See Somerville's Active Firearms Licenses

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a number of efforts Wednesday aimed at curbing gun violence in the United States.

Massachusetts is home to some of the toughest gun control laws in the country, with local members of Congress urging the federal government do more to prevent tragedies like that in Newtown, Conn. 

The state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security provided Patch with a summary of active firearms licenses in Somerville from 2008 through 2012. Here are the numbers for Somerville:

More information on the kinds of firearms permits available in Massachusetts can be found here. 

As you can see, in Somerville there was a 40 percent increase in firearms permits from 2008 to 2012—from 1,131 to 1,593.

Somerville's population is 75,754 according to 2010 Census data, which means just over 2 percent of the city's population had a firearm permit in 2012.

According to the data provided by the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, across the state there was a 23 percent increase in firearms permits from 2008 to 2012—from 268,520 to 329,277.

With a state population of 6,547,629, according to the 2010 Census, that means about 5 percent of residents in Massachusetts had a firearm permit in 2012.