gun ownership

TRX
03-26-2011

I saw this comment elsewhere, and brutally ripped it out of context:

we have 31 guns per 100 people in Canada and the USA as 90 guns per 100 people

I haven't bothered to try to verify the claim because it served mainly to make me think about the people who I know own firearms and how many they own that I know of.

As far as I'm aware everyone I know owns at least one gun. We're all in the same basic demographic, which overlaps largely with "gun owners", so it's not unusual. But there are some interesting details.

Several of them will say they only own one gun, but they actually own three or more, and one has an NFA SBS too. In most cases they don't count anything they've owned for more than 20 years, or inherited, as a "gun."

I know two people who have more than 10 guns. And I own somewhere around that many, depending on how you count "complete but in boxes" and unfinished projects.

I don't know anyone with only one gun.

On various forums I've seen pictures of collections (usually AKs, Mosins, or Enfields) of 30 or more. Some brands of guns just multiply when hidden away in cardboard boxes or gun safes...

The claim above was that there was 9 guns for every 10 Americans. Other claims are more like 15 guns for every 10 Americans. But either way, from my personal experience the distribution is quite uneven.

Q: "How many guns do you want?"
A: "All of them?"

TRX
03-26-2011

Originally Posted by kernelkrink
So if anything I would say the figures for guns per person are way too low.

I suspect they're merging 4473 data against areas that require gun registration and extrapolating the results against the rest of the country.

I also suspect that if the stats say "10 guns per 10 people", it will come out closer to 8 people with no guns, 1 person with 1 gun, and one person with 9 guns...

Q: "Why do you need more than one gun?"
A: "Why do you need more than one pair of pants?"