Gun owner?

[SteppingRazor]

Poll question: Gun owner?

Just curious as to how many DUers are gun owners.

Full Disclosure: I own three, and they're all handguns. Horrifically scary, I know :P

[Squatch]

1. 3 shotguns, 2 rifles, 1 pistol

Benelli Super Nova 12 ga, 18" bore
Browning Gold 12 ga
Browning A-5 12 ga
Husqvarna 30-06
Ruger M-77Mk2 300 WinMag
Sig Sauer 229 40 S&W

[ProdigalJunkMail]

6. Benelli and Sig Sauer

nice choices :-) not that the others aren't...

sP

[Squatch]

12. Thank you. I don't like to have junky guns

Had a nearly bad experience with a cheap 1911 clone that made me decide to only buy quality firearms.

[MemphisTiger]

2. Two

One hunting rifle
one pistol

[michreject]

18. Isn't the new tag on hunting rifles to make them scarier

sniper rifles? I mean you gotta give them a bad name in order to ban them.:sarcasm:

[MemphisTiger]

56. I've seen that term, I think it's a term to help sell them too

to the pro gun crowd because if you think of traditional rifle hunting, it's a bit like sniper. You camo yourself to blend into your surroundings, stay still, locate target, assess factors that will affect your shot, adjust for those factors and fire to kill. It's just an animal not a human.

It might help sell them considering how popular the military video games have become.

[SteppingRazor]

3. Wow. Kinda surprised that it's fairly even.

I figured non-gunowners would outweigh gunowners.

[Squatch]

4. Historical gun polls on DU are roughly 50-50

[billbuckhead]

5. DU has been freeped by gun web sites like The high road and ARFCOM

Only they don't call it freeping, they call it "firing missions', the ketboard commandos these Walter Mitty types are.

The latest Gallup poll show actual Dem gun ownership in the low twenties and independent gun ownership in the high twenties with percentages falling every year.

[Squatch]

10. Oh, you mean that poll that was funded by an anti-gun org?

Do you EVER get tired of dragging out that dead (and irrelevant) horse to beat?

[billbuckhead]

26. I'm just comparing a scientific poll with one that's been freeped

"The poll, conducted Oct. 13-16, finds that 4 in 10 Americans report they have a gun in their homes, including 30% who say they personally own a gun and 12% who say another member of their household owns it. These results show essentially no change since this question was last asked in 2000. At that time, 27% of Americans said they personally owned a gun and 14% said another household member owned one.

Certain groups of Americans -- men, older Americans, Midwesterners, Southerners, Republicans, and whites -- are more likely than other groups to say they personally own a gun.

Nearly half of men (47%) report personal ownership, compared with just 13% of women.

Americans aged 18 to 29 are slightly less likely than those who are older to be gun owners. Only one in five 18- to 29-year-olds (21%) say they own a gun, while 32% of 30- to 49-year-olds and 31% of those aged 50 and older report ownership.

Roughly one in three Americans who live in the Midwest (34%) and the South (36%) say they personally own a gun. Ownership is lower among those residing in the East (22%) and the West (23%).

Forty-one percent of Republicans say they own a gun, compared with 27% of independents and 23% of Democrats.

One in three whites (33%) own a gun, while only about one in six nonwhites (18%) do."

<http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/article2844.html>

And here's another study that shows smilar results>

As National Rifle Association Meets in St. Louis, MO, This Week, New Comprehensive Survey Reveals That Gun Ownership Has Declined Dramatically Over Past 35 Years


Contrary to Gun Industry and Gun Lobby Claims, Only 34.5 Percent of U.S. Households Have Guns, Personal Gun Ownership Hits Low of 21.6 Percent

Washington, DC--Contrary to public claims by the gun industry and the gun lobby, firearms ownership has declined dramatically over the past 35 years according to new survey data from the General Social Survey (GSS) released today by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. Except for the U.S. Census, the GSS is the most frequently analyzed source of information in the social sciences and is the only survey that has tracked the opinions of Americans over an extended period of time. The NORC data comes out the same week that the National Rifle Association (NRA) begins its annual convention this Thursday in St. Louis, MO.

The NORC data shows that during the period 1972 to 2006, the percentage of American households that reported having any guns in the home has dropped nearly 20 percentage points: from a high of 54 percent in 1977 to 34.5 percent in 2006. The data also shows that during the period 1980 to 2006, the percentage of Americans who reported personally owning a gun dropped more than nine percentage points: from a high of 30.7 percent in 1985 to a low during the survey period of 21.6 percent in 2006. Charts for both household gun ownership and personal gun ownership using the NORC findings for the years 1972 to 2006 can be found in a new Violence Policy Center (VPC) analysis, A Shrinking Minority: The Continuing Decline of Gun Ownership in America. The VPC analysis also reveals that contrary to claims by the gun industry and gun lobby that firearms ownership continues to rise and that “nearly half” of all American homes have a gun, the reality, as the new NORC report "Public Attitudes Toward the Regulation of Firearms" concludes, is that “...gun ownership has been declining over the last 35 years and the 9/11 terrorist attacks did not reverse that trend.”

VPC Executive Director Josh Sugarmann states, “Society is leaving the gun culture behind. Nearly two thirds of American homes are gun free, and more than three quarters of Americans do not personally own a gun. Yet our nation remains hostage to the gun industry’s lethality-at-any-cost mentality as measured by nearly 30,000 gun deaths per year and tens of thousands of additional wounded.”

The VPC analysis notes, “When talking to the news media, gunmakers work to present themselves as a vibrant, growing industry that is an inextricable part of American society.” Yet, over the past decade when talking amongst themselves in industry publications, the issue, as voiced in one gunmaker’s 1998 ad cited in the analysis, is, “It’s not `who your customers will be in five years.’ It’s `will there be any customers left?’” Reasons most commonly cited by the gun industry and gun lobby for the decline in gun ownership include: a lack of interest in guns by youth; the end of military conscription; the decreasing popularity of hunting; land use issues that limit hunting; environmental and zoning issues that force shooting ranges to close and limit new range construction; and, the increase in single-parent homes headed by women."

<http://vpc.org/press/0704norc.htm>

[michreject]

47. I wouldn't answer that I did to a poll

None of their business.

[Xithras]

21. No, a great deal of us really do own firearms.

Bogus polls aside, firearm ownership is ubiquitous in rural areas, and rural Democrats make up a huge portion of the party. As the party learned in 1994, it's a no-win situation to try and take them away (you'll hand the government back to the Republicans, who will just roll the new law back).

I own several firearms. I kind of have to where I live...the fastest 911 response time out here is about 20 minutes. I have Red Cross first aid training for medical emergencies, and guns for safety emergencies.

[Richard Steele]

8. Gun ownership is usually pretty even amongst DU GD-Gun-Poll responders.

Turns out, that whole "Democrats don't own guns" thing
is pretty much BS.

I answered "yes".

[smirkymonkey]

62. I'd like to see a breakdown by large city, small city, suburban

area, rurual area, remote area.

I just took a random poll of people I know here in NYC and nobody owns a gun or knows anybody who owns a gun. It's generally considered to be something that is used only by drug dealers, members of organized crime and cops.

[Xenotime]

7. Dispensers of death is all those things are..

They have no purpose in today's society other than to kill innocent people.

[Sapere aude]

17. Well I guess all those target manufacturers are wasting their time.

You need to tell the Olympic Committee not to have the pistol competitions anymore also.

I have never shot at anything but targets since coming home from Vietnam. That's fun for me and many like me.

[Deep13]

23. That is factually false.

I use mine extensively and have never shot anyone. Paper targets have suffered greatly, however. They can also kill animals and, of course, guilty people.

[SteppingRazor]

30. All right, all right. Leave the flames out of this.

I'm just asking whether or not DUers are gun owners. Please keep your opinions of my gun ownership to yourself, if you're unable to say anything nice. Thanks.

[cgrindley]

41. Someone with a CCW could have changed everything yesterday (nt)

[flamin lib]

9. This is why gun control is a losing issue for Democrats. There are

too many people who own guns and who oppose gun control. If an issue doesn't motivate at least as many to vote for you as for the other guy it's a losing issue. A woman's right to choose is pretty much a 50/50. The Iraq war is 60/30.

Yes, I think there should be reasonable restrictions and oversight on who owns and how they buy but it shouldn't be a platform plank.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

73. Good Point

And keep in mind that one would suppose that DUers represent a more leftward drift of the Democratic Party. So if a pack of flaming liberals (like me, owner of two rifles and a shotgun) are so divided over gun ownership, you can bet that the tilt goes pretty hard to the right when you get off this message board.

[Phillycat]

88. Bullshit.

There are varying numbers, but far closer to 60% of Americans identify themselves as pro-choice.

[flamin lib]

90. Yeah, but it's a real 'get out the vote' issue for the fundies, so

the vote totals are more like 50/50. It's voters I'm concerned with.

[Sapere aude]

11. We did this already. It's about 50/50 here.

[WiseButAngrySara]

13. No. And I never will. If I had to kill animals to eat, I would

never eat meat. That would be the only legitimate reason for me to own a gun. If we lived in a society which provided complete protection, we would not need guns to defend ourselves, but I am not about to participate in the madness of purchasing a gun to 'protect' myself and my property. We need to change the violence first. We can't obliterate madness, but we can certainly alter the sordid living conditions which promote crime, and we can alter the gun laws which also promote crime.

[michreject]

22. Do you eat meat now?.........nt

[WiseButAngrySara]

35. Rarely. (not rare meat though!) And I'm thinking about giving

it up entirely, the more I find out about the hideous conditions of the slaughter houses, chicken farms, pesticides, hormones and antibiotics etc added to our food supply, in addition to the fact that I would not eat meat if I had to kill it myself... a bit hypocritical.

[Deep13]

32. "...provided complete protection..."

I don't want to live in a society that provides complete protection. The only way to do that is to lock us all up. Complete safety is not possible and we cannot rely on the state to protect us in every situation.

[WiseButAngrySara]

53. "IF we lived in a society which provided complete protection"...

is the complete quote. Why does it have to be State or National Protection? How about community by community? I understand the dilemna, and I don't propose to have the answers.

[Jack_DeLeon]

80. No society...

can provice complete protection. Depending on how you want to spin it, that is either a Utopian fantasy or a Draconian nightmare.

[WiseButAngrySara]

87. Obviously I much prefer the Utopian fantasy; this administration

prefers the Machiavellian nightmare which they label "Reality."

[youthere]

14. Not me specifically but my husband owns several..

and my son got his first hunting rifle for Christmas this year.
They both enjoy hunting and trap and target shooting.
mryouthere has three rifles, two shotguns, a 9mm and a 38. Don't ask me makes or models because I don't know anything about that stuff.

[unpossibles]

15. it's not tied any more

plus I have a sword, a bow, some knives, and a variety of martial arts training (preferring Shuai Chiao).

On the other hand, I am a vegetarian and see violence as a last refuge (and the first response of the moranic). Most fights can be avoided, disarmed, or talked down. As much as I hate to admit it though, our cultural cowboy mentality likes to escalate things, and guns help that happen (although I blame the idiot more than the tool used).

[michreject]

16. 50+.......................nt

[Man_in_the_Moon]

19. Own guns? bah I make em -NT

[michreject]

51. I've made a few zip guns

It's pretty easy. $10 in a hardware store and you can get the stuff to make a .22.

[murloc]

59. Isn't that illegal?

I'm sure you did nothing ill with it...but Im not sure you should advertise such at a national BBS.

[Man_in_the_Moon]

As long as...

you dont violate the NFA of 34 (or the FOPA of 86), by creating a Shortbarreled rifle, Shortbarreled Shotgun, Machine Gun (very hard to do today see FOPA of '86), Destructive Device, or "Any Other Weapon" (which the classic 'zip gun' falls into), without first paying your creation tax ($200) for those items, and having your paperwork in hand (wait 2-6 Months)...

Anyone not specifically prohibited from owning a firearm (ala felony, domestic restraining order, etc) may build their own handgun, Rifle, or Shotgun for their own personal use. Provided of course that it is legal within their state or locality. If it is not a 'NFA' weapon, you dont even have to tell the ATF about it.

But I skip most of that by Holding a SOT-2 (Special (occupation) Taxpayer - class 2).

[murloc]

72. interesting and txs....i had no idea (nt)

[michreject]

76. That was 40 years ago, pre GCA68

Making a gun is not illegal. People make them all the time.

[unpossibles]

20. oops

double post

[whistle]

24. This should be clarified as fire arms as some DUrs could be antique gun collectors

...in which the guns can't be fired, or they have a collection of air pistols or paint-ball style guns which are not necessarily intended to be lethal. The real issue is ownership of fire with the potential for intentional or accidental killing.

[SteppingRazor]

29. It's a good point — one of my three is an old .45 Colt with a fairly low serial number — but...

I think most DUers are smart enough to know what I mean with the poll.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

50. I've never known an owner of antique arms ...

who didn't have a more modern gun or two.

What's defined as antique in the gun trade? 100 years old? Pre-1898 only? It's something like that.

[SacredCow]

25. I own many firearms of all types....

6 handguns, 3 shotguns, 5 rifles, 1 pellet gun.

Except for the pellet gun, I haven't fired any of them in probably 3 years. Many of them were handed down to me by my grandfather and/or father, including the 3 Colt pistols which I will never part with.

[EstimatedProphet]

27. Yep. got 8. I'm clearly a mass-murderer.

[krispos42]

28. There was a very similar poll a couple-3 weeks ago

it was dead even then, too.

[Deep13]

31. Here it is:

Centerfire handguns:
**Smith Wesson 686 Plus, 4" 0.357 magnum full-size revolver
**S.W. 952, dedicated target automatic pistol, 9mm Luger, 5".
**Beretta 84F "Cheetah", compact defensive pistol, nickle plated with walnut grips, 13-rd. magazines, 0.380 caliber.

0.22 long rifle handguns:
**Ruger Mark III with 6.5" fluted barrel. Stainless steel with fiber optic sights and target crown. Cocobolo checkered grips. Unbelieveably accurate.
**Ruger Super Single Six stainless with 6.5" barrel and fiber optic sights. Rubber Pachmayer gips. Cowboy type single action.
**S.W. 617 full size revolver, 4" 10-shot. Easy to clean.

Rifles & carbines:
**Marlin 1894C 0.357 mag. lever cowboy action with walnut checkered stocks.
**Remmington 504 target grade 0.22 with with cut-checkered fluted walnut stock and two support posts in the stock, free-floating barrel, Mauser extraction, target grade trigger and heavy barrel, 40mm dusk-to-dawn scope. Can hit a silver dollar at 100 yards consistently.
**Winchester 9422 Legend 0.22LR/L/S with 20" barrel, pistol grip fluted walnut stocks and aperture sights. Lever cowboy action.
**Ruger 10/22 Deluxe Sporter. 0.22LR. Free floating 18" barrel, Walnut checkered stock, fiber optic sights. Automatic with patented 10-round rotary magazines. I never use it because it is such a bee-atch to clean.

[billbuckhead]

34. How can you support a guy who lied about being a pro baseball player?

Because this liar is the only "RBKA" Presidential candidate in the Democratic party?

[Deep13]

36. What are you talking about?

Baseball what?

RKBA Democrats that I know about:
me
My boss the D.A.
Gov. Strickland (OH)
A.G. Dann (OH)
Gov. Richardson (NM)
The governor of Montana (forgot his name)

[billbuckhead]

46. Bill Richardson is such a bad liar, he said he was a pro baseball player

They have records of such things and he was caught.

RBKA Dems? You forgot the most famous, ZELL MILLER.

[Deep13]

48. Sorry, I don't believe you.

I have heard such nasty things about Richardson on this website that it seems like some folks will say anything and expect me to believe it.

We all know about Zell Miller. So what?

[SteppingRazor]

52. It's true. Here's the CBS story on it:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/25/politics/main1075650.shtml

That said, I find this a pretty poor reason to not support a candidate — especially without looking at the whole candidate, and not just one incident. If I can paint a picture of a candidate given only one incident in their lives, then every candidate is a liar, and even much worse.

[Deep13]

55. Maybe resume padding. Maybe an honest mistake.

Either way, he didn't inhale and he didn't have sexual relations with that woman.

[Man_in_the_Moon]

49. Zell Aint the most famous RKBA Democrat that would be...

John Dingell.

What created the phrase 'Jack booted thugs' for the NRA to describe Poppybushie's use of the ATF.

I hope he is enough of a Democrat for you.

[billbuckhead]

57. Zell is far more famous cause of wanting to duel Chris Matthews

Dingell is a corporate hack

[Man_in_the_Moon]

64. Ouch, John Dingell is a corporate hack?- wow -NT

[ieoeja]

75. Add Gov. Howard Dean to that list. n/t

[aikoaiko]

33. Here is the recent past poll about 50 - 50

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=518023

[billbuckhead]

37. 393 gun owning votes out 102,972 Duer's? YOUR POLL IS a HOAX

With the known Astroturf problem of gun "enthusiast" web sites going on "firing missions" to freep all gun discussions on DU.

[karlrschneider]

38. Yeah, all those people with nothing to do but watch DU for a gun poll.

They sure are dedicated.
:eyes:

by the way, the 102,000 figure includes every single person who ever registered. There are about 3000 active DUers.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

39. Every poll done on this issue comes out to about the same percentage

There really isn't nearly as many posters on DU as the number of user registrations, which includes non-active accounts and people who've been tombstoned. Then there's the fact that a poll about gun ownership isn't of interest to many people who are neutral on the issue. Even still this poll is no more accurate than any other internet poll. They are informational but not scientific by any means.

[SteppingRazor]

40. Several flaws with your premise

1) There are not 102,972 active DUers. That's just how many people have signed up (including the tombstoned and other nonactive DUers) since the site's inception.

2) Other than your claims I haven't seen any evidence of this poll being freeped.

3) Actually, even if that 102k was an accurate number of active DUers, a poll that included more than 700 of them on a purely random basis would actually be a scientifically acceptable sample size (I realize DU polls are not random, of course. I'm just pointing out that the small number is actually legitimate, although the methodology is questionable.)

[piedmont]

71. Only 382 non-gun-owners out of 102,972 nt

[billbuckhead]

43. 393 gun owning votes out of 102,972. YOUR POLL IS A HOAX!

It's well know now that the "high road.com" , ARFCOM and other gun websites as well as neoCON websites have "firing missions" to freep any DU discussions about guns.

[SteppingRazor]

45. By whom?

I love your use of the passive voice here. "It's well known..."

Oh really? I mean, it can't be that well known if the rest of us haven't heard of this and, moreover, haven't even heard of these sites. :shrug:

[billbuckhead]

78. Well do some investigating about ARFCOM, "the high road"

Why would gun websites be very different than Freerepublic? It's many of the same people, same failed theories and same propaganda techniques. Instead of freeping, it's firing. Go surf the Gungeon for awhile and tell me it's not the most conservative forum on DU about other issues than guns?

[billbuckhead]

84. Here's a link to them doing it

<http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=270444>

[MGD]

86. Thanks for the link Bill. You have increased their membership by one.

http://www.thehighroad.org/memberlist.php?do=getall&page=15&order=asc&sort=username<r=M

hehehehe :)

[aikoaiko]

66. Christ, Bill, its a DU poll,. no one said it was representative, get a grip.

and stop being so paranoid. Its not there aren't plenty of anti-folks who rally to these types of polls.

You don't like the poll because it works against you.

There was no hoax about the poll even if some disingenuous people voted on it.

[billbuckhead]

67. The gun lobby and it's minions use all kind of lies to puff up it's influence

This bogus freeped poll is just one of them.

[billbuckhead]

68. The gun lobby and it's minions use all kind of lies to puff up it's influence

This bogus freeped poll is just one of them.

[aikoaiko]

69. As if you and your side doesn't --- tsk tsk.

[Balbus]

74. Paranoid much?

[NightWatcher]

42. this poll has been done

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=518023


it was nearly 50/50 with a large sample pool

[SteppingRazor]

44. Thanks for pointing out your poll, Nightwatcher!

Someone else already did, above, with a screenshot. Of course, I didn't realize this had been done a couple weeks ago.

In any case, it's somewhat informative, but I think the vast majority of non-gunowners probably wouldn't even participate in these polls, leading me to believe that the actual percentage of gunowning DUers is far under 50 percent.

[Elwood P Dowd]

54. I've owned guns for over 40 years.

Have 5 now, but 3 were inherited when my father passed away.

[Catchawave]

58. My husband's a collector

and a Republican :scared:

[Zavulon]

60. Five shotguns, two pistols.

I'd have more if I could afford them, too.

[bigwillq]

61. No guns

in my household.

[slackmaster]

63. Federally licensed collector of curios and relics

I share my house with known convicted felines. Here is the hardware component of my retirement savings plan:

[baldguy]

81. What caliber is the cat?

[Blue State Blues]

65. Does a civil war era musket count?

Needless to say, there is no ammunition for it, much less stored with it.

[slackmaster]

70. It counts as an antique firearm

No background check, no waiting period, can be sold by mail order.

[ChiciB1]

77. I Don't Any Guns.... but This Goes Much Deeper Than Gun Ownership

IMO. America needs to find it's way and get on with some real healing. And I won't say it's ALL the fault of our current leaders, but I will say LEADERS must lead, and what we've gotten of late is only violence!

When we as people keep getting attacked by saying we're UN-PATRIOTIC because we are against a WAR, there is some serious GUIDANCE issues that need to be addressed. And they can't be addressed by SOUND BITES!!!

And not to be too sarcastic... but it's going to take some HARD WORK! Actual hard work and not the "spin" that we usually get about all of this stuff!

America hasn't been a place I've recognized for a very long time. Sure, I'm a BOOMER.... but ask any of my kids or grandkids and they will tell you that I'M the one in the family who makes the BEST effort to stay informed and also to relate to THEIR issues too!

[Jack_DeLeon]

79. 2 rifles, 2 pistols, and a shotgun.

SKS, AK, 1911, Glock 17, and a Saiga-12.

[Canuckistanian]

82. Sorry, I might have skewed your poll

I come from a country that BANS gun ownership unless you're a hunter or a registered sport gun club member.

How I haven't been murdered in my bed with all those criminals carrying illegal guns, I can't tell you.

[anakie]

83. and never will

I am 45 years old and have never even fired a gun - and probably never will.

[MGD]

85. Yes several and I suppose I'll be buying several more here sooner rather than later

judging by the political discourse.

[LSK]

89. No

[Geek_Girl]

91. I don't own any guns but I thought about getting one a year ago

I'm not really anti gun I just choose not to own one. I do support common sense gun control laws. I think if Virginia had better laws Cho would have never been able to purchase guns so easily and these kids wouldn't have been shot up. Selling guns to someone who is stalking women and has been in a mental hospital should not be able to purchase a firearm. That's just common sense.