Gun Owners’ Views on Gun Control Vary Based on Where They Live

Americans with guns have different experiences and opinions on gun policies.

July 10, 2017 1:01 pm
Brandon Wexler shows a customer one of the weapons that she was picking up at the end of the three day waiting period at the K&W Gunworks store on the day that U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, DC announced his executive action on guns on January 5, 2016 in Delray Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Brandon Wexler shows a customer one of the weapons that she was picking up at the end of the three day waiting period at the K&W Gunworks store on the day that U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, DC announced his executive action on guns on January 5, 2016 in Delray Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

For many people in this country, owning a gun is as American as baseball or apple pie. But it turns out that gun owners disagree on policy matters related to firearms as the rest of the population does.

A wide variety of demographics own guns in the United States, but their views on gun control vary widely depending on the location in which they live. According to a new survey from the Pew Research Center, urban and rural gun owners differ the most.

The study found that 21 percent of urban gun owners believe crime would increase if more Americans owned guns while only nine percent of rural owners agree with that statement.

Nearly half of rural America have weapons in their home, while less than a quarter of Americans in urban areas do. Rural Americans are also 25 percent more likely to have more than one gun in their home.

Pew found that personal protection is the number one reason for gun ownership across all demographics, but rural Americans are nearly twice as likely to cite hunting as a big reason for purchasing a gun, too.

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