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Several states in the South have the highest gun ownership rates across a variety of statistics.

a license to carry a concealed handgun. FBI background checks for firearm purchases in Texas rose by 137 percent between 2000 and 2016. Texas is also a major center for gun smuggling and trafficking, having only two laws on its books about firearm trafficking, one of which only addresses sales to criminal groups. Florida is the nation’s second-largest gun-owning state, with a population that is about half of California’s but owns more guns overall. It is an interesting case study, as it has many guns but relatively lower gun violence, ranking just twenty-eighth in the

Gun Culture Facts and Figures

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