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36% of adults either personally own a firearm or live with someone who does–the lowest level since

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A recent CBS News poll found that 36% of adults either personally own a firearm or live with someone who does–the lowest level since 1978. That’s 10% lower than gun ownership rates in 2012 and 17 points lower than 1994’s high of 53%.

Meanwhile, gun purchases are at historic highs, measured by FBI firearm background checks, and gun manufacturers are producing record numbers of firearms — about 4.4 million a year in the U.S. according to the latest countfrom the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

So how can gun ownership be at a record low if sales are up? Because most of the rise in gun purchases comes from existing gun owners stocking up over concerns about tighter gun laws following recent mass shootings, rather than by people buying their first gun, according to the Washington Post. An analysis by the paper last year found that the average American gun owner owns about eight firearms, double that in the 1990s. Similarly, a CBS News poll from March found that about 20% of gun owners owned 10 or more guns.

https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/55989-heres-the-law-that-requires-mnuchin-to-turn-over-trumps-taxes-or-lose-his-office-and-go-to-prison?fbclid=IwAR2J7Eg0zD5Xk_LwO98JQIl3jtfT9RqLS_WTGUkr7g_NaM1U3DnErJ3afrw

The passion for destruction is also a creative passion. Mikhail Bakunin




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  • MayCaesarMayCaesar 5967 Pts   -   edited April 2019
    I knew a PhD student (now a postdoc) who had a large collection of firearms - 34, to be precise. This is a weird hobby, collecting guns, but whatever flows people's boats. You can only use one gun at a time in any case, but if having many makes you feel more secure and happy, then why not?

    Cheaper than some other hobbies too. Some people collect cars. I personally only have one sedan, and, at most, I would only want to buy a nice off-road pickup truck in addition - cannot imagine why I would need anything else. But some need an SUV, a truck, a sedan, a sports car, a beater car, a van, a luxury car - all in multiple versions.

    Or clothes collectors. Some people blow out 80% of their income buying expensive dresses, so they can flash them in public with nobody really caring.

    Humans can be weird sometimes.
  • AlofRIAlofRI 1484 Pts   -  
    I think those numbers are being muddled by a LOT of people who think it's no ones business if they have a (or especially, many), gun(s). There are more gun dealers in the country than grocery stores. Ah, MONEY!  We have over 360.000.000 people in the country, and 3 + guns for each. We also have more people in the U.S. that don't trust our own democratically elected government. Well, it isn't. Gerrymandering has prevented an honest election several times now. A period when several generations have been born, generations that haven't seen a REAL democracy work. A shame. Now they feel they have to arm themselves because THEIR government doesn't seem to work for THEM. Many people are hiding from it and you will get a LOT of false readings. There is NO shortage of guns, and FEW numbers that aren't in gun owner's favor.
    ApplesaucePlaffelvohfen
  • linatelinate 58 Pts   -  
    what is telling is the fact that gun ownership has gone down while gun homicides have also gone down. this is correlated also when you compare states, localities and such. 
  • MayCaesarMayCaesar 5967 Pts   -  
    @AlofRI

    The US was never supposed to be a democracy, and the Founding Fathers made it clear that they disliked the Ancient Greek model and liked the Ancient Rome one. And one of the inherent aspects of this nation was supposed to be a constant distrust towards the government.

    That you see it as a curse, rather than a boon, shows that you are a member of that category of people who like to be governed, as opposed to governing themselves. Not everyone is like that, however, especially in the US. A lot of us moved here, or were born and stayed here, precisely because we want to run our lives on our terms, as opposed to letting someone else run them on theirs.
  • billbatardbillbatard 133 Pts   -  
    @MayCaesar 3% of the popualtion ownes 50% of the guns, curiously they arent the problem studies show if anythng they are less likely to commit a crime , the problem is they are paranid and stubborn and insist on making guns easy to get for the wrong sorts that do cause al the trouble the druggies the extrmists, the nuts , if hand guns and self loading rifles and shot guns were all to be plac under title 2 with machine guns we could reach an amicable ageeement
    The passion for destruction is also a creative passion. Mikhail Bakunin

  • kevin_burkekevin_burke 47 Pts   -  
    Drugs are illegal does that stop people from buying them? If we make it hard for americans to possess a sophisticated fire arm legally than we weaken ourselves. I would rather have a sane person with a legal sophisticated firearm in a room with me when the insane person attacks with their legal sophisticated firearm. Rather than a sane person with a legal non sophisticated firearm in a room with me when the insane person attacks with their illegal sophisticated firearm.
  • TKDBTKDB 694 Pts   -  
    The country is saturated with guns, 393 millions, in a country of 325 million citizens.

    And how many of those guns, are now being circulated, without serial numbers on them, via the streets, because of the illegal gun dealer, selling them to the criminals, and offenders, who legally aren't supposed to be in possession of a gun to begin with? 

    Looks like the 900,000 Police Officers, and some of the law abiding citizens of this country, are apparently , or maybe, going to have their lives affected, or changed, when those illegal gun toting criminals, and the offenders, go about committing their crimes, in this country, thus affecting some of the lives of the law abiding citizens, and some of those Police Officers? 
    AlofRI
  • PlaffelvohfenPlaffelvohfen 3985 Pts   -   edited April 2019
    @MayCaesar

    The US was never supposed to be a democracy

    Well, it's true that it never was supposed to be a "direct" democracy but always was intended to be a "representative" democracy... 

    Saying the US was never supposed to be a democracy suggests that the concepts and characteristics of republics and democracies can never coexist in a single form of government. However, this is rarely the case. As in the United States, most republics function as blended “representational democracies” featuring a democracy’s political powers of the majority tempered by a republic’s system of checks and balances enforced by a constitution that protects the minority from the majority. 
    AlofRI
    " Adversus absurdum, contumaciter ac ridens! "
  • AlofRIAlofRI 1484 Pts   -  
    @MayCaesar I disagree that they wanted U.S. to "distrust" our government. They wanted us to be VIGILANT, and, if we saw anything to either vote out the offenders … or IMPEACH them. In the words of Reagan, "Trust, but verify"! That was a revered statement by Republicans for years, before all this "distrust" was promoted! This is not America, not a government OF, BY and FOR the people if it can't be trusted. You are saying WE, the people, can't be trusted.  Some cannot, as we see today. We HAVE to get back the trust we had when the U.S. WAS great, when the government worked FOR THE PEOPLE, not for the few! 
    I am NOT one who would be "governed" by anyone I would not want governing me … which is why I object to the government we have NOW, more than any government I have lived under. I have lived under 14 Presidents, NONE needed as much "vigilance" as this one, none needed as much "verifying". I have distrusted a couple of Presidents in the past, but, I never "feared" one …. until now.
    Plaffelvohfen
  • AlofRIAlofRI 1484 Pts   -  
    @kevin_burke I have a problem. I do not have a doctorate in Psychology, or any other psychological training …. as is the case with much more than half of the U.S.. Maybe you can help? Just how do I tell if the guy carrying the sophisticated firearm is sane?? I could tell if he was acting "strange", maybe drooling and gnashing his teeth, but, the person that was let into the black church seemed "normal" to the parishioners before he killed most of them. The kids at Columbine weren't looking dangerous to their "friends" before they "mowed them down" with sophisticated weapons. Could you fill some of the holes in your argument?
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