Hunting is a great American pastime. Unfortunately, human error, equipment malfunctions, and medical emergencies lead to hundreds of accidents each year. Check out our article for all the details!

• On average, 464 hunting accidents and 61.3 hunting fatalities were reported annually between 2010 and 2024.
• Hunter judgment (42.9%) and skill and aptitude factors (40.8%) were the most common causes of hunting-related incidents in that same time span.
• Firearm discharges accounted for a larger share of incidents than tree stand falls (34.0% vs. 24.5%), but the two shared similar fatality rates (10.5% vs. 11.0%).

Report Highlights

• As of 2024, there were more than 73 million minors in the 0-17 age group. Of those, 2,228 (0.003%) suffered gun-related fatalities.
• In 2024, firearms and motor vehicles tied as the leading cause of injury-related death in the 0-17 age group (3.0 per 100,000).
• The pandemic-era spike in gun deaths among U.S. minors was primarily driven by homicides, which increased by 76.9% (1.3 to 2.3 per 100,000) from 2019 to 2022.
• More than one-third of gang violence offenders and more than one-quarter of gang violence victims were under 18 years of age between 2021 and 2024.

Read the full report on our website!

Report Highlights: Mass shootings have increased substantially in the U.S. over the past four decades. This report analyzes the behavioral patterns of mass shooters.

• Between 1966 and 2025, 81.2% of shooters were in a documented crisis before the event.
• While 51.0% of mass shooters had prior symptoms of mental illness, 68.2% had a history of domestic violence or targeted at least one member of their family.
• Gun ownership has remained stable (30%-32% of the U.S. population) between 1980 and 2025, while mass shootings have increased by 126.0%.

Report Highlights: For decades, Americans have had to choose whether to exercise their Second Amendment rights or use marijuana for pain management and ailments. That legal landscape is finally shifting.

Federal law prohibits medical marijuana and recreational marijuana users from purchasing and possessing firearms.

The Supreme Court held that occasional marijuana use alone does not grant the federal government the authority to infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of Americans.

The ATF is relaxing restrictions on the Second Amendment, while the FDA is relaxing restrictions on cannabinoids and marijuana products.

What Is the Law Regarding Guns and Marijuana?

Initially passed in the 1968 Gun Control Act and expanded upon to include prohibited persons over the years, 18 U.S.C. 922 § (g)(3) prohibits anyone who unlawfully uses a controlled substance, as defined by the Controlled Substances Act, from owning firearms. It's not specific to marijuana. It includes every controlled substance. However, marijuana is worth talking about specifically because of its quasi-legal status, including in a number of relatively gun-friendly states such as Arizona, New Hampshire, Texas, and Wyoming.

Despite the unanimous (9-0) Supreme Court ruling in favor of a young man who was prosecuted for owning a pistol while admitting to occasional marijuana use (U.S. v. Hemani 2026), it is still technically illegal to use marijuana and own guns.

If you've ever filled out a Form 4473, you're familiar with Question 21f: "Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or other controlled substance?" For decades, there was no ambiguity concerning medical or recreational marijuana use. The latest Supreme Court ruling narrows the scope slightly, but the bold warning underneath the question remains:

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Regardless of what one thinks about marijuana, or the right of the federal government to regulate drugs or the internal laws of the various states, the fact remains: As of now, possession, sale, and cultivation of marijuana remain a federal offense. Recreational marijuana is a Schedule I drug in the same category as heroin. In April of 2026, FDA-approved cannabinoid and marijuana products were reclassified as Schedule III drugs.

18 U.S.C. 922 § (g)(3) is a particularly difficult issue for people who use medicinal marijuana for bona fide medical purposes, rather than as a sort of legal loophole to consume marijuana legally. Many people use medicinal marijuana for a variety of purposes, including relief from pain, Alzheimer's symptoms, glaucoma, epilepsy, and a number of complications related to cancer, including nausea and lack of appetite. The science on this is rather conclusive, so much so that Big Pharma makes legal synthetic THC pills known as Marinol.

In United States v. Rahimi (2024), the Supreme Court held that the federal government may disarm "dangerous individuals." The Hemani ruling slightly narrowed the scope of existing laws, which were once applied to all drug users, regardless of whether they were actually dangerous or not.

Continue reading Medical Marijuana and Gun Ownership: The Laws in 2026 on Ammo.com

Report Highlights: Gun laws vary by state. Some states have such strict laws that it seems almost impossible to exercise the right to keep and bear arms within their borders.

• Hawaii has the strictest gun control in the U.S. due to its extreme purchasing and carry restrictions.
• California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York round out the top five states with the strictest gun control due to restrictions on purchasing, carrying, and possession.
• Colorado and Washington ranked 9th and 10th because some restrictive legislation had not gone into effect at the time of writing.

Report Highlights: In 2026, 29 states have permitless concealed carry freedoms. Concealed carry legislation has no consistent impact on crime in the U.S.

• The U.S. violent crime rate peaked at 758.1 incidents per 100,000 in 1991, when only ten states had right-to-carry legislation. The violent crime rate declined to 359.1 per 100,000 in 2024 when 41 states implemented right-to-carry legislation.
• Of the 12 states that passed permitless carry laws between 2019 and 2022, 11 had lower crime rates in 2024 than they did in 2019.
• The unweighted average violent crime rate among permitless carry states was 311.9 per 100,000 in 2024. The collective average violent crime rate in permit-required states was 335.1 per 100,000.

Report Highlights: Gun violence rates in the U.S. vary depending on demographics, geography, and firearm accessibility and ownership.

• In 2024, the gun violence rate in the U.S. was 4.7 per 100,000 people; a decline from the 2021 peak of 6.5 per 100,000.
• There were 1,399 deaths and 2,184 injuries related to mass shootings between 1966 and May 2026.
• Compared to the same time period in 2024, gun violence in the U.S. declined by 15% in the first half of 2025.

Report Highlights: Although rates of firearm ownership vary widely from state to state, American civilians own more firearms than civilians in any other country.

• Montana has the highest rate of reported household gun ownership at 66.3 per 100 residents.
• Wyoming (66.2 per 100), Alaska (64.5 per 100), Idaho (60.1 per 100), and West Virginia (58.5 per 100) have the highest rates of gun ownership in the U.S.
• Massachusetts and New Jersey have the fewest gun owners at only 14.7 per 100 residents.

Rates of Gun Ownership by State

According to RAND, Montana had the highest rate of gun ownership, with an estimated 66.3 per 100 adults living in a home with firearms as of 2016. Massachusetts and New Jersey shared the lowest rate, at 14.7 per 100 adults living in a home with firearms.4

More recent 2024 purchasing records indicate that Wyoming and Montana had the most sales (16.1 per 100 and 15.9 per 100, respectively), while Alaska (15.4 per 100), New Hampshire (13.3 per 100), and Oregon (13.2 per 100) led all remaining states in firearm sales. These data may indicate that state-level ownership rankings have shifted slightly.2

States by Gun Ownership Ranking - Guns Per 100 Residents

1. Montana: 66.3

2. Wyoming: 66.2

3. Alaska: 64.5

4. Idaho: 60.1

5. West Virginia: 58.5

6. Arkansas: 57.2

7. Mississippi: 55.8

8. Alabama: 55.8

9. South Dakota: 55.3

10. North Dakota: 55.1

11. Oklahoma: 54.6

12. Kentucky: 53.1

13. Louisiana: 51.7

14. Tennessee: 51.6

15. Oregon: 50.5

16. Vermont: 49.4

17. South Carolina: 49.2

18. Georgia: 48.9

19. Kansas: 48.8

20. Missouri: 47.3

21. Nevada: 46.8

22. Maine: 46.8

23. Utah: 46.3

24. Arizona: 46.2

25. New Mexico: 45.8

26. North Carolina: 45.7

27. Texas: 45.3

28. Wisconsin: 45.2

29. Nebraska: 45.1

30. Colorado: 44.8

31. Indiana: 44.6

32. Virginia: 43.6

33. Iowa: 42.8

34. Minnesota: 42.1

35. Washington: 41.1

36. New Hampshire: 40.8

37. Pennsylvania: 40.7

38. Michigan: 40.2

39. Ohio: 40.0

40. Florida: 35.3

41. Delaware: 34.4

42. Maryland: 30.2

43. California: 28.3

44. Illinois: 27.8

45. Connecticut: 23.6

46. New York: 19.2

47. Hawaii: 14.9

48. Rhode Island: 14.8

49. Massachusetts: 14.7

50. New Jersey: 14.7

Report Highlights: Mass shooters represent a small portion of the population across all demographics.

• There were 202 mass shooters from 1966 to 2026, equalling 1 for every 1.6 million people in the U.S.
• White Americans accounted for 56.9% of mass shooters in the U.S.
• When methodology is expanded to include gang and dispute-related shootings, black adolescents account for 53% of school shooters.