According to a latest survey data, almost a third of American adults own a gun, but the ratio varies widely from state to state. Most of the gun owners are white men who are married and are almost at the age of 55.

The survey showed that almost 62% of people in Alaska own a gun. They also found that gun ownership was closely tied to 'social gun culture' wherein family and friends also own guns and think less of non-gun owners.

The authors found that 32% of gun owners were exposed to social gun culture compared to 6% of non-gun owners.

Lead author Dr. Bindu Kalesan of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York said, "Considering the presence of deeply rooted gun culture and the estimated number of guns in the U.S. to be 310 million, we (suspected) that social gun culture is associated with gun ownership".

Kalesan told Reuters Health that this association was found to be strong enough after removing the effect of other factors such as presence of gun laws and gun details.

The researchers used data from a 2013 online survey of 4,000 people over age of 18 from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

They found that about 29% of people nationwide reported owning a gun. Only 5% of people in Delaware and 6% in Rhode Island owned a gun, as compared to 62% in Alaska.

The survey also revealed that more than half of people reported owning a gun in West Virginia, Arkansas, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Gun ownership was found to be least common in the Northeast and most common in the South and West.