Nearly 30 million acquire guns amid pandemic, including 11 million first-time owners
Although an early-pandemic surge in the number of U.S. adults who purchased firearms subsided after several years, there were still nearly 30 million people who acquired guns between 2021 and 2024—and more than 11 million of those were first-time gun owners, according to a new study. Further, a disproportionate share of the new gun owners were members of subgroups that typically hadn’t owned guns in the past, including women, Hispanic people, and people of color.
The study, published March 17 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was co-authored by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Deborah Azrael, director of research of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, along with colleagues from Northeastern University.
According to the authors, the findings suggest that the risk for violent death, particularly from suicide—well-established for those living in a home with guns—has increased substantially for millions of Americans, including the new gun owners themselves as well as other adults and children living in their households.
To measure how many Americans acquired firearms after January 1, 2021, how many were first-time owners, and how many were newly exposed to guns in their households, the researchers conducted a national survey in December 2024 of more than 4,000 firearm owners. Based on that survey, they estimated that about 29.8 million adults had acquired guns from 2021 to 2024, including 11.2 million new owners. Women made up about 46% of the new owners, while 46% were either Hispanic and/or people of color.
The researchers also estimated that roughly 7.8 million new gun owners brought their firearms into homes that previously had no guns—exposing 9 million other adults and 6.6 million children to the risks of living in a household with guns.
The findings underscore the need for periodic survey-based assessment of firearm ownership and household-level exposure, the authors wrote.
Read a Medical Xpress article about the study: Nearly 30 million Americans bought guns after the pandemic, with 11 million becoming first-time gun owners
