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> There's an abundance of studies showing that gun ownership tracks with an increase in home injury/death. This isn't true. A classic example of confirmation b

by c3534l 11y ago

> There's an abundance of studies showing that gun ownership tracks with an increase in home injury/death. This isn't true. A classic example of confirmation bias. Obviously the pro-gun people say the exact opposite: that every gun study shows the opposite. http://www.factcheck.org/2012/12/gun-rhetoric-vs-gun-facts/ http://www.factcheck.org/2012/12/gun-rhetoric-vs-gun-facts/

franciscop 11y ago
Gun ownership: 88.8% Is that right? If so, USA is in a much worse state than I thought so.
- wl 11y ago
  Nope. 88.8 guns per 100 people, which is not the same as 88.8%. Most people who own guns in the US own several. The actual percentage of people who own guns is lower.
- hga 11y ago
  That's an 2007 number. "Since Obama was elected" "100 million guns have been sold" (although the sales increases really started after 9/11), and more significantly, US production has doubled, and importation is similarly higher. I could run the numbers if anyone wanted, but it should be around 1 gun per US resident nowadays, although as others have noted, this is very unevenly distributed. ADDED: on the other hand, the claim all the new ones are being bought by existing gun owners is fatuous, a back of the envelope calculation I made would have us existing gun owners own an average of $100K worth each, and I doubt even my father, who was born in the early '30s, every had quite that much. Assume, given the unwillingness of many gun owners to answer the questions of nosy, anonymous people making telephone and other surveys, that at least half the nation's households have a gun. With then nationwide sweep of shall or better issue concealed carry laws, now all but 7 states, making gun ownership significantly more useful, which is particularly important to an aging population, I'd be surprised if the fraction wasn't higher. The number of permits issued has been astounding, 300,000 in Wisconsin since the law passed in 2011, 1 million in Texas, in these states generally 5-10% of the residents have one, and ~10 states don't require a permit or very soon won't (that number is changing very rapidly right now).

by c3534l 11y ago

franciscop 11y ago

Gun ownership: 88.8% Is that right? If so, USA is in a much worse state than I thought so.

wl 11y ago
Nope. 88.8 guns per 100 people, which is not the same as 88.8%. Most people who own guns in the US own several. The actual percentage of people who own guns is lower.
hga 11y ago
That's an 2007 number. "Since Obama was elected" "100 million guns have been sold" (although the sales increases really started after 9/11), and more significantly, US production has doubled, and importation is similarly higher. I could run the numbers if anyone wanted, but it should be around 1 gun per US resident nowadays, although as others have noted, this is very unevenly distributed. ADDED: on the other hand, the claim all the new ones are being bought by existing gun owners is fatuous, a back of the envelope calculation I made would have us existing gun owners own an average of $100K worth each, and I doubt even my father, who was born in the early '30s, every had quite that much. Assume, given the unwillingness of many gun owners to answer the questions of nosy, anonymous people making telephone and other surveys, that at least half the nation's households have a gun. With then nationwide sweep of shall or better issue concealed carry laws, now all but 7 states, making gun ownership significantly more useful, which is particularly important to an aging population, I'd be surprised if the fraction wasn't higher. The number of permits issued has been astounding, 300,000 in Wisconsin since the law passed in 2011, 1 million in Texas, in these states generally 5-10% of the residents have one, and ~10 states don't require a permit or very soon won't (that number is changing very rapidly right now).