A study from the University of Washington shows that the number of adult handgun owners in the U.S. who carried a loaded gun doubled from 2015 to 2019.
The study also found that states with less restrictive carrying regulations had a larger proportion of handgun owners who carried guns. In those states, about one-third of gun owners reported carrying in the past month, while in states with more restrictive regulations, only about one-fifth did.
Among the study’s other findings were that about 70% percent of handgun owners carried a loaded gun as protection against another person.
According to the study, about 80% of handgun owners who reported carrying were male, 75% were white and most were between 18 and 44 years old.
In 2019, about 16 million adult handgun owners had carried a loaded handgun in the past month, which was up from 9 million in 2015. Six million carried every day, twice as many as carried daily in 2015.
The data in the study come from the 2019 National Firearms Survey, an online survey of U.S. adults living in households with firearms, including nearly 2,400 handgun owners, according to the university.