Who are the most fearful people in America? Can you guess? Let’s see if your instinct was correct.
Just 3% of Americans own half the guns — that little group owns 133 million guns. I know, that is an incomprehensible number all by itself, but double it for how many guns are floating around America. Incredibly gun ownership has declined. In the 1970s a majority of households claimed gun ownership but as of today two-thirds of American households are gun-free.
That 3% of Americans who own half the guns amounts to 7.7 million “super-owners.” In other words, individuals in this group own between 8 and 140 guns — on average 17.
According to surveys, somewhere between 22-31% of American households harbor a gun. Who are these gun owners, and correspondingly, who are those that do not own guns?
- Gender matters:45% of gun owners are male, just 19% female.
- Income matters:the highest number of gun owners are in the +$100,000 a year group (38%) while the smallest cohort has incomes under $40,000 (25%).
- Race matters:38% of whites own guns but just 18% people of color.
- Location matters:the highest gun ownership is in the South (40%) and the lowest in the East (21%); with town/rural areas at 48% compared to big/small cities at 23%.
- Politics matter:Republican 50%, Democrat 18%.
- Ideology matters:Conservative 45%, Liberal 15%.
Very good friends of mine hunt, I did it once myself. Hunters may have a few guns just as those who fish have more than one rod and reel for the kind of fishing they will do. But hunting does not require 17 or more guns. Only people who are very scared or preparing to be violent, or both, need so many guns. These statistics do not include gun buyers and businesses, and may be somewhat skewed by antique gun collectors.
Statistically rural, white, conservative Republicans — who represent the highest rate of gun ownership — are among the least likely people in the nation to become a victim of gun violence. The vast majority of gun violence and deaths happens within relatively small social networks in a few urban areas. Get this, over 50% of murders took place in just 127 cities and towns that make up less than 25% of the total population. For a powerful example, in Chicago, with one of the worst gun violence records, 70% of non-fatal shootings and 46% of murders took place within a social network that constitutes less than 6% of the city. Even so, surveys indicate that three million people walk around daily with concealed, loaded guns while nine million do so once a month or more. Why are these people so scared?
There is Tucker Carlson, of course, who in June on FOX news warned that the Black Lives Matter “mob” was “coming for you.” Such racial and ethnic fear-mongering goes back generations, raising up supposed enemies within the nation to alarm those most susceptible to being frightened about “the other.” This is done in order to use that fear for political and economic ends. Follow the money and find the scoundrels. Over-abundant gun ownership is a symptom that itself has become a problem. Minimally the Supreme Court needs to uphold New York’s gun law.
All these statistics are quoted from The Gallup Poll “What Percentage of Americans Own Guns” 2020; and, The Guardian, “The Gun Numbers” November 15, 2017.
Cam, I think those ownership stats by gender could be misleading or I could be misreading Probably a lot more cisgender undeclared’s in the poll than non-binary/Trans ppl in those remaining unidentified 36%. I see a 2017 Gaurdian publication date, probably 2015 study. They’d have needed to have their crystal balls out to have foreseen 2021, almost ’22. Ironically Ive been listening to the Rittenhouse kid trial last night and this morning. White mother & son team export their AR-15 Urban Violence agenda resulting in 2 rifle deaths😢. 😠
Faith, and strength and blessings and comfort to you and yours this Holiday season Cam
Yes, they are confusing. The best I can make out is that they are the percentage that “owns a gun personally” out of the household in which there is a gun or guns. I probably shouldn’t have published something I didn’t quite understand, but Gallup has been collecting gun info for decades as it turns out. Thanks for your note.
Good morning, Cam,
I have, some fifty years later, warm memories of walking a field of corn stubble with my father, and bringing down a pheasant or two with practiced shots. We brought them home, plucked and added them to dinner. Same with the occasional squirrel or rabbit. It was a reach back for him, since he grew up on a farm in the ‘teens (the ‘teens before they had electricity) and they relied upon what they grew, tended or hunted for food. I still have those basic midwestern shotguns and small-bore rifles. I haven’t gone hunting, though, in decades. My last experience with other “hunters” in the field was colored by a cavalier sense among a a loud and attention-seeking few, that it was all just a lark, and an opportunity to demonstrate power over wild game, and “score” something. The fact that I ducked to have a load of #7 shot bounce off my heavy canvass field coat, fired from someone’s carelessness from fifty -seventy yards away, clinched my notion that us “modern” hunters were missing something besides the bird that jumped between us. My couple of friends that still hunt – with that quaint notion that we are bringing home something to nourish us that’s been provided us by the grace of God – share stories of many, many “hunters” lacking in acknowledgement of that grace, or respect for nature. Showpiece firearms, expensive all-wheel drive vehicles deep into the wild, and sometimes alcohol further harming judgement, and not only are a lot of those folks unpleasant company, but downright dangerous.
And then, as our fellow reader points out – there’s the cavalier, “my rights and my freedom” attitude that put that boy from Antioch, Illinois right into the hands of the Adversary, who has taken such rationalizations to their (il-)logical outcomes, and has left dead people behind, lives unhinged, and peace unsettled.
My father, who lectured me on the use, safety and rationale for firearms for hunting game, or even just plinking cans; who spent three years carrying and surrounded by firearms throughout the Pacific theater of war; had feelings about the people he knew that fetishized firearms, even then. And they were laced with his Seabee words. This current set of statistics isn’t what he, and all the other service personnel had in mind when they came home in ’45 and set about improving out little league fields, planting gardens and building better mousetraps.
I really appreciate your columns – this one, too. It leaves me more determined to live in the grace that’s apparently been bought and sold, and probably on some social media page..
Tim
That is a lovely memory of hunting with your dad, I could so easily visualize it from your writing. Your less lovely memory is also easy to visualize, sadly. Thank you for offering your witness. Peace.