Survey shows gun ownership declining?

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anothernewb

anothernewb

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Hope this is the appropriate location for this. If not. please feel free to move it.

http://news.yahoo.com/major-survey-shows-gun-ownership-132558989.html

I'm quite surprised at this actually. For me, the both the BS and skepticism flag started waving all over the place.

First off - come on, in this climate - if someone randomly called you and asked if you have a firearm - would you really say yes? I wouldn't. The fact that 32% of people did - makes me think that the actual number of households with a firearm is closer to the 68% - probably much higher.

In addition - if ownership is declining, why is every firearm manufacturer posting that they were, in some cases, a million units behind at one point? and why is it now the norm to wait for the background check - sometimes for hours. not every person is going to suddenly add 2 or 3 or 4 guns to their collection. Also, in my area, carry permits are up. way, way up. these are new people - not renewals of old ones.

the sarcastic biased part in me immediately thought what do these numbers really mean? I think they set up a survey as biased as they could get. college age kids in blue cities, on campi located in areas with draconian laws. and yet still - 30+% admitted to owning a firearm. I think that scared them.

thoughts - any truth to the poll, or are others as skeptical as me?
 
This survey was conducted on campus and in person at the University of Chicago. As such, I wouldn't really trust it to accurately reflect gun ownership (among the greater population) in Chicago, let alone the rest of America.
 
As with everything that is published.

They made sure to stack the deck so that the survey results equalled what they wanted them to.

In this case the survey orginization reduced the sample size (from the previous 10yrs) and restricted the sample area to a well known highly hostile gun enviroment.

Also notice when they took the survey... March - October. Spetember and October are the start of HUNTING SEASON... all the hunters and gun owners were just getting sighted in and out in the woods for 2moths of this survey.

Also as pointed out... In this day and age, some gun owners are fearful of misrepresentation and refuse to participate in these type of things. I for one have no interest in answer any questions about my gun ownership, political affiliatons or anything else to people I do not know.

I'd like to see the number of people that said "no thanks" to their survey.

Would like to point out the APNORC orginization that conducted the survey is part of the Associated Press..... long known for bias in it's reporting.

Guess thats why they are saying that they are " independent, objective, non-partisan research organization that provides data and analysis to support people and organizations in making informed decisions on key social issues."

Will
 
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I'll throw a BS flag at the survey. I'm an older guy living in KS and to anybody I don't know who asks about my gun ownership in any type of survey or record keeping mode the answer is no. My wife and kids have been taught to answer the same way. We will assess the situation and most likely answer no. (An example of when we would answer yes is to somebody anywhere near a firearm display who looks like they are trying to learn something about firearms to purchase one themselves.)
 
The same year (1994) that a government survey (National Survey on the Private Ownership and Use of Firearms NSPOF) gave 34% of households admitted owning guns, the Gallup Poll got 54%. (47% in 2011)

The percentage of households reporting gunownship in the Gallup Poll zigzags poll to poll. In discussing the swings, one explanation Gallup offered was that willingness to report gun ownership may be influenced by the political climate.

If gun control advocates want to claim "only" 34% of households own guns therefore the Democrat Party can come on strong with gun ban calls like it was Clinton-Era II, they may be in for a ruder awakening than the D party got after passing the AWB. Gun rights defenders tend to be one issue voters: go ahead, make our election day.

(Suppose theoretically that 34% is the true number: how would that prove that Democrat gun policies can do any good? Are we supposed to forget the CDC 2003 and NRC 2004 reviews of empirical research finding no measurable benefit from any of these gun control measures?)
 
I'm skeptical of this survey as well, but let's take it a step further. If fewer people own guns to hunt, what of defense and recreational shooters. It seems to me that hunters aren't necessarily "gun guys". Maybe fewer households have guns, maybe, maybe not, but those that do are probably more heavily involved in the gun culture. Regardless of the hunting culture, maybe the gun culture is stronger than ever.
Mauserguy
 
Heh!


"According to the latest General Social Survey, only 32 percent of Americans admitted to either owning a firearm themselves or living with someone who does, which ties a record low set in 2010."

There, fixed that for them.

Besides... without knowing the parameters of the survey, there's no way to assign any level of credibility to it one way or another.

That's still just over a hundred million Americans who own firearms, by the simple math of this survey.
 
biggest load of crap survey i've ever read.. record sales across the nation, millions of new gun owners that didnt previously own guns before.. but we're to believe gun ownership is on a decline?.. yeah right.. but given the average intelligence of low information voters, a survey could tell them the sky was purple with yellow polka-dots and theyd believe it was true

also, i was never polled, and if i was polled and someone called me up to ask if i owned guns i would simply say no and hang up
 
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/20...the-latest-gun-ownership-is-declining-survey/

A casual examination of the procedures and results within just a few days of it's release shows it's a useless and erroneous sample. Just another propaganda piece for the anti gunners.

Surveyors asked passersby on the street about guns in a urban setting? Has nothing to do with an overall view of the country as a whole. Verbal answers? Disengenous. Get a room with 50 people in it and start asking questions designed to raise a PC flag. You want to tell your business associates you build AR pistols and carry one in a tennis racquet bag in the back seat?

Nope, nobody is going to publicly out their carry habits. Concealed is concealed, right?

All this in a town that is already one of the last bastions of urban anti gun politics. We are talking Chicago, home of Emanuel Rahm, The President, and also the countries worst reputation for corrupt politicians, right? Rod Blagojevich is the seventh IL governor to be arrested or indicted on corruption charges.

Zero credence, it should be investigated to see who underwrote the survey. Ten bucks says it's one of the Bloomberg orgs he's funneling money thru.

Survey is already debunked and more is to come. NORC has blemished their rep as selling out to politicians rather than attempting to maintain an objective stance.
 
I'll never forget my statistics class in college. The very first day, our professor opened the course by saying "Statistics lie. Never believe them. If I wanted to, I could statistically show you that the average person in this world has one testicle and one ovary."

I am, as always skeptical of anything that statisticians say. That said, I think, if I'm not mistaken, there has been a trend toward there being a lower percentage of gun owners, but those who own guns have more of them. Can't cite the source, but that doesn't surprise me.
 
I don't for one second believe that survey to be accurate. Sounds like Michael Bellesiles in action, and we all know how that went.
 
Very simple.

If everyone was married and all men owned a gun, the percentage of households with guns would be 100%.

If everyone then got divorced, and all men kept their guns, the percentage of households with guns would be 50%.

Same number of guns. Nothing changed but the number of adults in the household. And as we know, the number of two parent households has declined steadily since the 1970's.

These "researchers" (obviously not very good, and certainly very biased) discovered nothing more than this well known trend.
 
A survey done by a university in Chicago. I have a hard time coming up with a way this could be more biased, although I am sure there is a way. 32% is in direct opposition to the RECORD numbers of NCIS firearm checks. There are more firearms in circulation than ever before and crime continues its gradual decline.
 
anothernewb said:
Hope this is the appropriate location for this. If not. please feel free to move it.

http://news.yahoo.com/major-survey-shows-gun-ownership-132558989.html

I'm quite surprised at this actually. For me, the both the BS and skepticism flag started waving all over the place.

First off - come on, in this climate - if someone randomly called you and asked if you have a firearm - would you really say yes? I wouldn't. The fact that 32% of people did - makes me think that the actual number of households with a firearm is closer to the 68% - probably much higher.

In addition - if ownership is declining, why is every firearm manufacturer posting that they were, in some cases, a million units behind at one point? and why is it now the norm to wait for the background check - sometimes for hours. not every person is going to suddenly add 2 or 3 or 4 guns to their collection. Also, in my area, carry permits are up. way, way up. these are new people - not renewals of old ones.

the sarcastic biased part in me immediately thought what do these numbers really mean? I think they set up a survey as biased as they could get. college age kids in blue cities, on campi located in areas with draconian laws. and yet still - 30+% admitted to owning a firearm. I think that scared them.

thoughts - any truth to the poll, or are others as skeptical as me?
Click to expand...
Not according to my financial records...
 
Despite the dubious nature of this survey and others, I am curious as to the status of firearm owner ship. Many say it is declining. But is that as a percentage to the general population growth, or are there actually less owners than last year and the year before? My guess is the former. Just because the population of those without guns is growing faster than those with, doesn't really reflect that less people own guns if you see what I mean. and it also belies the fact that the industry itself is as strong as ever.
 
Disinformation, perhaps? There are always those who are willing to tell anyone their life history, but...Like with the news media, we have absolutely no obligation to (1 speak with them, or, if we decide to, 2) tell the truth! :D

Like the guy at a recent gun show, who asked me "How many guns do you have?" I answered; "Not nearly enough!", and walked on. ;)
 
Figures lie and liers figure , I think people have figured out that it is no ones business
 
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