Household Ownership Of Guns In US Only 34%?

[EnglishEdward]

If gun sales go up and gun ownership goes down, one explanation might be that guns leave the country and are transported to countries with high request for guns. How difficult is it to leave the US with a gun?

It could just be that fewer people are having more guns.

And if your live in partner has a gun and you do not, you are
not one of the 34% owners but are one of the 47% households.

 

[Bugfatty300]

And if your live in partner has a gun and you do not, you are not one of the 34% owners but are one of the 47% households.

Yeah, that's how I've always interpreted those numbers. 34% of individuals = 34% of households doesn't make a lot of sense. The household percentage would almost certainly have to be a great deal larger than the individual percentage. Unless all (or at least the vast majority) of gun owners live alone with no spouse, girlfriends roommates, relatives, kids, etc who don't own guns. Of course there are those households where everyone from the baby to the dog owns a gun but those are certainly a minority.

So if we are to believe that the percentage of households with guns is much lower than believed, then the percentage of individuals would also have be much lower.

The funny thing is that would mean the US would probably have much lower percentage of individual firearm ownership than many European countries.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Gallup is right-wing and slanted toward the gun lobby!

Nope. That would be you, silly.

These statements really aren't all that difficult to understand. No wonder there is so much confusion from the authoritarian far-right about some wording and the use of "or".

But it certainly is hilarious watching you come up with statements such as this as a result:

The funny thing is that would mean the US would probably have much lower percentage of individual firearm ownership than many European countries.

 

[Bugfatty300]

authoritarian far-right

By all means, can you explain guns or revolvers?

 

[Formaldehyde]

If I could, don't you think I would have mentioned it by now?

But again, it certainly is hilarious watching the authoritarian far-right trying to nitpick their way out of this.

 

[Bugfatty300]

If I could, don't you think I would have mentioned it by now?

Then it's not a nitpick. It's a legitimate focus.

 

[Cutlass]

OK, I is confused. Do we know how many Americans have guns? Do we know how many households have guns in them? Do we have any feel for how many households/people have guns, but tell people about them?

 

[Core Imposter]

How in all this polling and sampling do they account for those who would deny having weapons out of fear of the government? I am sure there are a lot of people who have weapons but don't want the authorities to find out about it.

I would never answer a question posed by anyone connected to the government if I could get out of it. I assume that everyone assumes that every pollster, sampler or questioner is actually from the government. So how could any of this data be reliable?

 

[Bugfatty300]

OK, I is confused. Do we know how many Americans have guns? Do we know how many households have guns in them? Do we have any feel for how many households/people have guns, but tell people about them?

All he have are voluntary polls and surveys.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Then it's not a nitpick. It's a legitimate focus.

What exactly is so confusing about the word "or", even though it is irrelevant in this particular case?

Again, do you really claim this is the reason for this disparity in the polls?

 

[Bugfatty300]

What exactly is so confusing about the word "or"

Um, Nothing? The issue is gun versus revolver, why they chose to differentiate the two and what effect this could have had.

Again, do you really claim this is the reason for this disparity in the polls?

Maybe? I don't know. Survey question wording can effect the results or are you denying that?

Do you any actual input on this besides my personal leanings on the issue of gun ownership?

 

[Formaldehyde]

Um, Nothing? The issue is gun versus revolver, why they chose to differentiate the two and what effect this could have had.

Well, duh. But don't you think reasonably intelligent people shouldn't get very "confused" over this? That worse case they would start arguing with the interviewer that a revolver is a type of a gun?

One possible explanation is that the test is given in English as well as Spanish, and they wanted to keep the questions as similar as they possibly could. But I don't know enough about Spanish to know it that might have anything to do with it.

Here are the actual questions asked in both languages:

Spoiler :

OWNGUN: Categorical (Single)
Do you happen to have in your home (IF HOUSE: or garage) any guns
or revolvers?
Categories:
{yes} Yes
{no} No
{dontknow} DON'T KNOW
{refused} REFUSED
If OWNGUN = {yes} Then
PISTOL: Categorical - (Multiple)
Is it a pistol, shotgun, rifle, or what? CODE ALL THAT APPLY.
Categories:
{pistol} Pistol
{shotgun} Shotgun
{rifle} Rifle
{other_specify} Other (SPECIFY)
{dontknow} DON'T KNOW
{refused} REFUSED
If PISTOL.ContainsAny({other_specify}) Then
GUNSPEC: Text
PLEASE SPECIFY OTHER TYPE OF GUN:
End If
ROWNGUN: Categorical (Single)
Do any of these guns personally belong to you?
Categories:
{yes} Yes
{no} No
{dontknow} DON'T KNOW
{refused} REFUSED
End If

OWNGUN: Categorical (Single)
Por casualidad, ¿tiene un arma de fuego o revólver en su hogar (IF HOUSE: o garaje)?
Categories:
{yes} Sí
{no} No
{dontknow}
{refused}
If OWNGUN = {yes} Then
PISTOL: Categorical - (Multiple)
¿Es una pistola, escopeta, rifle o algo más? CODE ALL THAT APPLY.
Categories:
{pistol} Pistola
{shotgun} Escopeta
{rifle} Rifle
{other_specify} Otro (SPECIFY)
{dontknow}
{refused}
If PISTOL.ContainsAny({other_specify}) Then
GUNSPEC: Text
PLEASE SPECIFY OTHER TYPE OF GUN:
End If
ROWNGUN: Categorical (Single)
¿Alguna de estas armas es de su propiedad?
Categories:
{yes} Sí
{no} NoBallot 1 - 2006 - Spanish
Page 60 of 188
{dontknow}
{refused}
End If

Most Gallup polls are conducted with a thousand or so respondents. This one involves 48,000 people who are selected so they represent the actual demographics. As indicated in the article, gun ownership is far higher in rural areas than it is in urban ones. It is also far lower in Hispanic households. But it still seems to be a very large disparity.

 

[Old Hippy]

Um, Nothing? The issue is gun versus revolver, why they chose to differentiate the two and what effect this could have had.



Maybe? I don't know. Survey question wording can effect the results or are you denying that?

Do you any actual input on this besides my personal leanings on the issue of gun ownership?

the issue is, would you have answered different to, "do you have any guns or revolvers in your home (or if house,and garage)"

if so, why?

 

[Bugfatty300]

But don't you think reasonably intelligent people shouldn't get very "confused" over this?

Yeah, most will likely understand the question after a pause but they're not the problem. It seems to me that it'd be the ones who will misunderstand the question who will be ones who adversely affect overall accuracy. If you want your results to be as accurate as possible then the question should be as coherent as possible. Guns or revolvers is far from ideal.

One possible explanation is that the test is given in English as well as Spanish, and they wanted to keep the questions as similar as they possibly could.

They're literally the same question translated both ways.

But I'm not going to be pretentious enough to claim that since I heard of Gallup before that it must be right.

You didn't laugh at my tongue-in cheek humorous post? I thought I was hilarious?

Most Gallup polls are conducted with a thousand or so respondents. This one involves 48,000 people who are selected

Nice, I didn't know that but it's all for naught if the most important question is borderline gibberish.

the issue is, would you have answered different to, "do you have any guns or revolvers in your home (or if house,and garage)"

if so, why?

Covered on previous page.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Nice, I didn't know that but it's all for not if the most important question is borderline gibberish.

Again, your complete and total impartiality in this matter is showing quite clearly.

At least I was right about that. The NRA gun nuts and their supporters are heavily invested in the notion that gun ownership in the US is much higher than it apparently actually is.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Again, your complete and total impartiality in this matter is showing quite clearly.

At least I was right about that. The NRA gun nuts and their supporters are heavily invested in the notion that gun ownership in the US is much higher than it apparently actually is.

Sigh. And were back to name calling...

 

[Bamspeedy]

With the exception of the last year spike in the Gallop poll....

From 1991-2010 Gallop showed a drop of about 10% (~50% to ~40%) and this other poll showed a 10% drop (~45% to ~35%). Same decline, Gallop just was showing a 5% higher rate which could be from the way the word is questioned, study methodology, sampling error, etc.

Why is it when I search google to compare 'gun ownership' by country, all I get is the 'guns per capita'. Who is more 'gun crazy', country A where nearly every home has 1 rifle, or a country B where most don't have a gun but those that do have a gun actually have multiple guns. Every hunter I know has more than 1 gun. I really wish the gun stats would differentiate between rifles and handguns.

Where would you rather be visiting? A house in the country that has 5 rifles locked up in a closet somewhere, or at an apartment in the city where there is a loaded handgun sitting on the kitchen table?

The NRA spokesman is full of crap. More people going through background checks doesn't mean more households are getting guns....it could mean there are more necessary background checks than there was 20 years ago. Increased sales can be a short term event and sold to people who already own guns. More people taking safety classes just means more people are becoming aware of the necessity of learning to handle the guns properly.

Am I a 'gun-nut' if I don't see the need for excessive regulations of guns?
I don't even own a gun, but I don't want anyone taking my dad's rifles away from him.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Why is it when I search google to compare 'gun ownership' by country, all I get is the 'guns per capita'.

www.gunpolicy.org Gun ownership data from just about every country.

 

[Bamspeedy]

www.gunpolicy.org Gun ownership data from just about every country.

That still only shows 'gun ownership' as the number of guns per 100 people.

I want stats similar to the OP, but for other countries (% of households or individuals).

 

[Bugfatty300]

Oh, well that's a good question. The Wikipedia page used to include those stats but it was limited to North America and Europe IIRC and a lot of the data was decades old. I guess that's why it was removed.

I assume a lot of countries don't bother polling on the subject because gun ownership isn't a big issue so it's probably hard to get reliable data.

EDIT. Guncite.com used to have the same list but it looks like it has vanished too.