http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081005/NEWS/810050334There are 13,500 people, 5 percent of the total population of the Cape and the Islands, licensed to carry anything from a hunting rifle to a .357 magnum, according to state records.
Tiny Chilmark has the highest percentage of licensed gun owners at 13 percent. And Barnstable may have the highest number of firearms licenses, but its percentage is below the region's average of 5 percent, state records indicate.
"Someone could have a firearm license and not own a gun," said Georgia Critsley, general counsel for the state's Criminal History Systems Board, the state agency that compiles the data.
And that same person with a license could have more than one firearm, Cristley said.
...
Overall, 237,277 of the state's 6.4 million residents are licensed gun owners — just under 4 percent of the population.
That figure has dropped dramatically from the 1.5 million who were licensed before tougher gun laws were approved in the summer of 1998. The reason for that drop depends on who you ask.