wildfan1 wrote:I looked and was surprised to find out most estimates put ownership between 40-50%. I just know thinking of all my friends and neighbors, I don't think 50% of my friends and family are gun owners, and the vast majority of those are conservatives.
If by "gun owner", you mean "has a gun in a closet", I'd be very surprised if the number were as low as 50%.
State-wide surveys indicate that even in the most anti-gun regions, there are guns in more than 25% of households. In the more pro-gun regions, the numbers are above 65%.
And we know that there are a fair number of people who don't think of themselves as gun owners, who have an old gun or two in an attic that they've not touched in decades, and that a fair number of those who do think of themselves as gun owners don't trust pollsters, and will disproportionately refuse to answer, or out-right lie, on this question. Both of which would suggest that the surveys under-report the truth.
In fact, if you track gun sales and imports against polls of gun ownership, from year to year, there's only one conclusion that can be drawn. The changes in the survey resutls track with anti-gun rhetoric in teh media, and don't track at all with gun sales. The only reasonable explanation is that a lot of gun owners lie to pollsters, when asked whether they own guns.