Question about gun ownership stats

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

So, I'm used to seeing charts like these in gun control debates:







Predictably, these are usually shared by the anti-gun control side.  However, I've also found graphs which totally contradict the narrative that gun ownership is on the rise.


(This article makes the claim that 31% of US households owned a gun in 2015, down from 50% in 1977)





Half the gun control debate includes use of statistics, which obviously makes it easy for either side to use cherrypicked studies to their advantage.  I'm not sure how these studies produce their data, and honestly I have neither the interest nor the expertise to pick apart each one.  I assume there's at least some error in methodology in some of these studies (and of course these are just a few examples), but they seem to get their data from the same sources, all biases aside.

So, has gun ownership per capita declined in past decades, or has it increased?

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

without actually looking up any statistics – are the two sets of graphs really contradictory? it would seem both are consistent with a situation of fewer gun-owners owning a lot more guns each.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

without actually looking up any statistics – are the two sets of graphs really contradictory? it would seem both are consistent with a situation of fewer gun-owners owning a lot more guns each.

I'm not sure if that's the case, actually.  That's still a stark increase in the number of guns purchased, even if much of those are by people who were already gun-owners.

[Taco Truck 🚚]

If I own two cars am I twice as likely to get into a wreck?  The number of households with guns has gone down but he number of guns gun households own has gone up.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/21/the-average-gun-owner-now-owns-8-guns-double-what-it-used-to-be/

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

If I own two cars am I twice as likely to get into a wreck?  The number of households with guns has gone down but he number of guns gun households own has gone up.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/21/the-average-gun-owner-now-owns-8-guns-double-what-it-used-to-be/

Can't read the article because of the stupid paywall, but if this is the case, my guess would be the majority of gun-owners own guns for hunting or for sport rather than self-defense.

[Taco Truck 🚚]

If I own two cars am I twice as likely to get into a wreck?  The number of households with guns has gone down but he number of guns gun households own has gone up.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/21/the-average-gun-owner-now-owns-8-guns-double-what-it-used-to-be/

Can't read the article because of the stupid paywall, but if this is the case, my guess would be the majority of gun-owners own guns for hunting or for sport rather than self-defense.

Unless you live in Fallujah nobody owns a gun for self defense.  The article was saying gun households now have over 8 guns per household vs something like 4 back in the 90s.

[dead0man]

Unless you live in Fallujah nobody owns a gun for self defense.

hyperbole much?

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Note how it says "gun in your household."   There are more households than there used to be, not only due to population increase but also with a greater percentage of the population living alone.  So that contributes to these statistics as well.

[AkSaber]

Note how it says "gun in your household."   There are more households than there used to be, not only due to population increase but also with a greater percentage of the population living alone.  So that contributes to these statistics as well.

The Washington Post is reporting that according to Wonkblog, the average number of firearms in a “typical gun-owning household” has increased to 8.1 firearms. This is a nearly two-fold increase from data in 1994 which reported the typical household had 4.2 guns.

[DINGO Joe]

I have more guns in my household than 20 years ago because I've inherited some hunting rifles over the years, but I haven't gone hunting in more than 25 years, so they all sit packed away in the attic.  If someone were to break in, a baseball bat would have to be my weapon of choice, but I'm not particularly worried about a break in.

Demographics and various drug waves play a greater role in crime statistics than gun ownership.