Half of US guns owned by just 3% of Americans: Survey

While the number of guns in the US is growing, but their ownership has been increasingly limited to comparatively fewer people, a new study by Harvard and Northeastern university has revealed.

The study, released before publication to the Trace and The Guardian, estimated that around half of the 265 million guns now owned privately, belonged to just 3 per cent of US citizens and though most of the country's 55 million gun owners possessed one to three guns, about 7.7 million owners had eight or more.

According to the Trace, most of the guns added in the last twenty years were also handguns, often procured for self defence. Smaller guns like revolvers and pistols had boosted the percentage of handguns to 42 per cent of the national stock, as against just 34 per cent in 1994.

The study is among the most comprehensive to examine gun ownership in over twenty years, according to the Trace. Federal research into gun violence had been largely absent, after an amendment in the 1996 appropriations bill that stipulated relevant funding for the Centers for Disease Control cannot "be used to advocate or promote gun control."

However, the study's preliminary results were questioned by a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun trade association.

The study questioned some 4,000 US citizens about what types of guns they had in their homes, how they were stored and why they had them.

According to most of the respondents, their guns were meant for protection and not for hunting or sport.

According to the study, super-owners comprised mainly collectors, firearms instructors, gunsmiths, competitive shooters, and doomsday survivalists.

In terms of overall demographics, the researchers said gun owners for the most part were white, male, conservative and lived in rural areas.