Survey: Nearly 110 Million Americans Have a Gun at Home

[ttwtt78640]

I was targeted by two men in a parking lot, where I was walking to a store with my son who was about 6-8 at the time IIRC. They tried to pincer me, one in front getting my attention while another slipped up behind. Spotted them both, moved to one side with my kid and put my hand on my gun. They saw that and immediately stopped, disengaged and fled the area.

Had I not been armed, they may well have continued with whatever they had in mind. I don't know if it was a mugging, a child kidnapping, or what... but I would have fought to the death before they took or touched my child. Fortunately for all concerned me being armed prevented it.

That DGU likely went completely unreported. That fact, while obviously a very real crime prevention factor, is not recorded as a crime prevention statistic. I have no doubt that the many guns and dogs kept by residents on our small rural street deter crime yet I'd be hard pressed to prove that assertion.

 

[NonoBadDog]

Is it that big of a deal for the numbers to be a little over-estimated?

If they are produce something that shows they are. It isn't my job to prove the survey/poll wrong. If you don't believe it then rebut it with something other than a hunch.

 

[BretJ]

No one needs a gun, a small but significant minority of American are terrified about life in general so they feel they do.

Pretty goofy mischaracterization.

 

[BretJ]

I don't have a movement.

A livestock rancher in Wyoming would have need of a good rifle: why do you need one?

Why do you own a rifle? An assault weapon as well.

 

[BretJ]

No, but it's not the end all of Americanism either. Those who don't want or need them are not banneroids or some other stupid an immature label that implies a weak non patriotic sort of person. It IS a free country after all.

Those that don't want or need them are free not to. The issue is when folks that know very little are self righteous enough to believe they have the right to decide for someone else. Such as you as an example...

 

[Aunt Spiker]

If they are produce something that shows they are. It isn't my job to prove the survey/poll wrong. If you don't believe it then rebut it with something other than a hunch.

So you always accept the results of every poll to be accurate . . . interesting.

 

[jet57]

Why do you own a rifle? An assault weapon as well.

I own tow rifles, and I'm not going down that stupid useless road with you again.

 

[jet57]

Those that don't want or need them are free not to. The issue is when folks that know very little are self righteous enough to believe they have the right to decide for someone else. Such as you as an example...

Noooo, crime statistics and drug gangs make those decisions. As well as terrorists and crazies who walk into their local gun store and buy enough weapons an ammo to do a job on a crowd of people.

 

[TurtleDude]

Noooo, crime statistics and drug gangs make those decisions. As well as terrorists and crazies who walk into their local gun store and buy enough weapons an ammo to do a job on a crowd of people.

the only way you stop people with no record from buying guns legally is to ban EVERYONE from buying guns legally which is what you are essentially arguing for. and of course if such a law comes to pass, the people LEAST impacted by such stupidity will be the very ones you pretend you are worried about.

the fact is Jet-you are a gun banner and all your arguments are essentially based on the silly belief that citizens should not be able to buy or own guns. and since you are afraid to dispute my assertions, it establishes them as true beyond any doubt

 

[NonoBadDog]

So you always accept the results of every poll to be accurate . . . interesting.

Do you always expect other people to accept your comparisons of your family as statistics for nation wide comparisons? You said "uh uhh" and I said, "you can think that." That is lazy on your part. I gave your post all the consideration that it was due.

 

[Absentglare]

It's people with this kind of thinking, that have made America bad, and why Trump needs to Make America Great Again.

Nothing I loathe more than a busybody snitch mentality.

Except if they were to snitch on someone you don't like such as Hillary ?

 

[jet57]

I don't think that's quite right - it's too high.

Mainly: people who own firearms tend to own more than one.
And people are families . . . multiple people know someone and if they're related then that doesn't mean they know separate people.

For example: no one in my entire family has a single firearm. Yet there was a time during which I owned several. Thus everyone in my family knew me and thus knew someone who owned a firearm.

I think their math is a bit off due to these two reasons. 1/2 of all adults in the US don't have a firearm in their home.

Your right:

Here's the real story:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...erican-gun-ownership-is-now-at-a-30-year-low/

The percent of American households owning guns is at a near-40 year low in the latest CBS News poll released this month.
According to the survey, which was conducted among 1,001 Americans in the aftermath of the Orlando nightclub shooting, 36 percent of U.S. adults either own a firearm personally, or live with someone who does. That's the lowest rate of gun ownership in the CBS poll going back to 1978. It's down 17 points from the highest recorded rate in 1994, and nearly 10 percentage points from 2012.

 

[TurtleDude]

Your right:

Here's the real story:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...erican-gun-ownership-is-now-at-a-30-year-low/

if this is true (I don't think it is) then it proves that there is no need for additional bannerrhoid laws that are designed to reduce honest people from owning guns (which of course is the real goal of the bannerrhoid movement)

 

[NonoBadDog]

Your right:

Here's the real story:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...erican-gun-ownership-is-now-at-a-30-year-low/

Background checks for gun sales at record high in 2015 - Washington Times
FBI gun background checks headed for another record year - Jun. 12, 2016
July Gun Sales Crush Previous Record

Your WaPo story doesn't jive with what the govt is saying.

Here is one form WaPo that contradicts your WaPo article.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ground-checks-ever-processed-in-a-single-day/

Notable spikes in such checks, processed through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), are often seen on Black Friday, near Christmas and after mass shootings. Meanwhile, FBI data going back to 1998 show that the number of background checks has risen steadily since 2006.

 

[Crimefree]

So you always accept the results of every poll to be accurate . . . interesting.

Not a scientific response. Either you can show the result wrong or not.

As I see it we have on one hand record sales, those firearms are going somewhere. Either the vast majority are going to current owners and overall ownership is reducing. (the gun control convenient view) or people are not reporting ownership due to registration, ban and confiscation rhetoric from gun control as it tries to gain more support.

The idea that people are divesting of firearms is highly unlikely. That they are going underground is far more plausible.

Of course firearm organisations should see this as a serious problem and be countering this gun control rhetoric. There is absolutely no doubt to gun control gaining more support for gateway laws like registration, background checks and qualification. You would think by now they had learnt there are no sensible gun control laws and all of them are just a stepping stone. Some vital as they open the door of acceptance of qualification which = divide and rule.

 

[Crimefree]

Noooo, crime statistics and drug gangs make those decisions. As well as terrorists and crazies who walk into their local gun store and buy enough weapons an ammo to do a job on a crowd of people.

How can these possibly drive decisions to deny citizens?

 

[BretJ]

I own tow rifles, and I'm not going down that stupid useless road with you again.

Why is it stupid Jet? Because it causes a little thing called cognitive dissonance? Your owning those firearms makes you the poster child of the ignorance of which we speak. Had the Sandy Hook, Aurora, pulse night club, etc. mass murderers been armed with the very firearms you own, the outcomes would have been identical. Yet you have the balls to tell other people they shouldn't own one.

 

[BretJ]

Your right:

Here's the real story:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...erican-gun-ownership-is-now-at-a-30-year-low/

Funny how as gun ownership among Democrats goes down, gun crime goes down at the same rate.

 

[flogger]

Funny how as gun ownership among Democrats goes down, gun crime goes down at the same rate.

Do you think bullets care about your politics ?

 

[Visbek]

Background checks for gun sales at record high in 2015 - Washington Times
FBI gun background checks headed for another record year - Jun. 12, 2016
July Gun Sales Crush Previous Record

Your WaPo story doesn't jive with what the govt is saying.

Yes, actually, it does.

You need separate background checks for separate gun purchases; and people today who already own guns are going out and purchasing more guns. The average number of guns owned by individuals nearly doubled between 2009 and 2013.

This also fits very well with a variety of changes. E.g. The number of people hunting has slowly dwindled; adjusting for population, 40% fewer hunting licenses are issued today than in 1970. Minorities are half as likely to own guns as whites; people in urban environments are half as likely to own guns as people in rural areas. Both minorities and urbanites are growing as a percentage of the US population.

So yes, the increasing number of background checks fits quite well with the idea that fewer households have guns today than in the past.

 

[BretJ]

Do you think bullets care about your politics ?

You seem to be the one enamoured with statistics. You don't think it is odd how gun crime/murders go down at the same rate gun ownership among Democrats decreases while gun ownership among Conservatives remains the same? You love reading into numbers, what do you read into those?

 

[ttwtt78640]

I don't think that's quite right - it's too high.

Mainly: people who own firearms tend to own more than one.
And people are families . . . multiple people know someone and if they're related then that doesn't mean they know separate people.

For example: no one in my entire family has a single firearm. Yet there was a time during which I owned several. Thus everyone in my family knew me and thus knew someone who owned a firearm.

I think their math is a bit off due to these two reasons. 1/2 of all adults in the US don't have a firearm in their home.

I would bet that it is more like 80% that have at least one gun in their home in my rural area. Of myself and my 12 immediate neighbors only two (of those 13 households) do not own any guns. The claimed gun ownership rate may be much lower in urban and suburban areas but there is no lack of guns in those areas - see the news for "evidence".

 

[flogger]

You seem to be the one enamoured with statistics. You don't think it is odd how gun crime/murders go down at the same rate gun ownership among Democrats decreases while gun ownership among Conservatives remains the same? You love reading into numbers, what do you read into those?

So do you think bullets will care about the politics of those they hit ?

It was a simple enough question

 

[Visbek]

I would bet that it is more like 80% that have at least one gun in their home in my rural area. Of myself and my 12 immediate neighbors only two (of those 13 households) do not own any guns. The claimed gun ownership rate may be much lower in urban and suburban areas but there is no lack of guns in those areas - see the news for "evidence".

Actually, the nightly news doesn't tell you much of anything, especially in dense urban areas.

For example, New York City had close to 350 homicides in 2015, which means that a homicide (or an investigation of recent homicides) can easily top local news every single day. (If there isn't a homicide in the city itself, they can always discuss crime in nearby cities and suburbs.) And of course, in many respects that sounds like a huge number.

However, we're talking about a city with a population of nearly 9 million people. That's 2.2 homicides per 100,000 people, nearly the same as most European nations. Crime rates have fallen almost every year since the early 1990s. Huge sections of NYC are safe as kittens these days, as unfortunately much of the violent crime is concentrated into specific neighborhoods. It's one of the safest large cities in the world.

NYC also has fairly strict gun laws. Most of the criminals who use guns in NYC typically purchase them through straw gun sales in Virginia, which keeps numbers down a little bit.

Most large cities in the US have similar stories -- over 20 years of falling crime rates; relatively low rates of crime; lower rates of gun ownership.

I.e. Anecdotal reports don't provide accurate information about the world, especially with hot-button issues like violent crime.

 

[NonoBadDog]

Yes, actually, it does.

You need separate background checks for separate gun purchases; and people today who already own guns are going out and purchasing more guns. The average number of guns owned by individuals nearly doubled between 2009 and 2013.

This also fits very well with a variety of changes. E.g. The number of people hunting has slowly dwindled; adjusting for population, 40% fewer hunting licenses are issued today than in 1970. Minorities are half as likely to own guns as whites; people in urban environments are half as likely to own guns as people in rural areas. Both minorities and urbanites are growing as a percentage of the US population.

So yes, the increasing number of background checks fits quite well with the idea that fewer households have guns today than in the past.

Is gun ownership really down in America? | Fox News


From the PEW poll.

ASK ALL:
Q.90 Do you, or does anyone in your household, own a gun, rifle or pistol? [IF YES: Is that you or someone else in your household?]
Aug 9-16 Jul 14-20 May 1-5 Feb 13-18
2016 2015 2013 2013
20 Yes, respondent 18 18 17
13 Yes, someone else 12 14 13
12 Yes, both/multiple (VOL.) 9 8 8
51 No, nobody in household owns a gun 58 54 57
5 Don't know/Refused (VOL.) 4 5 6
31 NET: Respondent owns gun 26 27 24
44 NET: Gun in household 39 41 37

Gun ownership has been increasing among African Americans.
African American Gun Ownership Is Up, and So Is Wariness | Mother Jones

The number of black Americans who own guns appears to be on the rise. According to a 2014 Pew survey, 19 percent of black adults said they owned a gun, up from 15 percent in 2013. In another 2014 survey, 54 percent of black adults said they believed owning a gun makes people safer. Two years earlier, only 29 percent said so.

Black Americans have historically been the target of black codes and Jim Crow laws aimed at disarming them, notes Philip Smith, founder of the National African American Gun Association. He attributes the ownership increase to several factors. Many blacks, he says, are simply feeling the need to protect themselves against violent crime. (Black Americans are more likely than members of other ethnic groups to be the victim of a gun homicide.) Fear of terrorism also comes into play, he says—the reasons, he adds, vary by sub-demographic—single women, married fathers, rural versus urban, etc.

Gun ownership has increased among women.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/us/rising-voice-of-gun-ownership-is-female.html

Gun sales to women have risen in concert. In a survey last year by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, 73 percent of gun dealers said the number of female customers had gone up in 2011, as had a majority of retailers surveyed in the two previous years.

I suspect the number is even higher than is shown in the polls.
Zogby/O?leary Report Polls Reveals Americans? Domestic And International Concerns

QUESTION: "If a national pollster asked you if you owned a firearm, would you determine to tell him or her the truth or would you feel it was none of their business?"

Gallup recently released a poll showing that gun ownership had declined from polls they had taken in an earlier time period. That number is inconsistent with the number of firearms that have been sold since President Obama took residency, but the difference can be answered by the Zogby Analytic question above. The poll indicates maintaining anonymity is a contributing factor:
36% of Americans feel it is none of the pollster's business and that includes 35% of current gun owners 47% of Republicans and 42% of Independents