American gun ownership drops to lowest in nearly 40 years

[billh58]

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.

-Snip-

But gun purchases, as measured by FBI firearm background checks, are at historic highs. And data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shows that gun manufacturers are churning out record numbers of guns. Many gun rights advocates argue that these figures mean that the overall number of gun owners is growing: If more guns are being sold, more people must be owning guns.

But the declining rates of gun ownership across three major national surveys suggest a different explanation: that most of the rise in gun purchases is driven by existing gun owners stocking up, rather than by people buying their first gun. A Washington Post analysis last year found that the average American gun owner now owns approximately eight firearms, double the number in the 1990s.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/29/american-gun-ownership-is-now-at-a-30-year-low/

The demographics of gun ownership are also telling: 41% of Republicans, as opposed to 23% of Democrats. A recent CBS poll found that the number of guns owned per gun nut was a whopping 10 (see info at link).

We need to elect Democrats at al levels of government to stop the right-wing gun lobby, and its apologists, in their tracks.

[tonyt53]

1. Yep, but those that own guns can't get enough of them. Scared of their own shadows.

[Runningdawg]

2. Sales down?

Or fewer people admitting to pollsters they own one? From what I see and hear in OK, I'm going with the latter.

[jmg257]

4. Also interesting is while the number of gun owners overall drops, the number

of handgun owners (based on #s of new pistol permits) is increasing.

Likely vast amounts of those 23 million guns sold annually are defense shotguns, assault weapons and handguns.

[SunSeeker]

6. The same old gun hoarders account for a large percentage of new gun sales.

More and more people understand that guns in the home are a danger, not a defense.

[billh58]

5. The Death Cycle: Mass Shootings, Terrorism, And The Economics Of The NRA

While most Americans mourn the dead in Orlando and struggle to make sense of the largest mass shooting in American history, the reaction in the boardrooms of gun manufacturers and at the NRA might be a bit different.

Mass gun deaths — far from tragic events for these organizations — are now a significant contributor to their bottom lines. It is all part of a perverse cycle of guns, death and profit that fuels the firearms industry.

Here is how it works:

1. A mass shooting/terrorist attack garners significant media attention.

2. Public figures suggest it might be time to put in place some reasonable and widely agreed upon gun safety legislation; for example, improving our background check system, limiting the ability of those on the terrorist watch list to purchase guns, and the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban.

3. The NRA, along with allies in the conservative media, frighten their supporters into believing that Democrats — and, for the past eight years, President Obama — are going to take their guns away.

4. Gun and ammo sales spike with weapon makers profiting from the panic.

5. The weapons makers contribute generously to the NRA, which launches all-out campaigns using financial, lobbying and grassroots muscle to defeat any gun regulations, while pushing for even greater access to guns.

6. More guns make the next attack even more likely.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/death-cycle-mass-shootings-terrorism-and-economics-nra

This is how the gun manufacturer death merchants and the right-wing gun lobby make profits from the blood of innocents.

[mountain grammy]

7. Somehow, we've collected 3 guns.

a small 22 that belonged to my father in law, a S/W 5 shot revolver and a hunting rifle..We don't hunt and rarely target shoot. They are locked up, out of harms way with no ammo, but I can't for the life of me understand why we own 3 guns. My brother in law owns 23, but he's a raging Texas gun nut. I'll sell all three for a trip to Hawaii.

[billh58]

8. You described your

BIL very well...