Does America have more guns in fewer hands?
A very popular study is making its round to the gleeful cheer of many anti-gun groups. Data released this week from the General Social Survey, shows that in 2014, the number of American households owning guns plummeted to 40-year lows.
According to the research, in 2014, guns were present in fewer than a third of U.S. households at just 32 percent. That’s 22 percentage points lower than the high of 54 percent recorded in 1977.
So what is the reason for this? Well the popular answer by anti-gun groups is that despite the purchases of guns literally through the roof the last few years, it is only hardcore gun nuts buying up all the guns while the rest of America has repudiated them.
That is at least what they want to believe. They want to believe that they are winning the war on guns despite all the evidence that contradicts this. A mix of facts and some reasonable thinking can pretty much not only disprove the research, but also disprove that gun ownership in America is on the decline.
By Alex Heard – Digital Journal
It’s no secret that gun sales have been skyrocketing in recent years. Early last year, it was reported that 2013 gun sales were at record highs and now that the 2014 numbers are coming out, things really haven’t changed.
New numbers indicate that guns are still flying off the shelves and the industry has never been better. Even in California, handgun sales reached record highs in 2014.
Sure, enthusiasts and collectors are playing a huge role in the surge but new shooters are also getting into the sport and into self defense like never before. In fact, a recent Fortune article points out the fact that women are playing a huge role in surging gun sales.
As mentioned in the article, the National Sporting Goods Association has reported a 60 percent rise in the number of women who participate in target shooting between the years of 2001 and 2013.
Of course, women are not only buying guns for the sport. There are also record numbers of women getting into concealed carry and self defense.
So with this huge surge in female gun ownership how could households with gun go down? Obviously it isn’t – but women are not the only ones playing a part in this.
Another example to look at is Ferguson. With the threats of riots looming, Gun stores in the Ferguson area were literally selling everything that wasn’t bolted down. The information coming out from those sales was that nearly half of those purchasing a gun were first time gun owners.
This same explosion in first time gun owners was not limited to Ferguson, albeit on a smaller scale. Trends have shown then when stories of crime and violence hit, local residents are taking up the opportunity to defend themselves buy legally purchasing a firearm for self defense.
So how could all of these things be happening while the number is going down? It’s not. What is going down is the number of people willing to admit they have a gun in their home.
The anti-gun groups have accomplished one thing, and that is stigmatizing gun ownership. The very notion of owning or carrying a gun has been so stigmatized by these groups and their friends in the media, that many people are simply not comfortable admitting they have a gun in their home.
We have seen people be refused as foster parents for owning guns. We have seen children getting suspended for school because they play with toy guns at home. We have doctors asking patients about gun ownership. We have seen, just this weekend, a man publicly shamed in front of his family and an entire theater for owning a gun. We have seen neighbors put up signs in their yard to “alert” the rest of the neighborhood that their neighbor has a gun.
In many communities and neighborhoods around the country, hostility towards gun ownership is very high and people are simply not wanting to breach their privacy and admit to owning a gun. Why would you when you could get treated as so many of these others have?
Gun sales are on the rise, new gun ownership is on the rise, and most certainly households with guns are also on the rise.
