cross post from the other group [View all]

I recently posted that 32% of people polled own a gun. That's a 2020 number.

That % is constant over decades of polls and surveys +- a few % points. A poll from the University of Chicago LINK which is newer than the one I quoted reveals that there are more guns in households than before (46% vs 40%).

It's difficult to sort out what numbers are relevant to gun ownership vs people exposed to guns. The new poll is couched in % of households with guns. I understand the rationale of scaling the conversation to people exposed to guns but that gets kinda' hard to boil down to how many people own guns. The US census defines a household as 'one or more people living at the same address' and the average household as 2.51 people. I haven't found a way to play those numbers against total population (~350 mil) to match the number of people who own guns, ie the number of gun owning voters and their relative voting power as a block. Like all other group I realize that they are not monolithic but it should be useful in establishing how large the gun rights constituency is.

There is one reference that seems useful though; the number of first time gun buyers during the pandemic buying surge. In the article a number of 5% of Americans were first time buyers. If the number in 2020 was 32% of the population (in keeping with long term trends) and an additional 5% of the population is new from 2020 to 2022 can I interpolate that now 37% of citizens now own guns?

In any event the % is now more than 32 and I recognize that. The number of people owning guns has increased.

I strive to be accurate and factual. One cannot come to rational conclusions without reliable data. Wishful thinking isn't helpful.

If anyone has more accurate data from reliable sources please share it.