Record percentage says they or someone in household owns a gun: Survey

More than half of American voters, a record-high number, say they or someone in their household owns a gun, a new NBC News poll found.

According to the survey, which has polled voters since 1999 about U.S. household gun ownership, 52 percent of respondents this year said they or someone in their home owns a gun.

The number is up from 46 percent in 2019, according to an NBC News and Wall Street Journal poll. More than a decade ago in February 2013, the share of U.S. households that owned a gun was 42 percent.

“In the last 10 years, we’ve grown [10 points] in gun ownership. That’s a very stunning number,” Micah Roberts of Public Opinion Strategies, who co-conducted the poll with Hart Research, told NBC News. “By and large, things don’t change that dramatically that quickly when it comes to something as fundamental as whether you own a gun.

The survey found that gun ownership falls along partisan lines, as it has for years.

While Republican respondents have always surpassed Democrats in gun ownership, the survey shows that more Democrats own guns than ever before.

Since 2004, Republican gun ownership has increased incrementally. Nearly 20 years ago, 57 percent of GOP respondents owned a gun compared to 66 percent who said they do now.

Democrats also have seen increases. According to the survey, 33 percent of Democrats in 2004 said they or someone in their household owned a gun. This year, 41 percent said the same.  

The poll found that white voters tended to own guns at higher rates than voters of color, but gun ownership among Black voters has “jumped in recent years.”

The survey found that voters were split about how to view government intervention regarding gun ownership: 48 percent said they are concerned the government will not do enough to regulate access to firearms and 47 percent said they think the government will go too far in restricting gun rights, NBC News reported.

The NBC News survey was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and members of Hart Research from Nov. 10-14 among 1,000 registered voters and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.