Gun ownership varies significantly around the world. More than 175 of the world’s countries allow their citizens to own firearms—though most have specific regulations on ownership, such as banning certain types of firearms. Mexico, Guatemala, and the United States have gone one step further and made gun ownership a constitutional right. That said, even those countries may place limits on certain types of firearms, such as when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a temporary ban on certain assault rifles and high-capacity magazines from 1994-2004. On the other hand, civilian ownership of firearms is banned outright in North Korea and Eritrea.
The most recent comprehensive survey of gun ownership worldwide was released in 2017 by the Small Arms Survey, which tallied the number of firearms (registered and unregistered) owned by civilians, the military, and law enforcement agencies for each country in the survey. The results were illuminating, though not entirely surprising for many experts on firearms policy: