As per a latest survey, the United States has most firearms in civilian hands, and it’s leading the next country, India, with much more population, by huge distance. So how many guns are in circulation in the US?
The new Small Arms Survey put the number of civilian-held firearms worldwide at 857 million in 2017. There were a further 133 million guns in the hands of militaries that year as well as 22.7 million controlled by law enforcement. The survey noted that it is difficult to precisely gauge the number of civilianheld firearms worldwide and it uses a variety of available data sources including published official documents and research studies, official responses to questionnaires, public opinion surveys, news reports and correspondence with experts.
The US has more guns than people and the survey estimates that it had 393,300,000 civilian-owned firearms in 2017—120.5 firearms for every 100 residents. Interestingly, in the last survey, the US had 88.8 guns for every 100 residents. So, the country has seen an upward trend, maybe a sign of tension and uneasiness in American society.
India, with a population of 1.35 billion, comes distant second with an estimated 71.1 million weapons. China, the world’s most populous country, comes third with 49.7 million.
Pakistan is in fourth place with 43.9 million civilian-owned guns while Russia rounds off the top-five with 17.6 million. The Small Arms Survey, a research project run by a Swiss university, publishes a ranking of estimated civilian gun ownership by country.