The percent of American households owning guns is at a near-40 year low in the latest CBS News poll released this month.

According to the survey, which was conducted among 1,001 Americans in the aftermath of the Orlando nightclub shooting, 36 percent of US adults either own a firearm or live with someone who does. That’s the lowest rate of gun ownership in the CBS poll going back to 1978. It’s down 17 percentage points from the highest recorded rate in 1994, and nearly 10 percentage points down from 2012.

Different national polls tend to show slightly different rates of gun ownership. The latest household gun ownership rate in the General Social Survey, in 2014, was 32 percent. The October 2015 Gallup survey showed a higher rate of 43 percent, including guns kept on property outside of the home.

But the downward trend in gun ownership remains consistent across the national polls. But gun purchases, as measured by FBI firearm background checks, are at historic highs.

Washington Post