Gun owners bought 14 Million + Guns in 2009

[evan price]

I do not consider 14 million a particularly good number. It's not good news.

Why?

Let's assume the US population is about 300 million people. Thats men, women & children, not including illegals.

Lets further assume that each of those 14 million guns were purchased individually. That means that less than 5% of the US population bought guns.

You and everyone reading this knows that people who own guns buy more. I'd be willing to bet that that 14 million number is probably really attributable to a much smaller pool of individuals who bought them. Heck, I know that I bought a good handful of guns myself. That means that in actuality (And I am making wild *** guesses here) the real number of individuals that bought guns was likely much less than half of that 14 million people- maybe 2% or 3% of the population- and when you start talking about voting power, 3% of the population is really lost in the over/under in most national races.

Also consider that most likely, the number of new first-time gun owners was a small percentage of that number. So we really didn't gain anything, just some of us stocked up while the stockin' was good.

Now if that NICS number had been around 10 TIMES that number, I'd be pretty darn happy.

 

[wishin]

...........Now if that NICS number had been around 10 TIMES that number, I'd be pretty darn happy.

I like the way you think............................

 

[Ohio Gun Guy]

Here are some interesting Government Statistics that discuss a few of these specific things (Ownership rates, types, etc)

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5214a2.htm
CDC Report
October 3, 2003 / 52(RR14);11-20

Approximately 4.5 million new firearms are sold each year in the United States, including 2 million handguns. In addition, estimates of annual secondhand firearms transactions (i.e., sales, trades, or gifts) range from 2 million to 4.5 million (5,6). Further, an estimated 0.5 million firearms are stolen annually (6). Thus, the total number of firearms transactions could be as high as 9.5 million per year.

The 1994 National Survey of the Private Ownership of Firearms (NSPOF), conducted by Chilton Research Services for the Police Foundation, under sponsorship of the National Institute of Justice, indicated that American adults owned approximately 192 million working firearms, an average of one per adult (7). The NSPOF also indicated that firearm ownership was unevenly distributed in the population: only 24.6% of U.S. adults owned a firearm (41.8% of men and 9.0% of women). Another survey (2) found that 41% of adult respondents reported having a firearm in their home in 1994, and 35% did so in 1998. A third survey (8) reported that 35% of homes with children aged <18 years had at least one firearm. Rates of firearm ownership in the United States also exceed those of 14 other nations for which data are available, with the exception of Finland (9).

Of the estimated 192 million firearms owned in the United States at the time of the 1994 NSPOF survey, 65 million were handguns; 70 million, rifles; 49 million, shotguns; and the remainder were other guns (7). Among handgun owners, 34.0% kept their guns loaded and unlocked. An estimated 10 million handguns, one sixth of the handguns owned, were regularly carried by their owners, approximately half in the owners' cars and the other half on the owners' persons.

 

[Maia007]

I wish I could have contributed more. I am resolved to do better in 2010.