‘common use for lawful purposes’
Survey Shows Growing Number of Americans Own Guns For Self-Defense
A new survey from the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention at the University of Michigan has discovered what most of us already knew to be the case: the number one reason why tens of millions of Americans exercise their Second Amendment rights is personal safety.
The survey quizzed about 2,500 gun owners about their motivation to keep and bear arms, and the vast majority of respondents said self-defense was the most important factor in their decision.
Nearly 80% said they were motivated to get a firearm for personal protection, a proportion that appears to have risen over the past 25 years. No single study has tracked the reasons for gun ownership over time, making comparisons inexact, but similar studies have found that about 26% of Americans reported owning a gun for protection in 1999. Various studies suggest that between 60% and 70% of gun owners said protection was their main motivation for having a firearm from 2017 through 2021.
It’s a trend that has roots in the social upheaval of the 1960s, said Dr. David Yamane, a professor of sociology at Wake Forest University who studies gun culture in the United States and who was not involved in the survey.
“It was a time of profound social unrest and social uncertainty, lots of political movements, cultural change, foreign threats, people listening to crazy music, you know, ‘sex, drugs and rock n’ roll,’ political assassination, riots or protest movements in some cities,” said Yamane, who owns a gun and who financially supports organizations that promote gun ownership.




