Nearly 30 million Americans bought guns after the pandemic, with 11 million becoming first-time gun owners

A national survey estimates that nearly 30 million U.S. adults acquired firearms between 2021 and 2024, including more than 11 million people who became gun owners for the first time. These new owners also introduced guns into millions of households that previously had none, newly exposing about 9 million adults and 6.6 million children to firearms in their homes. These findings are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Researchers from Northeastern University and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted a national, probability-based survey in December 2024 of more than 4,000 firearm owners to measure how many Americans acquired firearms after January 1, 2021, how many were first-time owners, and how many people were newly exposed to guns in their households. They found that from 2021 to 2024, about 29.8 million adults bought guns, including 11.2 million new owners, corresponding to 4.2% of U.S. adults.
Many of these first-time buyers lived in homes without firearms at the time, resulting in millions of adults and children being newly exposed to household guns. Additionally, a disproportionally large share of new gun owners were members of subgroups historically underrepresented among gun owners. Women made up 46.3% of new owners and 46.1% of new gun owners were Hispanic and/or people of color.
According to the authors, these patterns highlight the need for ongoing monitoring of firearm exposure and suggest that well-established risk of violent death associated with living in a home with guns has likely risen for millions of Americans who had previously been living in homes without guns.
Publication details
Matthew Miller et al, Firearm Acquisition and New Exposure to Household Firearms After the Initial Pandemic Purchasing Surge: Results From the 2024 National Firearms Survey, Annals of Internal Medicine (2026). DOI: 10.7326/annals-25-05181
Journal information:
Annals of Internal Medicine
Key medical concepts
Clinical categories
Preventive medicineCommon illnesses & PreventionChildren’s health
Nearly 30 million Americans bought guns after the pandemic, with 11 million becoming first-time gun owners (2026, March 17)
retrieved 18 March 2026
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