ATF Federal Firearms Licensee listing (Jan 2025), filtered to Type 01 (Dealers) and Type 02 (Pawnbrokers), 53,235 records total. County assignment via FIPS codes embedded in each license number. Cross-checked with Veridion business profiles. Population from the Census Bureau Vintage 2024 estimates. Map projection and county boundaries from us-atlas/TIGER shapefiles.
Big caveat: ~57% of FFLs operate from residential addresses (“kitchen-table dealers”), so this overstates actual walk-in gun shops. A single FFL can be anything from a Cabela’s to a guy selling out of his garage.
National average is 1.6 per 10k residents, but the median county sits at 3.3/10k because rural counties pull it way up. Wyoming leads at 8.8/10k, New Jersey is at 0.25/10k. 75 counties have zero FFLs. Maricopa County, AZ, has the most in absolute terms (622).
Tools: Python, D3.js, Puppeteer for the PNG. Built with Claude.
TheProfessorO on
I think I am seeing zero for Miami, FL?? This can’t be correct.
ovirt001 on
You’ll likely find the locations line up with the populations of predators. A gun in the wilderness makes a lot of sense when you can encounter bears, wolves, and wild cats.
runnerd81 on
The fact that the metric is gun dealers per residents makes it a little confusing to look at because it doesn’t tell us the density of people in those areas so it’s hard to gauge how many gun dealers in total are in each area. I would have liked ig they also layered on population density or also provided an outright number of locations per area
thenasch on
The problem with this presentation is western states have big counties, which visually exaggerates the difference in density of gun stores.
chanc2 on
We are protecting the north from a possible Canadian invasion?
geneticswag on
Veridion has some piss poor visualization specialists. You need to know geographic density to make sense of this – Europeans gotta be confused.
Niro5 on
Hamilton county new york is the one yellow spot in New York. It is very rural and has about 5,000 residents.
Quesabirria on
Noticing the chart is gun dealers per 10k population, I’d bet that many or maybe most of those gold counties don’t even have 10,000 people
TristanDuboisOLG on
This “license”, is an FFL, something that some people need in order to simply own certain firearms.
This is not indicative of actual storefronts.
occasionalrayne on
What the fuc…… Oh, it’s W. Virginia. yeah that makes sense.
Standard_Structure_9 on
Funnily enough some of these areas have low gun crime
rice_cracker3 on
Would you look at that, another population density map. No surprise there.
13 Comments
Sources & methodology:
ATF Federal Firearms Licensee listing (Jan 2025), filtered to Type 01 (Dealers) and Type 02 (Pawnbrokers), 53,235 records total. County assignment via FIPS codes embedded in each license number. Cross-checked with Veridion business profiles. Population from the Census Bureau Vintage 2024 estimates. Map projection and county boundaries from us-atlas/TIGER shapefiles.
Big caveat: ~57% of FFLs operate from residential addresses (“kitchen-table dealers”), so this overstates actual walk-in gun shops. A single FFL can be anything from a Cabela’s to a guy selling out of his garage.
National average is 1.6 per 10k residents, but the median county sits at 3.3/10k because rural counties pull it way up. Wyoming leads at 8.8/10k, New Jersey is at 0.25/10k. 75 counties have zero FFLs. Maricopa County, AZ, has the most in absolute terms (622).
Tools: Python, D3.js, Puppeteer for the PNG. Built with Claude.
I think I am seeing zero for Miami, FL?? This can’t be correct.
You’ll likely find the locations line up with the populations of predators. A gun in the wilderness makes a lot of sense when you can encounter bears, wolves, and wild cats.
The fact that the metric is gun dealers per residents makes it a little confusing to look at because it doesn’t tell us the density of people in those areas so it’s hard to gauge how many gun dealers in total are in each area. I would have liked ig they also layered on population density or also provided an outright number of locations per area
The problem with this presentation is western states have big counties, which visually exaggerates the difference in density of gun stores.
We are protecting the north from a possible Canadian invasion?
Veridion has some piss poor visualization specialists. You need to know geographic density to make sense of this – Europeans gotta be confused.
Hamilton county new york is the one yellow spot in New York. It is very rural and has about 5,000 residents.
Noticing the chart is gun dealers per 10k population, I’d bet that many or maybe most of those gold counties don’t even have 10,000 people
This “license”, is an FFL, something that some people need in order to simply own certain firearms.
This is not indicative of actual storefronts.
What the fuc…… Oh, it’s W. Virginia. yeah that makes sense.
Funnily enough some of these areas have low gun crime
Would you look at that, another population density map. No surprise there.