Gun ownership down across the board

[jimpeel]

This study merely shows that the population is growing faster than the number of firearms. Most of that growth is likely in population centers -- such as New York and California --where firearms ownership is most restricted. In those places people find the hassle of trying to own a firearm just not worth the hassle. Waiting periods for ownership, FIDs, being listed on criminal databases, registration, etc. likely have much to do with any decline in ownership.

In addition, if I were called or sent a survey I would deny firearm ownership. It is none of their business how many firearms, couches, or refrigerators I own.

SOURCE

U.S. gun ownership down almost across the board, survey says

Posted on: 3:21 pm, March 10, 2013, by Web Staff, updated on: 03:23pm, March 10, 2013

DENVER — The gun ownership rate of the United States has dropped significantly during the past 40 years, a new national survey shows.

...

Perhaps most surprisingly, gun ownership is down across many regions and demographics. It has declined in urban and rural areas, among households with and without children, among religious people and non-religious people. It has even declined in the South and Mountain West states, areas that had previously been thought of as strongholds of gun ownership.

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[Willie Sutton]

This was a front page article in the NY Times today, above the fold as well.

My thoughts on it were identical to the above: If I was asked by a pollster calling me out of the blue, I'd deny owning firearms.


Willie

.

[Bartholomew Roberts]

That story is nonsense. People I've known my entire life who were never into guns are buying guns and asking my advice. Sales of guns and ammo have been climbing steadily every year for years and the NYT wants us to believe it is a dwindling population of gun owners buying all this?

[Aguila Blanca]

I absolutely do not believe this. Since the Sandy Hook shooting started the ball rolling on new gun control laws, people have been buying guns and ammo who previously would never have considered it. A week ago Friday I was asked to go shooting with a former co-worker so I could teach his wife, who had never shot a firearm before, how to shoot. She enjoyed, it, and she's going to go for her carry permit.

Gun shops can't get guns to sell. The manufacturers can't match the demand. If the number of firearms in civilian ownership prior to Sandy Hook was 315,000,000 (which a number I think I have read -- or thereabouts), it must have increased by several million in the past two months alone. Those guns didn't just disappear -- somebody bought them, and I'm sure more than a few went to families/homes that didn't previously own a gun.

I also think a lot of people wouldn't even consider telling a pollster they own guns, or how many and what kind(s).

[Brian Pfleuger]

Wow. That totally jives with the fact that there are more manufacturers than ever before, in firearms, accessories, ammunition and components, all of whom are operating at or near 100% capacity, they can't keep up and are months backlogged.

[Dwight55]

The NYT (among others) have a vested FINANCIAL interest in keeping the president happy, . . . Cuomo happy, . . . and many others. With that, they enjoy almost unlimited access to whether the wives cut their own bangs, . . . who is wearing what to the next social event, . . . and if the Kardashians are indeed long lost cousins to Senator _____________________.

Those people belong to the "You go ahead and lie, . . . I'll swear to it" club, . . . and this is nothing more than another page out of that book.

ANYONE with half a brain can deduce from the published stats on guns sold, NICS checks made, new CHL applications through the roof, . . . among other items of news, . . . that the purveyors of this trash are just about 16 ounces shy of a full pint.

May God bless,
Dwight

[Joe_Pike]

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

[scrubcedar]

Okay I'm taking a look at the Data Source itself, the General Social Survey. Some interesting Data I've found so far. The very latest data came in was October 2012 with the great majority of the data being collected before then. Since we've seen unprecedented gun sales lately the survey is inaccurate for today on it's face.
Here is the gun part of the questionnaire they handed the surveyors.
HUNT: Categorical (Single)
And now a question on a different topic. {spfill} go hunting? CODE ONE ONLY.
Categories:
{yes_respondent_does} Yes, RESPONDENT DOES
{yes_spouse_does} Yes, SPOUSE DOES
{yes_both_do} Yes, BOTH DO
{no} {response to hunttxt}
{dontknow} DON'T KNOW
{refused} REFUSED
OWNGUN: Categorical (Single)
Do you happen to have in your home (IF HOUSE: or garage) any guns
or revolvers?
Categories:
{yes} Yes
{no} No
{dontknow} DON'T KNOW
{refused} REFUSED
If OWNGUN = {yes} Then
PISTOL: Categorical - (Multiple)
Is it a pistol, shotgun, rifle, or what? CODE ALL THAT APPLY.
Categories:
{pistol} Pistol
{shotgun} Shotgun
{rifle} Rifle
{other_specify} Other (SPECIFY)
{dontknow} DON'T KNOW
{refused} REFUSED
If PISTOL.ContainsAny({other_specify}) Then
GUNSPEC: Text
PLEASE SPECIFY OTHER TYPE OF GUN.
If you came nosing around my house asking these questions, even as a part of a general questionnaire I would show you the door as well as not answering your questions about my guns.
The response rate is, by their own figures, is less than one percent with no effort to control for the fact that only those individuals who were comfortable with this level of privacy invasion, a small and distinct subset of the average person, responding.
I am starting the research on the people in charge of this.

[scrubcedar]

Tom W. Smith
Director of the General Social Survey / Principal Investigator
National Opinion Research Center
Chicago, IL
University of Chicago Professor. link to article by him.
http://futureofchildren.org/publicat...&articleid=172
A quote from it. "Three decades of polling have painted a clear picture of public opinion about gun control. These polls show that public support for the regulation of firearms is strong, deep, and widespread."

Peter V. Marsden
Co-Principal Investigator
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
A university of Chicago Alum. Now the Dean of Social Science at Harvard.
How do you think he feels about Social/Firearms issues? Think he agree's with us here about Social Issues firearms ownership, Democrats or Republicans?
'Nuff said.

Michael Hout
Co-Principal Investigator
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley CA
Dean of Social Studies Berkeley, frequent contributor of statistics to Anti-gun articles. I suspect he was the original pipeline for the article.

Jibum Kim
Research Associate
Sungkyunkwan University
Seoul, Korea
Having trouble finding info on this person.

James A. Davis
Principal Investigator Emeritus
National Opinion Research Center
Chicago, IL
Another University of Chicago Professor, was apparently in the area to welcome Sacajawea as she led those two rookies through the state.

I was taught to always consider the source. What are the odds that these people can be objective about social data of any sort?

[Ronbert]

Survey of gang members would come up with the same result.

Guns? What guns? We don't have no guns here.....

[Tom Servo]

If I was asked by a pollster calling me out of the blue, I'd deny owning firearms.

Same here, and I'm sure many people would agree.

That said, the link to the actual survey is a 404. Does anyone have a link to it?

[scrubcedar]

That's where I went to get my data.
http://www3.norc.org/GSS+Website/

[Dr Big Bird PhD]

Not a fan of participating in pollsters, let alone ones about firearms

[FrankenMauser]

My thoughts on it were identical to the above: If I was asked by a pollster calling me out of the blue, I'd deny owning firearms.

Yep.
If you take a random sampling of my friends and family, at least 80% of them would deny owning firearms to ANYONE that called them on the phone.

[9mm]

lol o.o 50 years ago we only had a few dozen types of firearms. Today we have 100's....

[shootniron]

A complete crock...

[nazshooter]

I don't know what's going on with that survey but the Gallup household ownership rates are about the same now as in 1972.

[Skans]

Ha ha ha, funny story. I guess those mile-long lines of people trying to get into gun shows, the 6 month long ammo shortage, low gun store inventory and Smith & Wesson stock price going through the roof counts for nothing. Let's ignore real facts and go with what another stupid survey says.....Oh, and for those of you who want to know the source of that survey - the link in the article doesn't work.

[2damnold4this]

link

[JWT]

Hard to believe given the record number of background checks and lines of buyers at gun stores. I've never seen so many people literally lining up at gun counters to buy guns, a good number of them are first time buyers from the conversations I've heard.

[Tom Servo]

ANYONE with half a brain can deduce from the published stats on guns sold, NICS checks made, new CHL applications through the roof, . . . among other items of news, . . . that the purveyors of this trash are just about 16 ounces shy of a full pint.

Unless there's a black hole somewhere gobbling up guns, I'm not sure how they can claim ownership is down. Consider the number of NICS checks as one benchmark:



That number doesn't include private sales, guns handed down or inherited, or sales made in areas where a carry permit exempts the buyer from a NICS check. The actual number is far higher.

The strategy behind the article is FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt).

[2damnold4this]

Looking at GSS results, they seem to be highly variable from year to year with regards to gun ownership.

For example, in 1987, 48.6% of households reported owning guns. In 1988, the number was 43.4%. In 1989, the number was 48.9%. Do we really believe that gun ownership took a big jump down from 1987 to 1988 then bounced back to essentially the same level it was in 1987 in 1989? Did gun ownership really change or is there some flaw in the way it is measured?

[Come and take it.]

How many people are going to take a survey where they admit to owning a gun?

Perhaps people these days simply are more conscious of protecting their privacy.

[scrubcedar]

"How many people are going to take a survey where they admit to owning a gun?

Perhaps people these days simply are more conscious of protecting their privacy"

Aaaand we have a winner Ladies and Gentleman!

This study relies on self reporting of behavior rather than facts and investigation.
All you are measuring is peoples attitudes toward the revealing of the fact that they own guns.
You have not seen or counted any of physical objects in question, therefore it is useless as an empirical study of ownership, and only useful as a study in attitude toward the revealing of gun ownership.

[markj]

A person once said you can make statistics read how you want them to read....