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and ~200 million gun owners Where are you getting this number from? 200 million gun owners means that nearly 2 in 3 US citizens owns a gun which doesn't sound

and ~200 million gun owners Where are you getting this number from? 200 million gun owners means that nearly 2 in 3 US citizens owns a gun which doesn't sound close to correct. http://rense.com/general62/gns.htm http://rense.com/general62/gns.htm says 80 million gun owners. http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp says 70-80 million adult gun owners. I can't find any better numbers, but 80 million sounds more reasonable. (still an order of magnitude more than police/military, but not 66% of American citizens).

mixonic 14y ago
There are not 200 million gun owners, but there are ~270,000,000 privately owned guns in the US (http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states). That's a gun for 8.5 out of 10 Americans. Or 3.4 guns for every legal gun owner. I think this is a fact gun rights folks miss. We can clear people when they purchase guns, but a gun is a lethal weapon for years. You can't guarantee it won't fall into other hands in 30 years. Some people argue we should give up, and embrace the number privately owned weapons in the US: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-case-for-more-guns-and-more-gun-control/309161/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-case... Others argue that registration of weapons is a better solution: http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/24/fact-check-the-gun-registry-red-herring/ http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/24/fact-check-the-gun-regi... But the sheer number of these things is amazing. FWIW, the country with the second highest number of guns per capital is YEMEN. With a gun for only 5.4 out of 10 citizens. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_co... (IMHO, gun registration and improving our mental health system would go a long way toward addressing gun violence)
- Turing_Machine 14y ago
  How are you going to enforce "gun registration"? House-to-house searches?
Turing_Machine 14y ago
1) You're assuming that everyone who owns a gun will say so when polled. That turns out not to be the case. 2) Even using your number, it's still 80 million compared to 2 million (and not all of those two million are going to go along with it anyway).
- giardini 14y ago
  "1) You're assuming that everyone who owns a gun will say so when polled. That turns out not to be the case." So true. My favorite: "Busted: Gun Control Legislator Dianne Feinstein Discusses Why She Concealed Carried Firearms" http://www.ijreview.com/2013/01/32591-busted-gun-control-legislator-dianne-feinstein-discusses-why-she-concealed-carry-firearms/ http://www.ijreview.com/2013/01/32591-busted-gun-control-leg...
  - Turing_Machine 14y ago
    Also: Carl Rowan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rowan#Gun_Control_Controversy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rowan#Gun_Control_Controve...
- Anechoic 14y ago
  1) I'm not assuming anything, I asked for a source for the 200 million number and then provided other sources with lower numbers, If you have a source with different numbers, I'd love to see it. 2) "still an order of magnitude more than police/military"
  - Turing_Machine 14y ago
    And I pointed out why your source is utterly unreliable. I'm not going to provide another source, because there are no reliable sources in this area. The figure of 270 million guns total is somewhat more reliable because there's at least some idea of how many have been manufactured.
    - Turing_Machine 14y ago

mixonic 14y ago

There are not 200 million gun owners, but there are ~270,000,000 privately owned guns in the US (http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states). That's a gun for 8.5 out of 10 Americans. Or 3.4 guns for every legal gun owner. I think this is a fact gun rights folks miss. We can clear people when they purchase guns, but a gun is a lethal weapon for years. You can't guarantee it won't fall into other hands in 30 years. Some people argue we should give up, and embrace the number privately owned weapons in the US: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-case-for-more-guns-and-more-gun-control/309161/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-case... Others argue that registration of weapons is a better solution: http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/24/fact-check-the-gun-registry-red-herring/ http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/24/fact-check-the-gun-regi... But the sheer number of these things is amazing. FWIW, the country with the second highest number of guns per capital is YEMEN. With a gun for only 5.4 out of 10 citizens. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_co... (IMHO, gun registration and improving our mental health system would go a long way toward addressing gun violence)

Turing_Machine 14y ago
How are you going to enforce "gun registration"? House-to-house searches?

Turing_Machine 14y ago

1) You're assuming that everyone who owns a gun will say so when polled. That turns out not to be the case. 2) Even using your number, it's still 80 million compared to 2 million (and not all of those two million are going to go along with it anyway).

giardini 14y ago
"1) You're assuming that everyone who owns a gun will say so when polled. That turns out not to be the case." So true. My favorite: "Busted: Gun Control Legislator Dianne Feinstein Discusses Why She Concealed Carried Firearms" http://www.ijreview.com/2013/01/32591-busted-gun-control-legislator-dianne-feinstein-discusses-why-she-concealed-carry-firearms/ http://www.ijreview.com/2013/01/32591-busted-gun-control-leg...
- Turing_Machine 14y ago
  Also: Carl Rowan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rowan#Gun_Control_Controversy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rowan#Gun_Control_Controve...
Anechoic 14y ago
1) I'm not assuming anything, I asked for a source for the 200 million number and then provided other sources with lower numbers, If you have a source with different numbers, I'd love to see it. 2) "still an order of magnitude more than police/military"
- Turing_Machine 14y ago
  And I pointed out why your source is utterly unreliable. I'm not going to provide another source, because there are no reliable sources in this area. The figure of 270 million guns total is somewhat more reliable because there's at least some idea of how many have been manufactured.
  - Turing_Machine 14y ago