{"id":8426,"date":"2022-08-25T10:58:18","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T15:58:18","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-04-23T23:55:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T03:55:40","slug":"republicans-in-congress-are-about-three-times-as-likely-as-democrats-to-indicate-that-they-own-a-gun","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2022\/08\/25\/republicans-in-congress-are-about-three-times-as-likely-as-democrats-to-indicate-that-they-own-a-gun\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans in Congress are about three times as likely as Democrats to indicate that they own a gun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Republicans in the United States are considerably more likely than Democrats to say they own a gun, as Pew Research Center surveys<\/a> have consistently found<\/a>. A similar pattern appears among members of Congress, according to a new analysis of lawmakers\u2019 social media posts, press releases, interview transcripts and other publicly available information, as well as direct correspondence with lawmakers\u2019 offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, at least 110 representatives and senators in the current 117th Congress have publicly stated or otherwise confirmed that they own a gun as of Aug. 9. Around three-quarters of these confirmed congressional gun owners (85 of 110, or 77%) are members of the GOP, while the remainder (25 of 110, or 23%) are Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The partisan difference in gun ownership among members of Congress is greatest in the House, where Republicans make up 82% of confirmed gun owners (68 of 83) despite being a minority of the chamber. In the Senate, the difference is more modest: Republicans there account for 63% of confirmed gun owners (17 of 27) while making up half of the chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there are at least 110 confirmed gun owners in the current Congress, the actual figure may be substantially higher. Some lawmakers may own a gun but have not shared that information in press releases, social media posts or other venues over the past two years, and a large majority of lawmakers \u2013 396 \u2013 did not respond to Pew Research Center inquiries seeking to confirm their gun ownership status. The offices of 24 other representatives and senators told the Center that they do not<\/em> own a gun. The patterns discussed here, therefore, only reflect lawmakers who have publicly stated or otherwise confirmed that they own a gun. They do not reflect the larger group of lawmakers who have not indicated one way or another whether they own a firearm. (See \u201cHow we did this\u201d for the complete methodology of this analysis.)<\/p>\n\n\n

How we did this<\/div>