What's the gun in the average "one gun household?"

[marv]

Single barrel break open shotgun and/or a .22 rifle.

 

[ChCx2744]

Something also tells me that it's either gonna be a .38 or .22. Funny thing is, I don't own either one of em. I want a .22, though.

 

[bannockburn]

I would say, in terms of the general population, that the one gun in a household would be a revolver; most likely a .38 Special, kept in a nightstand or a box in the closet.

Now if we're talking about a slightly more specific group, like households where a family member hunts, then I would think a shotgun would probably be found there.

 

[jim in Anchorage]

No way a .38. Lot's of states make it difficult to own a hand gun. Most likely in my experience when I lived in NY was a cheap 12 ga.

 

[Deus Machina]

In my experience, it's either a pump shotgun or a revolver. In the small town I grew up, the handguns are probably four or five revolvers to every 1911 or Luger/Walther, whichever the person's father or grandpa kept in a box under the bed.

Houses with break-open shotguns also tended to have a rifle--the 'shotgun only' state law wasn't strictly enforced in an area where a lot of hunting was done on farmers' land and a lot of the citizens (and occasionally police force) remembered the depression.

 

[x_wrench]

well, a shotgun is THE most versatile gun out there. you can hunt anything from squirrels to moose and bear with it, and EVERYTHING in between. but i am sure the ol' 22 has as many, if not more followers in one gun homes. so in my veiw, i would say it is most likely one of those 2. and yes, there are thousands and thousands of old 38 spl revolvers out there. many of which sit in night drawer stands by the owners bed. but NOTHING will freak out a bad guy in your home more than looking down the barrel of a 12 guage shotgun pointed in his or her direction!

 

[David4516]

Based on what I've seen, either a .38 revolver OR (and I'm surprised nobody else has said this) a .30-30 lever action. Seems like here in the NW anyway, just about everybody has a Model 94 Winchester...

 

[Carl Levitian]

There's probably more old .22 rifles stashed in closets than any other firearm. Either from grandpa, Uncle so-and-so, or from their own boy scout days.

Carl.

 

[DammitBoy]

a 12ga shotgun

 

[hermannr]

My Canadian Cousin: very nice CZ .22 rifle, for shooting gophers in his pasture. My dad (after I left and absconded with everything...but)...a 1903 Win 1897 12 guage (I have it too now)

My first gun was a used Marlin single shot 22, don't know where it is, (which daughter took it) my second gun was a Marlin Model 60 repeater and I still have it and all the rest.....22. my third gun was an original Rugar Bearcat...22, my fourth gun was a Rem 700, my fith gun was a 38 cal Colt revolver...then I moved out of the house...everything since then has been either High Standard, or CZ, all older, even the one I purchased last year.

I have one daughter (out of 5) that want's them ALL...yes, she has her own too, but she still wants the whole collection.

I think I would go with most folk have a .22 as an only gun though I do have one daughter that has an lonely gun, it is a shotgun, but she expects some from me when I go.

 

[Owen Sparks]

There is an easy way to find out.
just find what is the best selling firearm in the country. Probably a cheap .22 or single barrel shotgun.

 

[DammitBoy]

I was wrong - most likely a rifle according to the 'General Social Survey' (1994)

A National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms (NSPOF), conducted in 1994 indicates that Americans own 192 million guns, with 36% of these consisting of rifles, 34% handguns, 26% shotguns, and 4% of other types of long guns

So rifle, handgun, shotgun in that order...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Social_Survey

 

[Certaindeaf]

Nintendo 4000.

 

[Bushpilot]

Like a few other posters mentioned, it probably makes a big difference whether it is an urban, suburban or rural "one gun" household. I think most likely the urban "one gun" household has a handgun of some sort. Suburban could be anything but if I had to guess I'd say a handgun might still top the list with shotgun a close second. In rural areas, at least in the east, I'd say the shotgun is probably the leader. I've known several old farmers whose only firearm was a shotgun. I think a shotgun is probably the "classic" farm gun. In the rural west it might be a different story. Or, maybe it has more to do with what Grandpa shot and left them regardless of where they live.

 

[wdunlap]

For over 10 years the only gun in my house was a .22 LR rifle. I recently purchased two pistols, a .40 S&W and a .380. I have been considering a 12 gauge pump for the "last stand." I live in a suburban community.

 

[allaroundhunter]

I would put money on a shotgun. Of the families I know of that only have one gun, the vast majority of them have a 12 ga, with one having a 16.

 

[54lariat]

I would think a shotgun....but I don't know anyone with only 1 firearm

 

[fdf]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Someone commented in another thread that most people probably only own one gun. If that's true (and I have no way of knowing that) then what kind of gun is that single gun likely to be? On the one hand I can see it being a .22 rifle because they are probably the most popular single type of gun. On the other hand I can also imagine it might be a 38 revolver from S&W or Colt that was bought for self-defence, shot once, then loaded and put in a drawer. In both cases the guns may have been passed down from a parent.

What do you think the most common "one gun" is?

rifle?
shotgun?
handgun?

If anyone knows a source for reputable statistics on this I would love to see them.


Why not start again and ask only those who own only one gun to respond and then the OP would know?

Seems simple.

 

[scotjute]

For 12 years I owned only one gun. First 8 yrs it was a .357 mag revolver. Traded that in for a 20 gage/.22 lr over & under which was only gun for next 4 years. Then I added a 12 gage pump, and then a .357 revolver and so on.

 

[SFsc616171]

A revolver.

 

[mac tm]

There was, and still is, a single shot .410 in my boyhood home. It took care of anything that needed to be shot on the farm, at least until I convinced mom and dad on a bb gun and later a .22. Then I moved out, bought a safe, and am working on filling it.

 

[Loosedhorse]

Someone commented in another thread that most people probably only own one gun. If that's true

45% of American households contain a firearm.

There's the trouble with statistics right there: this idea that an "average" household has one gun.

My guess: most commonly (53-59%), household have no guns. Source: Gallup.

The Census puts the total number of households at around 114 million, so figure 51 million households with guns. The number of guns privately held in the US is estmated at 200-300 million, so that would seem to work out to more than one per household--closer to 4.

So, next most commonly after zero guns, an American household has multiple guns, even if it's "just" a Ruger or Marlin .22 and a few others. Households with only one gun would seem to be far less common.

My guess is that one-gun households vary a lot: some might have an old shotgun or 1911 that used to belong to Granpa. Some have they .22 rifle they used as a kid. Some have a handgun--I know several folks here who have bought a handgun as their only gun in the house purchase.

 

[Owen Sparks]

I don't think that survey is very accurate. Would YOU tell a phone pollster about your guns? Most of probably would not and besides, MILLIONS of guns have been sold since Obama was elected setting all sorts of sales records. Practically all of them are somewhere on someones property. Why is this not reflected in the servey?

 

[Elkins45]

I don't think that survey is very accurate. Would YOU tell a phone pollster about your guns? Most of probably would not and besides, MILLIONS of guns have been sold since Obama was elected setting all sorts of sales records. Practically all of them are somewhere on someones property. Why is this not reflected in the servey?

I wonder how many of those newly sold guns went to households that had none before?

Why not start again and ask only those who own only one gun to respond and then the OP would know?

I'm pretty sure a firearms forum isn't the best to gather data from people who only own one gun.

 

[Mike J]

I still remember when I was a kid & Granddad's only gun was an old J C Higgins bolt action 12 gauge. He used it for everything. My Fathers only gun was a pump action Winchester .22 until I was about 12 or 13 & someone gave him a deal on a Revelation 12 gauge that was later joined by an Ivers Johnson .38. So my vote goes for shotguns. I have also observed that just about all of my 8 Aunts & Uncles on my Fathers side have a shotgun of some sort in their homes that was passed down from one relative or another. None of them hunt & only 2 or 3 were really gun people when they were younger.