In an attempt not to derail Colleen's RSP'er of the next couple of days, here's a place for discussion about gun ownership, gun use, gun suicide, and gun homicide.
It is well-known that the rate of gun ownership in rural areas is higher than gun ownership in urban areas. A recent article by DuRant et al. (2007) in the Journal of Pediatrics showed that the rates were 34.4% of households in rural areas and 19.6% of households in urban areas.
However, when we look in terms of actual number of people who are in contact with a gun, then we see that the raw numbers indicate that many more people in urban areas are in contact with fire arms. Using the census data from 2000 (
U.S. Population Living in Urban vs. Rural Areas - Census 2000 Population Statistics - Census Issues - Planning - HEP - FHWA)
Rural Population : 59,274,456
Urban Population : 225,956,060
Multiplying by their respective percentages we get
Rural x Gun Ownership Rate = (59,274,456) x .344 = 20,390,412
Urban x Gun Ownership Rate = (225,956,060) x .196 = 44,287,397
Assuming equal household sizes,
about 2 times the number of people are in contact with guns in urban areas than rural areas.