Just How many Gun Owners ARE There in the United States of America?
- Thread starter Blain
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The AARP "reprsents more than 35 million members."
I believe the NRA has 3 to 4 million members, while Handgun Control claims something like 1/2 million.
In May 2001, Fortune ranked the most powerful lobbying groups, aka "The Power 25." The second number represents the previous (1999) ranking.
1-25
Rank Association
2001:1999
01 : 02 National Rifle Association of America
02 : 01 AARP
03 : 02 National Federation of Independent Business
04 : 04 American Israel Public Affairs Committee
05 : 06 Association of Trial Lawyers of America
06 : 05 AFL-CIO
07 : 07 Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America
08 : 19 National Beer Wholesalers Association
09 : 15 National Association of Realtors
10 : 14 National Association of Manufacturers
11 : 16 National Association of Home Builders of the United States
12 : 13 American Medical Association
13 : 31 American Hospital Association
14 : 09 National Education Association of the United States
15 : 21 American Farm Bureau Federation
16 : 17 Motion Picture Association of America
17 : 20 National Association of Broadcasters
18 : 08 National Right to Life Committee
19 : 25 Health Insurance Association of America
20 : 10 National Restaurant Association
21 : 12 National Governors' Association
22 : 40 Recording Industry Association of America
23 : 11 American Bankers Association
24 : 28 Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America
25 : 23 International Brotherhood of Teamsters
OpenSecrets.org is a great web site to track political cash flow, although it's not the most user friendly interface. Given the nature of the best, it's not surprising that trying to find the truth can be a bit complicated, even with such a resource as the web.
I don't know anybody who claims that.
There are a little over 100 million households in the United States.
I always thought the claim of "80 million gun owners" came from an estimate of 40 million gun owning households, and then assuming that both adults in the household are gun owners. I could be wrong.
Cook and Ludwig also "discovered" that there are over 3 million defensive gun uses per year, which is about 1 million more than the Kleck study they were trying to discredit.
It is tempting to dismiss the low number simply because the researchers are anti-gun, and their bias may have played a part in it. But it also works the other way, too, and we should not fool ourselves into believing that there are more of us than there actually are.
In any case, 15% to 30% of the population might be a sizable voting bloc, but we are not a majority. Given that most gun owners tend to be older, I don't see our numbers being replaced as they die off.
Balog
Member
Why is that?
Gary Kleck discusses in length gun owners and the size of the civilian gun stock in chapter 3 of Targeting Guns. (Note: Targeting Guns is an updated version of his earlier book, Point Blank).
Since I don't feel like reproducing the entire tables at the end of the chapter, here are some highlights. If you are really interested in the subject, go out and get the book. It is an invaluable resource.
from Table 3.1 "Size of U.S. Civilian Gun Stock 1945- 1994"
1945: 046,909,183 guns = 351.6 guns per 1,000 people
1950: 057,902,081 guns = 381.3 guns per 1,000 people
1955: 067,107,346 guns = 408.2 guns per 1,000 people
1960: 077,501,065 guns = 430.6 guns per 1,000 people
1965: 089,478,922 guns = 462.4 guns per 1,000 people
1970: 111,917,733 guns = 548.7 guns per 1,000 people
1975: 139,915,125 guns = 657.1 guns per 1,000 people
1980: 167,681,587 guns = 737.9 guns per 1,000 people
1985: 190,658,136 guns = 801.3 guns per 1,000 people
1990: 212,823,547 guns = 853.3 guns per 1,000 people
1994: 235,604,001 guns = 905.0 guns per 1,000 people
Domestically manufactured guns, minus exported guns, plus imported guns.
from Table 3.4 "Who Owns Guns?"
Respondents owning a guns: 27.8%
Respondents owning a handgun: 16.2%
Households owning a gun: 41.8%
Households owning a handgun: 22.7%
1990, 1991, and 1993 GSS, combined.
GSS = General Social Surveys done by the National Opinion Research Center
Earlier in chapter 3, Kleck writes that the GSS is "among the few national surveys done face-to-face in the Rs' [respondents] homes, a format where Rs necessarily are identifiable. Since 1990, the GSS has yielded gun prevalence estimates three to 6 percentage points lower than other surveys done at the same time, a differnce that cannot be entirely attributed to sampling error (Table 3.2)."
The U.S. population in the early 1990s was about 250 million, with a little over 90 million households at the time.
28% of 250 million people is 70 million gun owners.
42% of 90 million households is 38 million households.
Since I don't feel like reproducing the entire tables at the end of the chapter, here are some highlights. If you are really interested in the subject, go out and get the book. It is an invaluable resource.
from Table 3.1 "Size of U.S. Civilian Gun Stock 1945- 1994"
1945: 046,909,183 guns = 351.6 guns per 1,000 people
1950: 057,902,081 guns = 381.3 guns per 1,000 people
1955: 067,107,346 guns = 408.2 guns per 1,000 people
1960: 077,501,065 guns = 430.6 guns per 1,000 people
1965: 089,478,922 guns = 462.4 guns per 1,000 people
1970: 111,917,733 guns = 548.7 guns per 1,000 people
1975: 139,915,125 guns = 657.1 guns per 1,000 people
1980: 167,681,587 guns = 737.9 guns per 1,000 people
1985: 190,658,136 guns = 801.3 guns per 1,000 people
1990: 212,823,547 guns = 853.3 guns per 1,000 people
1994: 235,604,001 guns = 905.0 guns per 1,000 people
Domestically manufactured guns, minus exported guns, plus imported guns.
from Table 3.4 "Who Owns Guns?"
Respondents owning a guns: 27.8%
Respondents owning a handgun: 16.2%
Households owning a gun: 41.8%
Households owning a handgun: 22.7%
1990, 1991, and 1993 GSS, combined.
GSS = General Social Surveys done by the National Opinion Research Center
Earlier in chapter 3, Kleck writes that the GSS is "among the few national surveys done face-to-face in the Rs' [respondents] homes, a format where Rs necessarily are identifiable. Since 1990, the GSS has yielded gun prevalence estimates three to 6 percentage points lower than other surveys done at the same time, a differnce that cannot be entirely attributed to sampling error (Table 3.2)."
The U.S. population in the early 1990s was about 250 million, with a little over 90 million households at the time.
28% of 250 million people is 70 million gun owners.
42% of 90 million households is 38 million households.
7.62FullMetalJacket
Member
Mad Man,
Thanks for the data. You can really lay it out
Thanks for the data. You can really lay it out
RustyHammer
Member
I think Tamara probably has enough to make up for those who don't!
Just for comparison purposes, here are the numbers for other groups (from The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2004, pp. 368 - 382).
The U.S. popluation was 288,368,698 on July 1, 2002.
There were 232,647,000 whites (80.7% of the population), 36,746,000 blacks (12.7% of the population), and 14,795,000 members of "other" races (5.1% of the population).
I don't know where the missing 1.5% is, since that appears to be too large of a number to be a rounding error.
Projecting from the 2000 Census, in 2002, there were
38.8 million (13.5%) Hispanics
38.3 million (13.3%) African-Americans
13.1 million (4.5%) Asians
4.3 million (1.5%) American Indians/Alaskan natives
943,000 (0.3%) native Hawaiin and other Pacific Islander
The above list is of poeple who declared themselves either one race or a combination, which is why there is a 1 1/2 million discrepancy in the two listings for African-American/black. The 2000 Census was the first time that respondents were given the choice to declare more than one race.
In 2002, there were 35.6 million people (12.3%) age 65 and older. Note that this is the membership number of AARP I cited in an earlier post on this thread. AARP represents people 50 and over.
In 2002, 34.6 million people (12.1% of the population) lived below the poverty level.
The poverty level income was $9,183 for one person, $11,756 for 2 persons, $14,072 for a family of 3, and $18,556 for a family of 4.
Median household income was $42,409.
Whether the actual number of gun owners is 44 million, 70 million, 80 million, or 90 million, we are a very large "minority" group.
The U.S. popluation was 288,368,698 on July 1, 2002.
There were 232,647,000 whites (80.7% of the population), 36,746,000 blacks (12.7% of the population), and 14,795,000 members of "other" races (5.1% of the population).
I don't know where the missing 1.5% is, since that appears to be too large of a number to be a rounding error.
Projecting from the 2000 Census, in 2002, there were
38.8 million (13.5%) Hispanics
38.3 million (13.3%) African-Americans
13.1 million (4.5%) Asians
4.3 million (1.5%) American Indians/Alaskan natives
943,000 (0.3%) native Hawaiin and other Pacific Islander
The above list is of poeple who declared themselves either one race or a combination, which is why there is a 1 1/2 million discrepancy in the two listings for African-American/black. The 2000 Census was the first time that respondents were given the choice to declare more than one race.
In 2002, there were 35.6 million people (12.3%) age 65 and older. Note that this is the membership number of AARP I cited in an earlier post on this thread. AARP represents people 50 and over.
In 2002, 34.6 million people (12.1% of the population) lived below the poverty level.
The poverty level income was $9,183 for one person, $11,756 for 2 persons, $14,072 for a family of 3, and $18,556 for a family of 4.
Median household income was $42,409.
Whether the actual number of gun owners is 44 million, 70 million, 80 million, or 90 million, we are a very large "minority" group.
7.62FullMetalJacket
Member
You are assuming cohesion within the group. In order to be a "group" we must act as a group. We do not. There are serious gun owners which fight the fight, and then there are the non-partisan, conflict resolutionists that do not care and do not vote.
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