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After a summer of "unprecedented" gun sales, 2016 is shaping up to be a record year for the gun industry, according to statistics from the FBI. And, with a Republican-controlled Congress and White House, the National Rifle Association is planning to push a more aggressive agenda in 2017.
Before the new administration assumes office, InsideGov, a political research site by Graphiq, decided to take a closer look at the current state of gun stores in the U.S. Using the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Justice, the data experts ranked each state (and the District of Columbia) by the number of gun dealers per 100K people. Dealer information is updated through 2015. For context, InsideGov also included the total number of registered weapons per 100K people in each state, which is current as of February 2016.
Unsurprisingly, the states with the highest concentrations of gun stores also tend to be the most Republican. The only state in the top 10 that voted Democratic in the 2016 election is New Hampshire. While California has the highest total number of registered weapons — more than 320,000 — it ranks 42nd overall in the number of weapons per 100K people.
Note: Population figures come from the 2014 American Community Survey.
Compiled by Alex Greer, InsideGov.com
