A Record Number of Gun Owners?

By Rob Morse

Slow Facts
Slow Facts

Louisiana- (Ammoland.com)-

Do you own a gun?  Here is a clue for you budding social scientists- When it comes to guns, the answer you get depends on the precise question you ask.  There are many ways to determine gun ownership in the United States.  Each method involves assumptions.  Each gives a different answer.

One of the simplest things we could do is ask people if they own a gun.  Next we extrapolate our findings from the few people we asked to the entire population.  Based on the raw data from a recent general social survey, gun ownership might have fallen.  We assume the poll accurately represented all gun owners.  We also assume people answered the poll honestly.  We can test if the answers were honest by taking another poll where we ask the respondents if they would tell us the truth about owning a gun.  It turns out that many of us won’t tell strangers about our guns.  There are good reasons to provide false answers saying we own a gun when we don’t, and to say we don’t own a gun when we do.  We don’t know how those biased answers changed with time.  Are we more trusting or less trusting than we used to be?

A second way to estimate gun ownership is to look at the government forms that must be filled out when a gun is sold through a gun store.  Most gun owners submit a background check form when they transfer a gun.  We can look at the number of background checks each month and judge trends.  That assumes that the fraction of new gun owners who go through a background check is consistent over time.  Some firearms transfers do not require a background check in some states.  Those transfers can include exchanges inside a family, and exchanges from person to person if the buyer and seller have already passed a background check and have their concealed carry license.  We see a growing number of background checks.  There will probably be 2 million background checks next month.

That implies more of us own guns than ever before.

The anti-rights groups who want to restrict gun ownership say the opposite.  They say those two million guns all went to a declining number of gun owners.  It turns out we can test that claim too.

Some states require extensive records each time a gun is sold.  When we look at the records in states like California, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Illinois, we see that the number of gun owners has increased sharply.  My colleague Dean Weingarten collected data from Massachusetts and Illinois.  In Massachusetts, the number of gun owners increased 66% in the last five years;  In Illinois, the number has increased about 75%, from a little over 1 million in 2010, to 1.8 million in 2015.

That data says more of us own guns than ever before.

Illinois and Massachusetts are states where gun ownership is heavily regulated and where the gun culture is actively suppressed.  I assume gun ownership in the rest of the United States has grown even faster than in those deep blue states.  We see more women and more minorities owning guns.  We also see a growing number of urban gun owners.

We see more gun owners in every segment of society.  That is a good thing.

~_~_

About Rob Morse: Rob writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily and on his SlowFacts blog.   He co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast.  He is also an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor.

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Jack Beauregard

Personally, I don’t own any firearms and don’t know or associate with anyone who does. That should be the answer of everyone in the country. It’s really nobody’s business anyway.

TEX

@hippybiker,you’re absolute right. I just bumped up my ammo 1000 rds.for .308,45ACP,and .556/.223. Plus,it’s very important to have repair kits,extra firing pins,BCG’s,plenty of magazines,etc.

TEX

Self defense is a personal choice,make the right one. I feel absolutely safe around people I know are carrying either open or concealed. I’ve got their six and they got mine. How does it get better than that esp.in the world we live in right now !

TEX

There are many people buying firearms that were anti-gun until recently.

Bravo61

I do not own firearms, I just exercise my 2nd Amendment under the radar

J. Parker

Gernally speaking firearms make a good investment. However last month I sold a Remington Custom Shop AWR I brand new in the box for $300 less than I paid for it from Cabelas 10+ years ago. And I took another $1000 bath on a few custom knives that are normally very popular. So nothing is guaranteed and I personally think my experience is more of a reflection of the underlying weakness in the economy and a harbinger of things to come.

Aardvark

I don’t own any guns. I just have a lifetime NRA Benefactor membership, NYSRPA membership and read AmmoLand because I like the articles! That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

Rich

There is a great deal of evidence that good firearms are the best investment in household money one can buy. Find anything in your house you have paid for that you can sell for the same amount or more you paid for it after 10 years. Guns have no expiration date, they do not wear out easily or ever, the older they get the more they are worth if kept well, and they can save your life. Find another item in your house that is a better investment. That is what I question my wife with if she says I… Read more »

Chuck

Anybody that is concerned with what is going on in this world should purchase a gun, learn how to use it to protect there family and themselves!!

freewill

the last figure i saw, was 70 million firearms sold since 2009, the makers are at full capacity, The Japanese in WWII said it would be pointless to attack the main-land of the U.S…there would be shots from behind every blade of grass!!

Martin Bare

Those of us who frequent gun shops know there are a lot “Newbies”, and it seems there are more every month. People are mostly not fools. They feel the wind on their face, and they know society is changing. They feel a need to protect themselves. Gun and ammunition sellers know what is going on.

hippybiker

Amen, Brother! And, ammo and components, too.

TEX

Collecting firearms is what I do. Great investment too. A man just can’t have enough firearms !