What states have the most gun owners?

Red states, especially those with mostly rural populations, are much more likely to have high rates of gun ownership, but some blue states are surprisingly trending upward. The reason may shock you.

The Visual Capitalist reports that the United States has more guns than people, with nearly 400 million firearms owned by civilians.

The outlet recently came out with an interesting map in which it ranks states by the highest percentage of gun ownership. It’s based on data from the Pew Research Center compiled by Data Pandas as of 2024.

Montana tops the list of the states with the highest percentage of gun ownership, with 66.3% of the adult population owning firearms. The state has some of the most relaxed gun control laws in America. No state permit is required to purchase or possess a rifle, shotgun or handgun.

Montana is followed on the list by its neighbor, Wyoming, where 66.2% of adults own a firearm. Alaska comes in third, with 64.5%, followed by Idaho (60.1%), West Virginia (58.5%) and Arkansas (57.2%).

The top 10 gun-owning states are rounded out by Mississippi, Alabama, South Dakota and North Dakota.

On the flip side, New Jersey and Massachusetts share the lowest gun ownership rate in the country, both at a measely 14.7%.

Two other states with very low ownership rates include Hawaii (14.9%) and Rhode Island (14.8%).

But here’s an interesting twist on the story of who owns firearms in America. Some of the Democrat-run blue states are reporting significant increases in gun ownership over the last few years. It’s happening in spite of all of the laws these states pass that are aimed at discouraging people from being able to defend themselves, should the need arise.

So it’s not just conservatives who now see the need to arm up in today’s America — an America that is becoming increasingly dangerous, especially in cities of 100,000 or more population.

You can agree or disagree with their motive, but according to the Philadelphia Inquirer LGBT liberals are reportedly buying firearms now out of fear they will be rounded up and placed in concentration camps under the incoming Trump administration.

I kid you not.

The new gun-toting advocacy groups, including the Liberal Gun Club, the Socialist Rifle Association, and Pink Pistols, claimed they’ve received thousands of firearm-training requests since Trump won the 2024 election.

“Three months before the election, that’s when the alarm bells started to ring,” a 24-year-old transgender activist told the Philadelphis Inquirer, adding that armed leftists will now be able to fight back “in the event of hate crimes or terrorist attacks.”

The activist added that minorities should also take their Second Amendment rights seriously, since “minorities that are armed are more difficult to legally oppress.”

That’s sound advice for any American, whether you’re part of a minority or the majority, liberal or conservative. Because it’s a fact that most shootings take place in gun-free zones where criminals and terrorists know that nobody’s going to shoot back.