Data reveals the gun capital of Alabama

Alabamians love the Second Amendment.

And we love to exercise our Second Amendment rights, as well, whether it’s on our state’s famed hunting lands or, if we have to, in defense of ourselves or our homes.

Legislation with names like the “Second Amendment Preservation Act” and constitutional amendments reiterating that bearing arms is a “Fundamental Right” are commonplace in Yellowhammer State politics.

The CEO of Remington even recently noted that Alabama’s pro-gun policies led them to locate their new manufacturing facility in the state, rather than in their longtime home state of New York.

But where in Alabama are guns most readily available?

The Washington Post recently sought to find out which counties across the United States have more gun retailers than libraries and museums, claiming that “when viewed in relation to each other guns and museums give some sense of a community’s values.”

Our initial response to that post was, well, “Who cares?” But the data they came up with is useful in seeing which parts of the country have the most readily available firearms.

To find out how many gun retailers each county has, the Washington Post “used data maintained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on the number and location of licensed firearm dealers in the U.S. A high incidence of gun dealers indicates a robust gun culture — places where people hunt and shoot for sport, and perhaps places where people are concerned about self-defense and safety.”

So after digging through all that data, Yellowhammer was able to come up with the map below showing how many licensed firearms dealers there are in each of Alabama’s 67 counties.

The firearms capital of Alabama is Jefferson County, which has 90 gun retailers. That is perhaps not surprising considering it is by far the state’s most populous area, with roughly 660,000 residents. Madison County up in north Alabama isn’t far behind, with 83 gun retailers, and since they only have 347,000 residents, their per capita number of gun retailers is higher.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, tiny Bullock County in east Alabama has just one gun retailer, but its total population is under 11,000 people.

County — Number of gun retailers

Jefferson — 90
Madison — 83
Mobile — 75
Baldwin — 65
Calhoun 38
Shelby — 37
Houston — 33
Montgomery — 32
Morgan — 29
Tuscaloosa — 29
Marshall — 28
Cullman — 25
Elmore — 25
Lauderdale — 25
Walker — 25
Lee — 24
Covington — 23
Etowah — 22
Talladega — 21
Dale — 18
Limestone — 18
Jackson — 18
Colbert — 16
Saint Clair — 16
Autauga — 15
DeKalb — 15
Escambia — 15
Marion — 15
Blount — 14
Clarke — 14
Coffee — 14
Tallapoosa — 13
Randolph — 12
Monroe — 11
Pike — 11
Butler — 10
Chilton — 10
Franklin — 10
Russell — 10
Winston — 10
Chambers — 9
Barbour — 8
Henry — 8
Marengo — 8
Dallas — 7
Lawrence — 7
Wilcox — 7
Cherokee — 6
Choctaw — 6
Clay — 6
Crenshaw — 6
Fayette — 6
Sumter — 6
Geneva — 5
Cleburne — 4
Coosa — 4
Pickens — 4
Washington — 4
Conecuh — 3
Macon — 3
Perry — 3
Bibb — 2
Greene — 2
Hale — 2
Lamar — 2
Lowndes — 2
Bullock — 1