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billh58

(6,641 posts)
Fri Jun 3, 2016, 04:12 PM Jun 2016

This Is What The Average Gun Owner Looks Like In America

After a shooting in Charleston, South Carolina claimed nine lives, President Barack Obama called for the nation to come to terms with the fact that no other advanced country in the world suffers mass shootings as frequently as the U.S. It won’t be until we acknowledge this basic truth, he said, that we’ll realize we have the power to put an end to gun violence.

But that won’t happen until we learn more about the culture that drives gun ownership in the first place, according to Dr. Bindu Kalesan, a gun violence researcher at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. In a first step toward understanding who the typical American gun owner is, as well as the role guns play in their lives, she conducted a nationally representative online survey of 4,000 U.S. adults in 2013. The findings, published Monday in the journal Injury Prevention, reveal a wide range of gun ownership rates across the country as well as the profile of an average gun owner in America.

He’s white, married or divorced, high income, and over 55 years old. Unsurprisingly, he’s also more than twice as likely to be a member of “social gun culture” than those who don’t own firearms. In all, almost one in three Americans owns at least one gun, but gun ownership rates vary widely across states. At 61.7 percent, Alaska has the highest rate of gun ownership, while Delaware has the lowest, at 5.2 percent.

-Snip-

Kalesan’s study defined “social gun culture” as a phenomenon in which friends or family would think less of you if you didn’t own a gun, and if your social life with friends and family involved guns. Any survey participant who answered “yes” to any of these statements was categorized as being part of social gun culture.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/02/average-gun-owner-america-gun-violence-study_n_7709884.html


Far from needing a gun for survival or "protection" many gun owners have them for ego-driven reasons, or for peer acceptance. There is nothing inherently wrong with having a gun just because they're cool, but being the dangerous weapons that they are responsibility for owning a gun should be mandatory.

Regulating responsibility for the ownership of a lethal weapon does not violate, nor "infringe" on the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment, regardless of how it is interpreted. We need to put a stop to the needless death and injuries caused by irresponsible gun owners:

“In 2013 alone, 33,636 persons were killed using a gun, while 84,258 were shot non-fatally,” said Kalesan. “Those who are injured have a difficult journey during recovery, some remaining paraplegic and injured often with PTSD for the rest of their lives.”

15 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
This Is What The Average Gun Owner Looks Like In America (Original Post) billh58 Jun 2016 OP
Does the study profile TeddyR Jun 2016 #1
Great ALEC/NRA/ILA response billh58 Jun 2016 #3
It was a legitimate question TeddyR Jun 2016 #6
Post removed Post removed Jun 2016 #8
I like you TeddyR Jun 2016 #9
Post removed Post removed Jun 2016 #10
Oh, I agree that you have no "obligation" to answer TeddyR Jun 2016 #12
"many gun owners have them for ego-driven reasons" guillaumeb Jun 2016 #2
I vote for billh58 Jun 2016 #4
Prepare for more from the NRA crowd as word gets around. eom guillaumeb Jun 2016 #5
Well, that plus exaggerated fear from watching Warpy Jun 2016 #7
The Gun Humper crowd billh58 Jun 2016 #11
How about people just like to go to the range and shoot their firarms. I fnd it relaxing and Waldorf Jun 2016 #15
Mah pistol is mah penis. valerief Jun 2016 #13
urban or rural, most everyone I know who has one says they want it for the inevitable race war... MisterP Jun 2016 #14

billh58

(6,641 posts)
3. Great ALEC/NRA/ILA response
Fri Jun 3, 2016, 04:17 PM
Jun 2016

Bubba. You must be late for a Trump rally, so we'll see you around. K?

 

TeddyR

(2,493 posts)
6. It was a legitimate question
Fri Jun 3, 2016, 04:22 PM
Jun 2016

What does the appearance of the average gun owner have to do with gun violence, unless all the gun owners are committing gun violence?

Bubba huh? Haven't been called Bubba ever. Or a Trump supporter. But if you have no answers to legitimate questions I guess you make personal attacks.

On edit, that average gun owner profile seems even less relevant to gun violence when you think about it. How many 55 year old white males are going around shooting others? I don't have the statistics at hand but aren't most gun crimes committed by younger males - Dylan Roof, Adam Lanza, etc.?

Response to TeddyR (Reply #6)

 

TeddyR

(2,493 posts)
9. I like you
Fri Jun 3, 2016, 04:29 PM
Jun 2016

You are consistent in both your insults and inability to answer simple questions. So what does the profile of the average gun owner (55, white male, might be married might not be) have to do with firearm violence? What is the definition of "bubba"? Would that be someone like Bill Clinton, a white male from a southern state?

Response to TeddyR (Reply #9)

 

TeddyR

(2,493 posts)
12. Oh, I agree that you have no "obligation" to answer
Fri Jun 3, 2016, 04:46 PM
Jun 2016

Was just trying to have a discussion and sorry for asking questions you couldn't answer - I understand that facts sometimes aren't your friend. Thanks for the insults though! Have a good weekend.

guillaumeb

(42,649 posts)
2. "many gun owners have them for ego-driven reasons"
Fri Jun 3, 2016, 04:16 PM
Jun 2016

The die hard syndrome, or the Rambo syndrome, or the terminator syndrome. A way to compensate?

Warpy

(113,130 posts)
7. Well, that plus exaggerated fear from watching
Fri Jun 3, 2016, 04:22 PM
Jun 2016

too many episodes of "Cops."

That doesn't apply to Alaska or any other largely rural area where the animals are large, plentiful and dangerous.

billh58

(6,641 posts)
11. The Gun Humper crowd
Fri Jun 3, 2016, 04:39 PM
Jun 2016

appears to be confused by the results of the study. The article does not accuse anyone of gun violence, but identifies which members of our society make up the "gun culture." White, middle-aged married/divorced men buy and hoard the most guns. They don't acquire them for the reasons we so often hear about (safety, protection, etc.) but because of peer pressure and ego.

But then again, gun humpers only hear/read what the NRA tells them to anyway.

Waldorf

(654 posts)
15. How about people just like to go to the range and shoot their firarms. I fnd it relaxing and
Fri Jun 3, 2016, 07:05 PM
Jun 2016

enjoyable.

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