Expanding the federal background checks law to cover all gun sales would require unlicensed sellers to meet their buyers at a gun dealer, who will run a background check in exactly the same way as for sales directly from the dealer’s store. 99% of Americans live within 10 miles of a gun dealer—so it’s easy and convenient to get the background check done.1Everytown analysis of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) dealers and U.S. population. Data on licensed gun dealers were obtained from the ATF through November 2018 here: https://bit.ly/2SPLs9O . Data on census block groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau here: https://bit.ly/2BCfBzw . Distance was calculated between the centroid of each census block group and each licensed dealer to determine the closest dealer. There are nearly 62,000 unique gun dealers across the country. This is more than four times the number of McDonald’s in the United States and twice the number of post offices.2Federal Firearms Listings. Washington, D.C. ATF. https://bit.ly/2SPLs9O . As of November 2018, ATF reported there were 63, 543 Type 1 and 2 licensed gun dealers in the U.S. Analyses were done to determine the latitude and longitude of each licensed dealer and duplicates by latitude, longitude, and state were removed for a total of 61,763 unique licensed gun dealers ; Stores Top Retailers 2018. Washington, D.C. National Retail Federation. https://bit.ly/2NuvfkV ; Postal Facts – Sizing It Up. Washington, D.C. United States Postal Service. https://bit.ly/2tlLGHe.
Percent of Population Within 10 Miles of a Gun Dealer by State
State
%
Alabama
98.6
Alaska
93.3
Arizona
96.9
Arkansas
98.4
California
98.8
Colorado
99.3
Connecticut
100.0
Delaware
100.0
District of Columbia
100.0
Florida
99.8
Georgia
99.6
Hawaii
97.0
Idaho
98.4
Illinois
99.9
Indiana
99.9
Iowa
99.5
Kansas
98.5
State
%
Kentucky
99.9
Louisiana
99.3
Maine
98.7
Maryland
100.0
Massachussetts
99.8
Michigan
99.8
Minnesota
99.3
Mississippi
97.4
Missouri
99.7
Montana
95.0
Nebraska
97.7
Nevada
99.0
New Hampshire
100.0
New Jersey
100.0
New Mexico
92.3
New York
99.9
North Carolina
99.7
State
%
North Dakota
91.6
Ohio
100.0
Oklahoma
97.5
Oregon
99.4
Pennsylvania
100.0
Rhode Island
99.9
South Carolina
99.1
South Dakota
91.2
Tennessee
99.5
Texas
99.3
Utah
98.9
Vermont
99.8
Virginia
99.7
Washington
98.9
West Virginia
99.6
Wisconsin
99.7
Wyoming
95.4
Everytown Research & Policy is a program of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to understanding and reducing gun violence. Everytown Research & Policy works to do so by conducting methodologically rigorous research, supporting evidence-based policies, and communicating this knowledge to the American public.
