Major Survey Shows Gun Ownership Declining (?)

[waynesan]

http://news.yahoo.com/major-survey-shows-gun-ownership-declining-215840468--politics.html

 

 

 The number of Americans who live in a household with at least one gun is lower than it's ever been, according to a major American trend survey that finds the decline in gun ownership is paralleled by a reduction in the number of Americans who hunt.

 

[btq96r]

As many of us talk about, if we own guns or not is nobody's business, and I would imagine that there were a at least a few gun owners who refused to participate, thus skewing the sample.

Edited March 11, 2015 by btq96r

[MacGyver]

The FBI reported numbers on 4473s tell a different story. They indicate that one in four guns in America have been sold in the last 6 years.

[RED333]

I read that the other day and feel the same as btq96r

[10-Ring]

I don't buy it and you can't really argue with MacGyvers statement.  Not sure exactly what the study looked at but I see little to no correlation between the number of people hunting and the number of people owning guns.  I know lots of people who are avid shooters that don't hunt. 

[john455]

it's because of Liam Neeson saying America has to many guns lol

[K191145]

From the article:

 

The General Social Survey is conducted by NORC, an independent research organization based at the [b]University of Chicago[/b], with money from the National Science Foundation.

 

Yea well, maybe a little skewed?? With a little work one can always find rusults they personally want.

[Rhodewarrior]

I'm not buying it :bs:

[BrasilNuts]

I know lots of people who are avid shooters that don't hunt.

I know lots of people who are avid hunters that don't shoot.

[WindHawk]

+1 on K191145's comment and the others too. 

 

From their web site : "NORC at the University of Chicago"

 

"From our founding in 1941 through 2010, we were incorporated as the National Opinion Research Center. 

 

In 2010, to reflect the many changes in our mission and the global nature of our work, our to-do-business (TDB) name was established as NORC. NORC is not an acronym, it is our name, as with organizations such as IBM, AT&T, RAND, and GEICO.  We use NORC at the University of Chicago to emphasize our close affiliation with the University."

 

Offices in downtown Chicago, the University of Chicago, DC Metro including on Pennsylvania Ave. and Bethesda, MD., Boston, San Francisco and Atlanta.  No anti-gun bias in these areas, right?

 

You get any result you want on any survey by wording the questions carefully and then asking them to the "right" sample group.  Think it's possible could they be using the "doctors' office questionnaire"? Who knows?   ^_^

[tnguy]

Looking through the data presented (which only goes 1972-2006 that I could find), the pistol/revolver stats remain fairly constant (20.3-20.0 peaking at 26.8) while the rifle and shotgun ownership falls about 10 percentage points (30.8-20.4 and 29.0-20.3 respectively).

 

So I think one could rightfully conclude that firearms ownership for self-defense was remaining somewhat constant with a decline in rifle and shotgun ownership being a real thing. Their numbers might still be low but they could be low by a constant amount.

 

The graph on the stories go to 2014 which isn't shown on the trend data I found. Sandy Hook was in 2012 so I find it hard to believe there wasn't a rise in ownership between those times simply from the panic buying that was definitely going on then.

 

One thing to bear in mind is we all know plenty of people who have guns and shoot but Tennessee is a state with a small population and you have to account for large cities with huge liberal populations (That is how we got Obama after all). The population of the whole of Tennessee is 6.55 million, NYC is 8.4 million and Chicago is 2.7 million for comparison.

Edited March 11, 2015 by tnguy

[Someotherguy]

The university of chicago= liberal central



The national science foundation is a government entity...



Yeah, lets not take this so called "study" too seriously lol

[leroy]

Food for the "children" man...   

 

leroy

[Grand Torino]

I don't believe it for a second.

[Tncobra]

"The General Social Survey is administered by NORC at the University of Chicago, primarily using in-person interviewing"

 

Enough said.

[LagerHead]

Apparently they used outdated methodology to collect the data. Gallup's polls show differently, and I trust their data much more.

[tnguy]

"The General Social Survey is administered by NORC at the University of Chicago, primarily using in-person interviewing"

 

Enough said.

 

I wasn't able to find out what the actual details of that were. It claims to be a national survey which implies they send people out all over the country. This is not impossible but often when you look at this kind of thing, shortcuts were taken or the methodology has holes in it. I'd be more inclined to believe Gallup for sure.

Edited March 11, 2015 by tnguy

[Tuffus]

I know several people that have never owned a firearm in their life until the last 5 years. Some were even anti gun at one time.

[enfield]

I know lots of people who are avid hunters that don't shoot.

I know people who are avid collectors and who don't hunt and shoot a lot. They also collect ammo.

[rmiddle]

I know several people that have never owned a firearm in their life until the last 5 years. Some were even anti gun at one time.

 

I live in Maryland and over the last few years the gun shops have all reported a large number of first time buyers.  Huge numbers.

 

Thanks

Robert

[Steelharp]

There are those of us wising up and denying gun ownership with the present assministration...

[vontar]

Recently I was involved in a tragic boating accident in my 2 man dinghy while transporting all my firearms.  They have been lost in Norris Lake and thus the lost of those may have skewed the results of the whole survey.

[gregintenn]

Look up recent sales figures and form your own opinion.