I was in a waiting room this week and overheard a conversation about Idaho being one of the most heavily armed states in the United States.  I dug into it, and it seems it is true. 

CBS News has followed this statistic over the last few years, comparing states across the country in how heavily armed we are per capita.

According to their research, Idaho comes in at number 6 of all 50 states, with 24.2 guns per every 1000 residents.  That would be a total of 39,109 guns in our state.  That compares to the number one state, Wyoming, who has 195.7 guns per 1000 residents, about three times the number of second place Washington DC.

The top 10 looks like this:

  1.  Wyoming (195.7/1000)
  2.  Washington DC (66.4/1000)
  3. Arkansas (41.6/1000)
  4. New Mexico (40.5/1000)
  5. Virginia (30.1/1000)
  6. Idaho (24.2/1000)
  7. Alabama (20/1000)
  8. Nevada (19.5/1000)
  9. Alaska (15.2/1000)
  10. Louisiana (15.1/1000)

For comparison, the bottom 5 in their research look like this:

  1. New York (3.3/1000)
  2. Rhode Island (3.8/1000)
  3. Delaware (4.2/1000)
  4. Michigan (4.3/1000)
  5. Massachusetts (4.9/1000)

There are a few surprises about what states fall where, and if you want to take a look at things for yourself, check out the report at CBSNews.com.

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