Fact check: What percentage of Democrats own guns compared to Republicans?

1. What the supplied claims actually say — policy preference, not ownership

The supplied excerpts emphasize partisan divides in attitudes toward gun policy rather than ownership statistics. One analysis reports that a survey by Everytown for Gun Safety found 96% of Democrats oppose permitless carry compared with 60% of Republicans opposing it, a comparison of policy positions that implies ideological separation but does not equate to ownership prevalence ^[1]. Other pieces describe state-level legislative deadlock in Minnesota after a shooting and polling about concealed-carry permits in North Carolina, again centering on policy and political conflict, not explicit ownership percentages ^{[2] [1]}.

2. What’s missing from these excerpts — direct ownership data

None of the supplied analyses offer direct figures for what percentage of Democrats versus Republicans actually own firearms. The texts reference attitudes toward permitless carry, legislative standoffs, and general political coverage, which can correlate with ownership patterns but are not the same metric. Because ownership is a behavior while these excerpts measure opinions or policy outcomes, the supplied materials cannot reliably answer the user’s numeric question about party-specific gun ownership rates without introducing external data ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}.

3. How policy attitudes and ownership can diverge — why the distinction matters

Public-opinion polls about gun laws often show Democrats favor stricter regulations and Republicans oppose them, but that pattern does not directly translate into parallel ownership distributions. For example, a non-owner can strongly support or oppose gun rights, and a gun owner can favor restrictions. The supplied materials illustrate political polarization around gun policy and legislative outcomes, which is informative about partisan stances but insufficient to infer precise ownership percentages, making the original question unresolved by these sources ^{[1] [2]}.

4. Conflicting signals in the supplied sources — sample scope and focus differ

The excerpts come from different contexts — national polling by advocacy groups, state-level news on North Carolina and Minnesota, and broader political polling notes. Each source’s scope and framing skew interpretation: advocacy-group polls often emphasize policy support, state reporting captures legislative dynamics, and general polls may touch on multiple topics. This heterogeneity explains why the provided material offers consistent claims about policy divides but not a unified, comparable statistic on party-specific gun ownership ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}.

5. What a complete answer would require — specific, recent ownership polls

To answer “What percentage of Democrats own guns compared to Republicans?” reliably requires citing recent, representative surveys that explicitly ask respondents about both party identification and firearm ownership, ideally with margins of error and methodology. The supplied materials do not include such polls. Absent those specific data points, any numerical claim would be speculative relative to the provided texts, so the evidence base here is insufficient to produce the requested percentages ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}.

6. How to interpret policy-focused findings responsibly

From the supplied analyses, one can responsibly conclude that Democrats are more likely to support gun-control measures and Republicans are more likely to resist them, which shapes legislative debate and public discourse. These facts illuminate political consequences, such as stalled bills and polarized state responses, but they should not be conflated with ownership rates. The supplied materials therefore answer a related but distinct question about partisan policy preferences rather than the ownership comparison asked by the user ^{[1] [2]}.

7. Bottom line and next step for a definitive numeric comparison

The provided sources do not contain the direct numeric data needed to state what percentage of Democrats versus Republicans own guns; they instead document policy preferences and legislative dynamics. To provide the precise percentages the user asked for, one must consult recent, representative surveys that explicitly report firearm ownership by party ID. The current evidence base should be supplemented with such polls before any authoritative numeric comparison can be presented ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}.