Firearms Dealers vs. Burgers, Pizza, and Coffee

Earlier this year, 1 Point 21 mapped firearms dealers against Starbucks locations. Based on listings from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the graphic drew attention to the large number of firearms dealers and pawnbrokers — about 6 for every Starbucks.

With the horrible Orlando shooting, the topic inevitably bubbled up again. There are an awful lot of places to buy a gun. As of May 2016, there were 64,432 licensed firearms dealers and pawnbrokers, according to the ATF, which got me wondering how that compares to other businesses.

I’ve made similar comparisons already, so I pulled up the old code and looked.

First though, here’s how Starbucks compares.

firearms-vs-starbucks

Each circle represents an area with a 10-mile radius. If there are more dealers than Starbucks locations, the area is colored black. If there are more Starbucks locations, the area is green.

While for many, it seems like Starbucks is ubiquitous nationwide, the coffee shop tends to concentrate in densely populated areas. So I thought, maybe if I compared dealers against all the major coffee chains in the United States, the former wouldn’t dominate the map so much.

I was wrong.

In fact, I tried the same count-to-count comparison with McDonald’s, which has more locations than Starbucks, but that didn’t change the patterns much. So I tried all the major burger chains. And then all the pizza.
 

firearms-versus-all

Like I said, there are a lot of dealers. It’s hard to say how many of these licensees actively sell firearms, but still. It isn’t until I sum all the burger, pizza, and coffee chains together against firearms dealers that there’s a noticeable change.

firearms-vs-pizza-burgers-coffee
 

Business location data from AggData and list of firearms licensees from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Become a member. Support an independent site. Make great charts.

See What You Get

Learn to Visualize Data See All →

How to Animate Transitions Between Multiple Charts

Animated transitioning between chart types can add depth to your data display. Find out how to achieve this effect using JavaScript and D3.js.

How to Make a US County Thematic Map Using Free Tools

There are about a million ways to make a choropleth map. The problem is that a lot of solutions require expensive software or have a high learning curve. It doesn’t have to be that way.

How to Make an Interactive Network Visualization

Interactive network visualizations make it easy to rearrange, filter, and explore your connected data. Learn how to make one using D3 and JavaScript.

How to Visualize Anomalies in Time Series Data in R, with ggplot

Quickly see what’s below and above average through the noise and seasonal trends.

Favorites

A Day in the Life: Work and Home

I simulated a day for employed Americans to see when and where they work.

Top Brewery Road Trip, Routed Algorithmically

There are a lot of great craft breweries in the United States, but there is only so much time. This is the computed best way to get to the top rated breweries and how to maximize the beer tasting experience. Every journey begins with a single sip.

Visualizing the Uncertainty in Data

Data is an abstraction, and it’s impossible to encapsulate everything it represents in real life. So there is uncertainty. Here are ways to visualize the uncertainty.

How Much Americans Make

Median income only tells you where the middle is. The distributions of income are a lot more interesting.