VPC "study"-Household Gun Ownership Hits New Low

[mofugly13]

http://www.vpc.org/press/1104norc.htm

According to a new report from the Violence Policy Center, household gun ownership in the U.S. has dropped from 54% to 32% and is at its lowest level since 1977.

Washington, DC--Household gun ownership in the United States has dropped to its lowest level since it peaked in 1977 according to a report issued today by the Violence Policy Center (VPC) analyzing new data from the General Social Survey (GSS) conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. The GSS has tracked household and personal gun ownership since the early 1970s and, except for the U.S. Census, is the most frequently analyzed source of information in the social sciences.

Could we pick this apart? How credible is the GSS, and NORC?

[Librarian]

http://www.vpc.org/press/1104norc.htm

According to a new report from the Violence Policy Center, household gun ownership in the U.S. has dropped from 54% to 32% and is at its lowest level since 1977.



Could we pick this apart? How credible is the GSS, and NORC?

GSS and NORC are reputable, about as good as it gets.

VPC's spin on their data may be suspect, and somewhere in the low to mid 30% range has been the estimate for some years.

More smoke, little fire, I think.

[dieselpower]

I know how they got these numbers.

Since we know its a fact that guns kill their owners all the time, then when the numbers of owners killed with a gun goes down...this means less people own guns. Its simple.

[N6ATF]

University of Chicago. Enough said.

[Glock22Fan]

But, but, but, I thought everyone and his or her dog bought firearms when Obama took over?

[wash]

Has anyone ever thought that with Obama in office, people might not want the government to know they have guns?

I know I lost all of mine in a tragic boating accident.

[GaryV]

The question isn't whether there is a lower percentage of households with guns (assuming that's true). That is just a statistic with no meaning attached. It doesn't necessarily mean, for example, that fewer people own guns, or even that a lower percentage people own guns, or that there are fewer privately owned guns, etc., etc. It may simply mean that, for example, a larger percentage of households are now located in urban areas with strict gun laws. But since "household" does not equal "people", there could still be just as high a percentage of gun-owning Americans, or even higher, than in the past. If these new urban households are primarily single people living in small city apartments who, 30 years ago, would otherwise still not have owned a gun, but would have been living in a suburban/rural family home with a parent/sibling who did, then the percentage of households would drop, but the percentage of owners wouldn't. Taken by itself, the statistic is meaningless.

One of the causes that VPC itself lists, is the increase in single-parent households headed by women. If that is a major contributing factor, then it isn't that gun ownership has declined, it is that people who in the past would have all been members of one household are now members of multiple households, with the guns from the single household not being evenly distributed among the new ones.

Assuming that's true, one has to wonder if VPC is now going to advocate single-motherhood as a means of socially engineering a reduction in gun culture.

[Ripon83]

The data will be used by anti gun organizations and will be presented as gospel. They can tell politicians the number of peopler likely to be negatively impacted is now less, and that regulations are working to dis arm America....a long term goal

[Sutcliffe]

It's quite possible

We have becoming a more and more urbanized society. Most city dwellers have no need for handguns. Others, that might need one, are prohibited from them.

[Nick Justice]

We have becoming a more and more urbanized society. Most city dwellers have no need for handguns. Others, that might need one, are prohibited from them.

No. Many city dwellers are under the false notion that they don't need one. So they don't have them.

The prohibited ones are, in fact, a different issue.

[NSR500]

It could also be that gun owners don't want to disclose the fact that they own guns.

[chaseface]

All this time I thought it was 1 in 4. Shows what I know

[nicki]

Does not compute.

Gun sales are at an all time high

CCW permits are at a all time high,

When Obama first got elected we all had a hard time getting common caliber ammunition because ammo companies couldn't manufacture enough even running shifts 24/7/365.

Of course these are the same guys who put out a report that Semi Auto arms are more dangerous than full auto arms.

They are also the guys who say that 50 cal rifles are anti aircraft guns.

Bet they cherry picked a city, like NYC for instance where legal gun ownership significantly declined under both Guilani and Blameburg.

Nicki

[mblat]

You don't think that this is funciton of smae people buying more guns/ammo? Not more people buying guns/ammo?

I understand that statiscally there are about one gun per each man, women and child in the country ( plus/minus). However, it is unusual ( IMHO) for a person to have one gun. Usually if somebody has a gun , he has MANY guns. Like yours truly.

So 30% (or so) household actually seems like very high number for me. I certanly have more that three guns!!!!

Gun sales are at an all time high

CCW permits are at a all time high,

When Obama first got elected we all had a hard time getting common caliber ammunition because ammo companies couldn't manufacture enough even running shifts 24/7/365.

Of course these are the same guys who put out a report that Semi Auto arms are more dangerous than full auto arms.

They are also the guys who say that 50 cal rifles are anti aircraft guns.

Bet they cherry picked a city, like NYC for instance where legal gun ownership significantly declined under both Guilani and Blameburg.

Nicki

[wash]

I would say that many many people own one gun.

Urban residents might only have one handgun for self defense, a farmer might only have a shotgun, the poor might spend money on rent rather than a gun collection.

We are a minority as vocal gun owners. We have more guns because we want to and we can.