Tons of Guns

Most of the one billion firearms worldwide are in possession of private owners. The latest Small Arms Survey concludes that some 857 million pistols, revolvers, shotguns and rifles were in the hands of civilians at the end of 2017, by far outnumbering those in possessions of soldiers and police.

With 120.5 guns per 100 residents the United States tops the list of countries with the highest gun prevalence, far ahead of second placed Yemen (52.8) and third placed Montenegro and Serbia (39.1 both). In the previous such survey from 2006 the organization counted a total of 875 million guns globally.