There Are Over 500 Million Guns in the U.S.

In 2025, as of September 9, there have already been 300 mass shootings in the U.S., according to CNN.

By Lauren Tousignant | September 11, 2025 | 10:59am

Photo: Getty Images Politics

There Are Over 500 Million Guns in the U.S.

I have to start by addressing how Jezebel got wrapped up in Wednesday’s events. On Monday, we published a cheeky article titled, “We Paid Some Etsy Witches to Curse Charlie Kirk,” as a satirical response to Kirk’s dangerous rhetoric over the years, which has included him saying that abortion is murder and women can only be happy if they get married, submit to their husbands, and have kids.

On Wednesday, Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a university event in Utah. He had hateful, divisive beliefs, and shared them readily and frequently. But free speech is a cornerstone of American democracy, and Jezebel does not endorse, encourage, or excuse political violence of any kind.

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A suspect was taken into custody but was released by early Wednesday evening. As of Thursday morning, investigators are still searching for the shooter.

We don’t know the shooter’s politics or their motives. We don’t know if they have other targets, like the shooter who killed Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, and had a “hit list” of 45 other Democrats, or if they were a registered Republican, like the person who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump in July 2024. What we do know is that they, like all other Americans, had easy access to a gun. The exact number of guns in the U.S. is difficult to track, but as of 2024, estimates put that number around 500 million. In 2025, as of September 9, there have already been 300 mass shootings in the U.S., according to CNN. Forty-seven of those have been school shootings. The CDC reports that, in 2023—the most recent year with full data—nearly 47,000 people died from guns.

This did not bother Kirk. In 2023, he said, “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.” His beliefs about gun ownership (and many other topics) are standard within the Republican Party today.

“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Wednesday night. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today and it must stop right now.” Trump did not address Hortman’s murder in June, and told reporters that he would not call Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz because it would “waste time.”

Of Kirk’s death, Rep. Nancy Mace told HuffPost that “Democrats own this.” Elon Musk tweeted, “The Left is the party of murder.” Chaya Raichik, who runs Libs of TikTok, tweeted, “THIS IS WAR.” Laura Loomer, who is not a journalist but calls herself one, tweeted that “The Left is a national security threat”; she also quote-tweeted Barack Obama’s post—which read “this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy”—writing, “The rhetoric in the Democrat Party is what motivated this attack you sanctimonious piece of shit.” On the House floor Wednesday night, following a moment of silence for Kirk, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) yelled at her Democratic colleagues, “Y’all caused this!”

“Oh, please,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said when a reporter asked if Kirk’s death is a sign that Democrats should tone down their rhetoric. “Why don’t you start with the president of the United States? And every ugly meme he’s posted and every ugly word.” Over the weekend, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself from the 1979 film Apocalypse Now, writing that Chicago was going to find out “why it’s called the department of WAR.”

“Political violence has been unfortunately ratcheting up in this country,” Gov. JB Pritzer (D- Ill.) also said on Wednesday. “It’s gotta’ stop. I think that there are people who are fomenting it in this country, I think the president’s rhetoric often foments it.”

At the Utah event, right before Kirk was shot, someone asked: “Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” Kirk responded, “Too many.” The person followed up: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?” Kirk responded: “Counting or not counting gang violence?” Then the gunshot rang out.

After Kirk was shot, one state over, the uniquely American cycle continued: A male student opened fire at a Colorado high school, injuring two students, before shooting and killing himself.

The United States is awash with killing machines. Political violence is an entirely inappropriate and dangerous response to speech. Both things are true.