Is being a gun owner the new minority?

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When The number of guns and gun ownership are counted are "bad guys" guns included?
 
Gun ownership is rising, not declining. In my area far more than half already own guns. I would say gun owners are the majority. The problem is that it is not a priority to many people. They do not vote with gun ownership in mind.
 
Our sport is on the decline because $ has risen above normal, and definately fewer people are getting hunting permits.
 
I agree about the 'minority' monniker, mainly concerning OC/CC. While a rather large chunk of the US population owns a firearm of some sort, a small portion of those millions actually carries on their person, and an even SMALLER cut open carry.

Sometimes I feel like a minority would (not necessarily racial) when trying to open carry. Just because someone owns a 22 and shotgun doesn't mean they understand and sympathize with a person carrying for protection.
 
I get a lot of the same responses but not from any leo's yet. You get worse looks when you are an minority, and a gun collector.
 
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I agree it really does have alot to do with the area and state you live in. I applied for my permitt about a year ago, my permitt was mailed to me in 4 days after I applied. Ga. Unfortunatly I think it is the uneducated people that are for gun control. I grow up in Bucks Co. Pa. I was 12 years old when I had taken a hunters safty course. In high school we would bring our rifles to school for rifle club. No one ever was shot. I think more programs like these are important to engage people that gun don't kill.
 
trigun trust me

I feel you one hundred and ten percent, As a man in his mid twenties, and black
you would not believe the looks and assumptions I get being a firearms enthusiast, I guess I dont fit the profile, but if being a black man and a gun lover is wrong, I dont want to be right,:p
 
Is there any state in the union that maintains a majority of residences who are gun owners?
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Wyoming for certain, probably at least 80%. Utah probably, along with Arizona and Idaho. Colorado a long time ago, but I doubt it now.
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I'd throw in quite a few of the Southeastern states as probable. Georgia would be close, but I think we'd still be in a slight minority statewide. There's a lot of gun hating liberals in Metro Atlanta. Miss., Alabama, SC, Ark., Louisianna, and Tenn. all have a lot of rural residents and very few, if any, large metropolitan areas. Granted this really doesn't mean a whole lot. But generally speaking it is very favorable for the gun owners side.

The road I live on (granted it is a gravel road, 15 miles from a small town and 20 miles from a big town, and 50 miles from ATL.), I'd be surprised if the non-gun owning houses totaled 10%. Everyone that I've personally talked to is a hunter (or a family member hunts). I hear shots almost nightly, and during hunting season, I hear multiple shots every mourning and afternoon.

Like others have said, it all has to do with your locale. The only strange reaction I've ever seen was from one particular guy I used to do some work for. And his reaction wasn't directed at me (he knew I am a hunter), it was directed at some gun stuff we found in the house we were remodeling.

How long ago was it that a MAJORITY of Americans owned guns?
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I would venture a guess in the 60s. Pre Vietnam War days, and pre-hippie days.

Wyman
 
I think %10 is off the mark a good bit. I bet even the most liberal states have more that %10 Legal gun ownership. In NC which is becoming more liberal ever second :( gun ownership is very much assumed.
 
Yea; the 1st thing you need to know is that 10% is no where NEAR what the actual number of gun owners is. The actual numbers are 40-50% of Households; which equates to about 25% of the population; which is close to 80 MILLION people. Guns are a unique commodity, in the respect that in my house, it's not like I own certain guns and my WIFE owns here OWN. Plus, it's not uncommon for a HOUSEHOLD to own more than one gun. So it's best to use the number of 40-50% of households owning at least 1 gun.

Now; does that make us a minority? Yea, I guess if you want to strictly look at numbers. But that is a very misleading method of looking at it. For instance; the 80 million estimated people owning guns, was PRIOR TO OBAMA BEING ELECTED. Everyone in the country realizes that gun ownership has risen dramatically since he won the election. Also; there are approximately 4 million NRA members. This too however was before the Obama election. That number TOO has dramatically increased. But did it increase with some of the 80 million existing gun owners, or from some of the NEW gun owners????

Also; being a MINORITY IN NUMBERS is totally irrelevant, and the question is irrelevant. For instance; as mentioned, the NRA REPRESENTS 80+ Million Gun Owners, (25% of the Population); yet they only have membership of 4 million which is only 1.5% of the population. BUT; to make you FEEL BETTER: the NAACP REPRESENTS all of America with people of so called "COLOR". Yet, their membership currently is only about 525,000 members. The HIGHEST MEMBERSHIP they ever had was in 1964 with a total of 625,000. Yet, they supposedly SPEAK for ALL BLACKS and people of COLOR. Very misleading. Obviously, they don't speak for as many as they LIKE TO THINK. Just like the NRA doesn't speak for as many as they'd like to think. However; they percentage of 1.5% of the population is a LOT MORE than the 1/5th of 1% of the population that the NAACP supposedly represents.

This is the same with any group that supposedly represents people. Like AARP or any of them. So; while you may think that gun owners are a MINORITY; the NRA and similar are Politically active. They carry a very loud voice. Just like the NAACP and many other groups. Also; Obama's election has done more for gun ownership increase than just about any other campaign could. But most definitely continue to get others interested in guns. Those who are Anti-Gun, try and get them to appreciate that the 2nd amendment is there as a tool so the government can never become a dictator and take away ANY of the OTHER rights; because the PEOPLE have a means of resisting, so long as they have the right to have a gun. But let them know that you have guns NOT as a political statement; but for PRACTICAL reasons such as self defense, hunting, sport, historical collecting, etc... Just as others can SUPPORT groups that they aren't members of; we want others to SUPPORT gun rights and gun owners, even if they don't own any guns. Because they appreciate that when 1 RIGHT is infringed on, that ALL RIGHTS can be infringed on.
 
How long ago was it that a MAJORITY of Americans owned guns?

Is there any state in the union that maintains a majority of residences who are gun owners?
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I gave this 5 minutes thought and I honestly don't believe I know ANYONE who doesn't own a gun.
 
It would seem so. When I talk about guns at work people are like "You own a gun?!?!" and I'm forced to respond with the fact that "I'm running out of fingers to count them on". And I'm in the military! It's getting pretty sad.
 
Definitely depends on where you live. Here in so cal I think we are a minority. Very few people even talk about guns for fear of what others may think. I'm an avid hunter as well, and I probably know of a handful of people locally who hunt/shoot as well. It's sad to know that in some places we are a dying breed. I am torn between staying here to push for and represent my rights/lifestyle or to retreat to somewhere where there are more people like me. Either way I feel like I lose.
 
I think Logos has it spot on with his post on the first page of this thread; we (THR) are a minority within a minority. We have members that own firearms and some even have their CWL/CCL, but we also have reloaders, competitors, and trainers/instructors. We have folks that cast their own bullets. We have folks that run pistol and rifle ranges.

These people are at the very heart of what we enjoy about firearms.

I used to live in southern California, and to even talk about guns in a positive light would bring looks of scorn. Living in Idaho now, I still get these looks from those that moved here from California, but its definately an accepted norm here that people are almost expected to own or have knowledge of a firearm.

And yeah, it was one of my reasons why I moved.



Kris
 
Detective John Kimball, what I meant by, "Once given the chance though there's not one person I've spoken to, face to face, that hasn't at least comfortable with me owning a gun." is that when I've been given the opportunity to talk to people who are automatically prejudiced against guns I've been able to make them realize that a lot of their stereotypes are just that, stereotypes.

As for my statistics please forgive me, like I said I'm not sure of them so if anyone could post some I'd be grateful.

Benzene, I think you're taking this the wrong way. First off I live in NJ and can't carry concealed. Secondly even if I could I wouldn't go jitterbugging around acting like I was the coolest thing since disco saying, "Yeah man, I carry a gun, aren't I cool?". I'm speaking as a gun OWNER not a carrier. Third your opinions on God are yours and yours alone and no one is passing judgement on you for it. However what people should do and actually do are two seperate things and unfortunately peoples ignorance does cause you to lose your equanimity (nice SAT word by the way and no I'm not being facetious).

Kwanger, like M2 said, it depends on where you live.

Avenger. . . . . . God help us that sadly seems true.

DHJenkins, please don't take this as insulting your intelligence I'm actually agreeing with you and looking to clarify your statement. I'm talking about gun owners, which I define as you me and every other law abiding shmoe, not the criminal element who we are sometimes percieved to be and in some case need to regularly remind people we are not.

Blackhawk, that's almost a good attitude but the problem with that attitude is these are the people who vote in the wonderfully truthful and honest politicians, like Corzine, who take away our rights. So too bad for us.

CWL can you give me any links to that information? Any brushing up on statistics I can get I'll gladly take.

Logos I believe truer words have never been spoken.

hnk45acp that's exactly my point.

doc2rn I don't know. . . a few people on here have disagreeing points of view.

chris in va, I see what you're saying but I'm being specific to gun owners, not just people who can carry.

trigun87 (great anime by the by) I'm dark but not dark enough to be anything other than olive. However given my look (long hair, leather jacket, etc.) I've lived a very large chunk of my life being judged simply for aesthetics, so I feel your pain. I'm an especially big fan of, "YOU own a gun? Man that's scary **CHUCKLES**." Meanwhile the fool running his mouth has no idea of the four basic rules of safety.

WLE that goes into a point I intend to make shortly and I'm glad I got to hear that story from you.

datruth you keep being wrong.

christcorp sources?

All in all I think to what Hitler did during WWII when he held massive book burnings. Keeping the masses uneducated makes them easier to dictate. The people I speak to who are anti-gun are usually either misinformed or completely ignorant yet have formed a very hateful opinion. When speaking to them I usually open with, "If you want to dislike guns all the more power to you, the only thing I ask is that you educate yourself BEFORE you decide to hate something." I've found that most people are willing to listen to reason when you deal with them one on one. I also like to argue with, "So you're against guns because you're afraid your child might hurt or kill themselves or someone? Well doesn't it make more sense to educate your child in the safe handling of firearms so if and when they do come across one they're less likely to let themselves or their friends mishandle one?" Ignorance has run rampant in the gun debate and worse than that people truly believe they're being fed the truth when in all actuality, in my opinion anyway, guns are just a scapegoat to help politicians gain leverage to take office.
 
If by 'minority,' you mean 'lynched, put in concentration/internment camps, forced to perform slave labor, systematically exploited, profiled by law enforcement for external appearance, made to ride at the back of the bus, made to use separate facilities from the rest of society, denied employment/promotion based on physical appearance, or otherwise discriminated against on the basis of race, creed or color' I would have to say NO.

If you mean are gun owners the latest group of people who have chosen to gripe and moan about other people not particularly caring for their personal choices, which they are somehow still perfectly free to make within the constraints of the law and despite any real empirical evidence of widespread societal/institutional discrimination, I'd have to say in certain instances YES.

I'm pretty touchy about people- any people- attempting to even vaguely equate their feelings of insecurity and societal marginalization over PERSONAL CHOICES with things like the holocaust, the slavery and lynchings of blacks, the internment of US citizens of Japanese ethnicity, etc… It's hysterical and trivializes what those people went through and in some cases still go through.

Last I checked, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms was constitutionally protected and gun owners were not being systematically rounded up, put in camps or made victims of mass extermination.

If you want to keep and bear arms, do so, and be happy you can. But by insinuating that one is a victim, one becomes a victim, which utterly undermines the point of bearing arms in the first place.
 
Is there any state in the union that maintains a majority of residences who are gun owners?
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I would imagine Alaska, where a significant portion of the population enjoys outdoor activities such as fishing and hunting, while wolves and Grizzlies live in the same environment. I know a significant portion of thier rural population hunts just for subsistence, so most of them have firearms. I cannot imagine thier city population offsets that by much since a large percentage of them recreate in the woods and often live in Alaska for the outdoor activities.

Montana seems like a place where most would own firearms.

Most rural locations have higher firearm ownership, it is the cities that push down the per capita ownership rates in states. So if you went to most of the nation, you would find gun ownership more likely than not. Unless you happen to be in a big city.

There is just a lot more people who live in the very dense cities, and legal ownership is far less. Both for extra legal hurdles in many big cities, a greater negative stigma, and fewer recreational opportunities with firearms. The only real use of a firearm in the city is for shooting other people. The areas with the highest crime rates where people would be more inclined to want a gun for that reason also tend to have the highest percentage of prohibited persons.
People who at some time were found guilty of a crime that prohibits them from ownership. For example inner city areas with a high drug problem have a high percentage of the population convicted of some drug crime or another which often prohibits them for life. So even if those people do own firearms, it is not official, is illegal, and is not counted.

If i remember my numbers correctly approximately 10% of America's population are gun owners
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I have not heard of the 10% rate before. From what I understood the official rate was closer to 30% of people, and 40% of households.


Since there is many households were only the man owns firearms, technically only one person owns firearms while both the husband and wife often have access to them.
So in the stereotypical American household that has a firearm, with a husband, wife, and 2.3 children, less than 25% of the household technically owns a firearm. If they have 2 children its 25%, and if its 3 children only 20%.
Even in most households where both the man and woman are considered to own firearms, the children are not. If that is a family with 2.3 children and the children do not have personally owned firearms, then less than 50% of such a household owns firearms. So already even in a stereotypical family that owns guns less than half the family members own firearms for polling purposes.


In a family with 8 children, with 1 gun owning adult male, you technically have a gun ownership rate of 12.5%. If both the man and woman own firearms, then it is still only a 25% ownership rate.

You combine that with some low inner city rates of legal ownership, and you start to get much lower official percentages of ownership than represent the reality of life for most of America.

One other thing I think most fail to consider is that even a decent percentage of gun owners when called on the phone and asked by total strangers if they own firearms will reply they do not! That could be well over 10% of the population, not wishing to inform the random person creating a database on the other end of the phone that they have firearms. In surveys collecting data on multiple topics, that is one topic likely to result in more lies and lower official numbers than reality.
 
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I would imagine Alaska, where a significant portion of the population enjoys outdoor activities such as fishing and hunting, while wolves and Grizzlies live in the same environment. I know a significant portion of thier rural population hunts just for subsistence, so most of them have firearms. I cannot imagine thier city population offsets that by much since a large percentage of them recreate in the woods and often live in Alaska for the outdoor activities
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I'd be willing to bet that Alaska fits that description.
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Did ANYONE read my post?:banghead:
 
Out in the rural areas around my home and the small towns of Easten Kentucky a gun owner would be in the majority. I cant say if thats true the closer you get to lexington and cinci.
 
I taught my two little girls when they were 8 and twelve years old to shoot and respect firearms. We would plink and shoot targets with a 22 fun stuff for kids. I always suppervised and emphasize never never never point a fire arm at any body at any time unless your life is threaten and you intend to shoot. I beleive if kids were taught from very young to respect firearms, that really does carries with them for the rest of their life. I think that every kid should shoot or deer or rabbit and skin it. I beleive this developes respect for firearms, something that our current administation is setting up the ground work for a much tighter gun control and eventially to completly disarm the citizen.
Liberalism is a mental disorder, period. It is a cancer spreading vigorously within this greatest country in the world. I truely beleive eduction and not indoctrination will turn the country around. I also beleive gun ownership is the only entity standing between capitolism and socialism. "To each according to there needs from those according to their ability. " I am second generation German but I am an American first. I do not hyphenate German/American althought I am proud of my heritage. My father was in the Hitler Youth and it was not what people think it was. They were taught skills, trades and respect. Hitler was a dictator and was not a nice man, destroyed lives outrages dispicable acts. I often wounder, at least we knew what Hitler's agenda was, our current adminastion is like a cancer it is spreading all over, and it is terminal, what is worst?.
 
I haven't read all the posts, but I agree with LemmyCaution.

LemmyCaution said:
If by 'minority,' you mean 'lynched, put in concentration/internment camps, forced to perform slave labor, systematically exploited, profiled by law enforcement for external appearance, made to ride at the back of the bus, made to use separate facilities from the rest of society, denied employment/promotion based on physical appearance, or otherwise discriminated against on the basis of race, creed or color' I would have to say NO.

If you mean are gun owners the latest group of people who have chosen to gripe and moan about other people not particularly caring for their personal choices, which they are somehow still perfectly free to make within the constraints of the law and despite any real empirical evidence of widespread societal/institutional discrimination, I'd have to say in certain instances YES.

I'm pretty touchy about people- any people- attempting to even vaguely equate their feelings of insecurity and societal marginalization over PERSONAL CHOICES with things like the holocaust, the slavery and lynchings of blacks, the internment of US citizens of Japanese ethnicity, etc… It's hysterical and trivializes what those people went through and in some cases still go through.

Last I checked, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms was constitutionally protected and gun owners were not being systematically rounded up, put in camps or made victims of mass extermination.

If you want to keep and bear arms, do so, and be happy you can. But by insinuating that one is a victim, one becomes a victim, which utterly undermines the point of bearing arms in the first place.
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The use of the term "new minority" is a buzz word intended to bring about a certain reaction. The problem with using it here is that each minority group in America has historically been a persecuted group at one time during their existence. I don't feel persecuted as a gun owner. I feel quite the opposite actually.

Gun owners may technically be in the minority. However, saying gun owners are the "new minority" is misleading, as described above. As an example, white males who are 6'6", handsome, and in superb shape is a group that is in the minority. Calling such a group a "new minority" would be misleading.
 
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