Gun Ownership Statistics Colorado 2025: Trends & Numbers

Report Highlights: Gun ownership in Colorado has declined by 3% since 2013. However, the number of firearms purchased has increased.

There are at least 7,758,000 million firearms in Colorado.
In Colorado, there are 1.2 firearms per resident.
Household gun ownership in Colorado decreased from 50% to 45% from 1990 to 2023.
7% of Coloradans report carrying a firearm daily.
The average Colorado gun owner has between 4 and 5 firearms.
72% of the state’s 1,004 firearm-related deaths in 2023 were suicides.

Report Highlights - Gun Ownership Stats Colorado 2025

Ammo.com strives to provide accurate and reliable information on a variety of topics. You can view the sources used in this article HERE.

Methodology

The following sections cover a wide array of firearm statistics in Colorado based on all available information regarding firearm ownership and purchases.

Firearm ownership in the U.S. isn’t tracked or monitored. We therefore relied on self-reporting surveys to understand how many residents own firearms in Colorado. We used background check data to analyze how many firearms are purchased in the state, and then cross-referenced that information with local and national totals to understand the average number of firearms per person there.

Data presented in this article probably underestimates gun ownership in Colorado. Private sales, transactions involving more than one firearm, and untruthful self-reporting all skew our data to the left.

How Many Guns Are in Colorado?

There are approximately 7,758,000 firearms in Colorado.

According to recent surveys, 33% (1,939,740) of Colorado residents own at least one firearm. ² According to recent reports, 3.7 million firearms were sold in the state between 2012 and 2022. ¹

Colorado has a population of 5,878,000. ⁴ The state has approved an annual average of 372,491 background checks for firearm purchases since 2012. This does not include private sales, or sales where the purchaser bought more than one firearm. Based on past sales and survey data, there are more than 7 million firearms in the state.

What’s the Gun-to-Person Ratio in Colorado?

There are 5,878,000 people and approximately 7 million firearms in Colorado. By that measure, there are approximately 1.19 guns for every Colorado resident. This ratio aligns with national data (1.2 to 1.5 firearms per resident). ^{1, 2, 3, 4}

Yearly Trends in Colorado Gun Ownership

Individual gun ownership in Colorado has declined by 3% since 2013, although the number of guns increased substantially since 2012 (131%). In other words, fewer people own more guns compared to only a decade ago.

Household gun ownership has declined in Colorado from 50% in 1990 to 39% in 2016. However, there was a spike in gun purchases between 2020 and 2022. ³

Yearly Trends in Gun Ownership in Colorado

What Percentage of Colorado Residents Carry Guns?

According to a recent survey, 7% (411,460) of Colorado residents carry a firearm daily. ⁵

Colorado allows open carry, but requires a permit to conceal carry. Colorado issued and renewed 64,067 concealed carry permits in 2023. ⁶ Some estimate that there are more than 650,000 Coloradans with CHPs (Concealed Handgun Permit). ⁷

How Many Guns Does the Average Colorado Gun Owner Own?

The average Colorado gun owner owns four to five firearms.

Based on past sales data and the state’s population size, gun owners in Colorado purchase at least three firearms in their lifetime. However, the total number of firearms in the state suggests the average owner has more than four and less than six. ^{1, 2, 4}

Firearm-Related Deaths in Colorado

According to the CDC WONDER database, 6,269 Coloradans perished from gunshot wounds between 2018 and 2024.

72% of the 1,004 firearm-related deaths reported in 2023 were attributed to suicide, while 26% were homicides. 2% of all gun deaths in Colorado resulted from police intervention during the same year. ⁸

The rate of firearm-related suicides has increased since 2018 from 11.6/100k to 12.3/100k. The rate of firearm-related homicides increased from 3.3/100k to 4.5/100k.

Despite new firearm purchasing and carry restrictions, Colorado’s firearm death rate was higher than the national average (17.4/100k vs. 14/100k) in 2023.

Wrap-Up

Although fewer Coloradans own guns today than they did 30 years ago, the average gun owner there owns more firearms. Using self-reporting survey data and CHP (Concealed Handgun Permit) background check information, we estimate there are more than 7 million firearms in the state.

Sources

Written by

Cassandra McBride

Gun Ownership Statistics Colorado 2025: Trends & Numbers

Infographics