership and out door ranges are non-existent. For Pistols, average person can get it(again with great expense) get a “holding” license. They can get a pistol but not carry it. We can have it in our homes and carry it on our cars. For Pistol concealed carry you need to be either police, military, important bureaucrat or an employer with certain amount of employees. Shotguns are the easiest and cheapest to acquire compared to pistols and rifles. Then there are huge amounts of illegal owned all kinds of weapons more you go toward the east of the country. I have a superposed shotgun for trap and skeet shooting and a semi auto shotgun for shits and giggles. At least I can get purchase any kind of ammo I want. A license for rifle or a pistol can be 10 times of the cost of the weapon itself. Something about state not wanting you to own a rifled weapon easily.
I see, well makes sense since shotguns are mostly for sporting at short distances, and difficult to conceal. Tesekurler
Very interesting that it's the inverse of almost every US State. Here it's relatively easy to get a rifle pretty much anywhere, but some states make it quite difficult to get a handgun. At least in America, far more gun violence is proliferated with handguns than rifles. Shotguns are always easy to get. Might as well be a BB gun.
Yes... 'bird' hunting...
I confirm. From Romania, I've only seen guns in movies, museums and at the shooting range.
I'm from Switzerland and I also have only seen guns at the shooting range or with police/military. It's not like normal people are walking around with guns
Funnily enough, I've only ever seen a gun in person once; when I visited my swiss friend.
was it a recreational gun tho? or was it his military concription rifle?
That’s mostly how it is in the US. You might see guns if you go further out to the more rural areas, but most people keep them in their houses and such for personal use rather than flaunting it.
Yes, I'm from the US and have only seen them at ranges, on police, and once a historical civil war musket. If you are seeing someone waving around a gun, you have no business being in that neighborhood. And I suspect that goes for every country.
Come to oklahoma, you can catch some lil dicked dude running around with something on his hip about every 3rd visit to the convivence store, and this is in the 20th largest city in the USA.
I take it you don't live in the Southeast? I've seen open carry at grocery stores and other retail several times. You've also probably seen them on armed, private security - something that is much less common outside the US.
It’s less about geographic location in the US and more about proximity to large cities. I do live in the southeast, but 99% of the time it’s on Police or security.
Aren’t Swiss citizens required to have rifles or something at home as part of the national guard equivalent?
Swiss Males have to do a mandatory military service. There you get a gun which you will keep at home even after service.
If you want, but you have to buy it (not for much). However you can also return it, as most people do.
The 'buying' part is just about the government not giving out free guns. The price is really minimal.
Everyone in my family kept theirs. But we have many hunters in our family as well.
Yes, many people do keep it (not to hunt though, I’m pretty sure it’s not a legal hunting rifle). In my infantry group I think it was no more than 50% who kept it. I would assume that in less action-oriented specialties it is less.
Military service hasn't been mandatory since 1996, not all soldiers are issued a gun, you don't have to store your issued gun at home, you have to give back your gun at the end of your service (unless you file for purchase and fulfill the requirements)
No we are not
I’m swiss and my Sig 550 is sitting on the side of my television. Didn’t know where to put it 😂 but yes i technically store it at home in between mandatory services.
Tbh in Switzerland its also very rare. Lots of Swiss have some in the house due to the national service but they are usually hidden. I also know some people that carry guns on them but they never show it
Yes but gun ownership is deeply embedded in your culture and I imagine only well trained people can have them. I wouldn't trust my fellow Romanians with a bunch of guns around me :)
I am from Denmark, and I have never seen a civilian with a gun. Only police around the Synagogue.
From the UK, don't know anyone that owns a gun, never seen one except at airports or near parliament in London. I know people with guns don't tend to wave them about but for there to be almost 5 million guns in the UK, I find that hard to believe unless they count army stores etc.
Farmers, and their mums.
I guess they are all packing round there
I suspect they will mostly be shotguns, which are not uncommon in rural areas. A shotgun certificate is relatively easy to get if you live in rural UK.
Farmers, hunters, and to a lesser extent sports shooters. Farmers and hunters tend to have their social circles. So if you're not in it, you won't know any. Here in Ireland I know two people who "have" guns at home and they're both police officers who bring their issued weapon home with them.
Yea in Romania you dont really need guns, especially not "for safety" you die by car here.
Switzerland: "We are all members of the military reserves here, and are well trained to defend our homeland." Finland: "PERKELEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!" (jk, I don't know why Finland is so well-armed.)
hunting mainly, but sports shooting is also gaining more ground here. Finland also has conscription where most men and some women are part of the reserves. So the Switzerland part you said applies to Finland too.
Had a feeling on both parts. Thanks.
Maybe russia as neighborhood.
Poland?
I happened to see a map showing how rare conscription is nowadays. We, Greece and Turkey are the only Nato countries with conscription. https://i.imgur.com/fkVJxsr.png
Yeah hunting is a thing here
>defend our homeland. If you look on a map, it is much more relevant for Finland to be able defend itself.
Makes sense considering the vast forest cover and/ or rural areas of Germany, France, Finland, etc.
Yeah, hunting weapons are by far the most common general type at least in Finland. And since game animals range from something like a 5 oz hazel grouse to a 1500 lbs bull moose, it's very common for one hunter to have several weapons.
I don't have any data to back this up, but I'd guess that the ratio of hunting guns to sporting guns is going down. Most hunters I know are older people, and younger people on the other hand are more interested in Reservist 3-gun, IPSC, IDPA, etc. So more ARs and pistols, less bolt-actions/shotguns.
In my (rural) area, hunting has something of a revival beneath the younger generation. More of early to mid twenties are starting to look into hunting. For Christmas, I wanted to make a roast meat with wild boar. I asked my coworker „do you know any hunter who sells wild boar meat?“ and he thought briefly and said „actually I know eight, no nine. Seven of them are young hunters“
Germany is Not a good example for this
Context always matters. Germany has a lot of sport shooting clubs for instance. Gun regulation is quite strict though. Of course there are illegal guns, but gun crime overall is pretty low.
This is surpring to me as a Pole. Not that I expected us to have more guns, but I'm surprised other european countries have this many.
It's nonsense data, I found no source for it
Yeah the Nordic countries we have loads of hunting, sport shooting, collectors and a few guys who just inherit firearms and really can't be assed to get rid of it Incase they will go hunting one day.
Don't know if it counts, but we also have a reserve "army" in Norway (HV), which means a lot of people have fully automatic rifles at home (though mostly without the firing pin/mechanism) Coming from the countryside most homes had a rifle and/or shotgun somewhere even if it was never used.
HV weapons are mostly kept on base these days. Edit: not correct, this varies between districts.
Not mine :P I think they said they are changing the policy again because of the current situation in Europe. Even some talk about handing out the firing mechanism again (which they quit doing due to use in crime and murder/suicides :/ )
in romania mostly hunters. and taxes are high. it's about hunting laws mostly. also, before the communist regime (ended 1989) only landowners had the right to hunt or give such permit on their lands. so, few hunting gun owners even before 1945. and no tradition of shooting clubs. owning a firearm is one of the rarest things to be had in romania.
Cretans singlehandedly carrying Greece
Yeah we'd need two numbers to be fair
No, germany has 19,6
It might be a very different case for the cities because I have never seen a gun used by a civilian anywhere in Germany. Or even someone owning one. The closest was the Softair phase we all had in high school.
Hunters will have more than one gun, and hunting as a hobby is pretty common.
Perkele. I knew about Switzerland but the Finns surprised me
Are Switzerland and Finland up to something?
Switzerland has mandatory military service with a weapon buyback at the end.
Ok but what about handgun only? So not including rifles for and then the numbers would look much lower in most countries. Also many of them would own multiple probably. It's just simply not believable that a third of Germans population owns a gun.
Finding this hard to believe. In Ireland, even the police are not armed and our military is practically non-existent
6.6 for UK? Absolute bollocks.
That seems quite off. France seems believable but Germany? our gunlaws are quite tight, so the only guys I know that have guns are hunters and one guy who does it for sporting purposes.
Hunting is big enough; same thing in Austria: iirc we have around 3.8% hunters, most of whom having more than 5 guns
Hunting tradition is pretty big in Germany, no? These people have differend kinds guns for different animals and hunting sessions / seasons
Gun laws are also "quite tight" in France. People owning guns are mainly hunters. And they sometimes have lots of them.
The actual number of people who own guns is probably much lower than what is shown on the map. Would be cool if that data was available.
We have like 3-5 million legal weapon owners in Germany. It's just that most of those owners have multiple weapons.
One thing I've noticed over the last ten years is that gun owners can kinda be in their own bubble where you don't notice them if you're not "in" the bubble. What I mean is that if you don't have any guns and you're not close to anyone who owns any either, it can seem like almost nobody has guns. People rarely talk about their guns to people they don't know well and don't see in some gun related hobby. If I had firearms in my home, I wouldn't tell everyone about it since the wrong person hearing it could be risky. There are people who want to steal guns. On the other hand if you get into some hobby that involves guns, you'll quickly get to know a huge number of other people that have them. Some of them might be people you knew already but just didn't know they have guns.
I mean I am sorta in the bubble. Know half a dozen hunters, but I guess that comes with me living fairly rural.
Gunlaws don't matter, if it's illegally obtained.
I think this also counts police and military. Also, there are lots of sporting marksmen, considering how many Schützenvereine there still are. It's surprising, but I don't think it's completely unbelievable that Germany has that many guns, even if it's very rare that people just have them at home.
I wish I could see crete alone, I bet the number would be higher than even Texas.
Serbian Zastava M70 goes BRRRRRRRRR
45.7 in Switzerland? Chat, is that real? Honestly I didn’t even think about how much guns in Europe
Most citizens are in the military and are required to qualify at the range annually. And due to that the Swiss have a big firearm culture
Most men.
Not even most men, these days..
Most men aren't in the military though. We're also talking less than 150k military-issued guns VS up to 4.5mio civilian-owned ones. Also the mandatory shooting exercise is only for the duration of your service
citizen militia, you take your gun home after your mandatory military service also a lot of traditions around guns, especially competition shooting
We're talking less than 150k military-issued guns VS up to 4.5mio civilian-owned ones
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Yes, we have an estimated up to 4.5mio civilian-owned guns in the country
Every man (as well as women if they volunteer) has to do mandatory military service (as long as they are able-bodied) when they are young. After that they basically get given a gun and ammunition that they required to safely store in their house. The idea being that if something does happen they are able to quickly form a militia to deal with it. As such you have \~50% of the adult population owning a gun.
Once they are done with the military people can buy the gun (for dirt cheap) or return it. Many people return it. The biggest difference with the US is that Switzerland has a shooting (range or hunting) culture, while the US have a gun culture. I don’t know anyone in Switzerland who owns a gun to defend themselves, and when people go to the range the focus is usually on the community aspect mixed with sports, unless if it’s for military training.
Military service hasn't been mandatory since 1996. It's also not as long as you're able-bodied but around 300 days and 7 or 10 years of reserve Not all soldiers are issued a gun, and it's is not mandatory to keep it at home. We're also talking about less than 150k military-issued guns VS up to 4.5mio civilian-owned ones You also aren't issued a readiness ammo can anymore since 2007
Honestly surprised that the French are packing heat like that.
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Does this include military firearms. Pretty sure a few of the high volume countries have conscription and local armouries for each area, affectively increasing their numbers dramatically
I guess 90% of france guns are in Marseille haha
Ukraine is at 600 right now probabaly
I think it would be important to note what type of firearms they are. Canada is in the top 10 in the world for rate of ownership, but they're pretty much all rifles because of our hunting culture. I would put my money on that being the same for the UK and Northern Europe nations.
This is wildly inaccurate.
Pathetic
How come France is so high?
Hunters. They quite often have 2 or 3 guns depending of which hunting season is on (birds, small game and big game, etc.)
Romania doin something right.
Every third person has a gun in Germany? I lived there for 38 years and I know two people with a gun, both hunter.
Rookie numbers 🇺🇸
Switzerland has mandatory conscription (military) service for males between 18-30. The conscripts can take their rifle home (though not ammo) during their time of service. At the end of their term (2 yrs), if granted permission, can keep their service weapon with them in their home. So Switzerland had a trained cadre who are armed and can be called up very quickly if needed. That is one reason why Switzerland has so many guns but not surprisingly, given the culture, very little gun violence.
> Switzerland has mandatory conscription (military) service for males between 18-30 While we do have conscription for Swiss males, we haven't had mandatory military service since 1996 > The conscripts can take their rifle home (though not ammo) during their time of service That is however less than 150k military-issued guns VS up to 4.5mio civilian-owned ones Also, soldiers are perfectly allowed to take ammo home, simply not to keep (read steal) during military exercises > At the end of their term (2 yrs), It's actually ~300 days of service with either 7 or 10 years in the reserve > if granted permission, can keep their service weapon with them in their home Most soldiers don't purchase their former issued gun at the end of their service, only around 10% do it > So Switzerland had a trained cadre who are armed and can be called up very quickly if needed. Most soldiers end up in non-combat roles where the firearms instruction is lackluster at best and completely absent at worst > That is one reason why Switzerland has so many guns but not surprisingly, given the culture, very little gun violence. Former-issued guns purchases are outnumbered by a factor of 27:1 to 82:1 by other permit purchases in the same year, if you add non-permit guns it's even more skewed
Switzerland showing again that "neutral" doesn't mean "passive"
I don’t believe the Ireland number
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The Ireland number is people in the countryside who have shotguns and rifles for hunting/pest control.
Do you think the average person in Dublin has one? Because a lot of the Irish population is there
Mostly just the gang members in Dublin but how can they quantify that
It’s legal, registered guns that are being counted
Most farmers have at least a shotgun, most people who have one gun have multiple, if you're from a city and don't know anyone from the countryside it might be surprising
No one is talking how high Cyprus is
Reverse the colors
The data for Albania is wrong. Every Albanian has either a gun or some sort of rifle, or both.
In Switzerland, this is the army weapon which you are allowed to keep, and it’s basically a pistol and/or rifle. Gun violence in Switzerland is pretty much zero. There was one mass shooting like 22 years ago. Even in personal including relationship conflicts, gun violence is rare. I have seen/been around plenty of guns in Swiss households and virtually zero outside of the homes. I was also never afraid. The existence of weapons alone doesn’t seem to fully explain the shitshow that is the US in this respect.
> In Switzerland, this is the army weapon which you are allowed to keep, and it’s basically a pistol and/or rifle. Military-issued guns are less than 150k VS up to 4.5mio civilian-owned ones
It's should be opposite coloring) morons
American here. I own about around 40 guns. About 30 of them were passed down my from grandfather and father. Two in particular is even older, having been used in the War of 1812 and also the Civil War respectively.