Half the firearms in the U.S. are owned by 3% of adults, and that means trouble for the NRA

[applegrove]

by Firmin DeBrabander at the LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-debrabander-nra-demographic-20161201-story.html

"SNIP............


Half the guns in the U.S. are owned by 3% of adults. So says a revelatory new study on the demographics of gun ownership by Harvard Public Health researchers. These “superowners,” as some have dubbed them, own on average 17 guns apiece. The study also points out that the share of Americans who own a gun has fallen from 25% to 22% in the last 20 years, even as the population as a whole has grown and gun sales have boomed. Clearly a lot of the same people keep buying guns.

Gun ownership in the U.S. is highly concentrated, and the trend promises to continue. The most recent General Social Survey, released in 2015, revealed that gun ownership among young adults has fallen to 14% from 23% in 1980. This is a considerable drop among what should be the NRA’s future membership.

Given these trends, it should come as no surprise that public opinion also stands against the NRA.

Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, polls indicated that more than 70% of Americans favored universal background checks for gun transactions. And a 2015 Johns Hopkins study found that majorities favor a host of stronger gun safety measures, including allowing lawsuits against negligent dealers, enacting safe storage laws and preventing sales to individuals with domestic violence restraining orders. While Missouri lawmakers recently approved a permitless carry law in their state, a majority of residents oppose the measure.


..............SNIP"

[stone space]

1. NRA equals KKK equals TRUMP. They made their bed, and it's a mnage trois. (nt)

[billh58]

2. Thanks for the post, and

yes the aging gun hugger (hoarder?) population is definitely fading out of existence as support for reasonable gun control grows exponentially. According to the right-wing gun lobby and their cheer leaders (enablers) however, things couldn't be more rosy now that their hero, The Donald, has been elected Grand Dragon of the USA. They fully expect nationwide concealed and open carry, and a gun in every hand and in every home.

It is up to us to make sure that this nightmare scenario is not allowed to come to fruition.

[SunSeeker]

3. In other words, guns are generally owned by gun nuts.

And the majority of Americans are not gun nuts. And a majority of Americans voted for Hillary. Clearly our gun laws (and President Elect) do not represent the wishes of the majority of Americans

[HDSam]

4. If

researchers surveyed individual gun owners to reach their conclusion, I think 3% could be low thanks to a certain level of paranoia and fear with in the target population concerning disclosing gun ownership.

[billh58]

5. That of course is the

right-wing NRA rationalization about "skewed" gun ownership surveys. I believe that most professional researchers take factors like "paranoia and fear" into account and adjust for them. The 3% figure has come from several different sources, and it is improbable that they are all wrong.

[yagotme]

8. I didn't crunch the numbers

in the OP's link, but one of the sub-links did state that pollsters were encountering fewer people that resisted questions about owning guns in the home. IMO, that would skew the numbers somewhat, seeing that pollsters don't talk to everybody in the nation.

[flamin lib]

6. If that were true then Lott would not have been able to get enough people

to claim using a gun for self defense. They can't have it both ways; too paranoid to admit owning a gun but proud to claim its use.

[flamin lib]

7. I posted this link over in the gungeon

and it eas met with virtual silence. Silence ans denial.

http://www.pollingreport.com/guns.htm

Its a compilation of polls about gun control earlier this year.