Personal Liberty Poll Exercise your right to vote.

A pair of recent polls illustrate that many Americans have reason to fear becoming a victim of crime in their homes and are increasingly willing to protect themselves by keeping a firearm on hand.

According to numbers out from Gallup, 26 percent of Americans report that they or another member of their household “were the victim of some type of property or physical crime in the last 12 months.”

The polling agency conducts an annual crime poll that asks Americans if they have been the victim of one or more of seven crimes: burglary, property theft or larceny, car theft, vandalism, robbery, physical assault and sexual assault.

“Since 2000, the percentage of households that have been victimized by crime has ranged narrowly between 22% and 27%,” Gallup notes. “The percentage of Americans who have been personally victimized has ranged from 14% to 19%.”

The most common crimes reported were property crimes (15 percent) and vandalism (14 percent). Six percent of respondents reported having been burglarized, and 3 percent reported having a vehicle stolen.

Among those who reported being the victim of a violent crime or robbery, 3 percent said they had been physically assaulted and 1 percent reported having been robbed at knife or gunpoint or by some other means of physical threat.

A separate Gallup poll shows the number of Americans who believe having a gun in the house makes its residents safer has nearly doubled since 2000.

Sixty-three percent of Americans told the polling agency that having a gun in the home makes them feel safer, compared to 30 percent who said guns make homes more dangerous.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans are about twice as likely to believe guns make homes safer by a margin of 81 percent to 41 percent.

“Americans own guns for a wide array of reasons, but the increase in the perceived safety value of owning them suggests that guns are taking on more of a protective role than they have in the past,” Gallup reports.