Half the firearms in the U.S. are owned by 3% of adults, and that means trouble for the NRA [View all]
by Firmin DeBrabander at the LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-debrabander-nra-demographic-20161201-story.html
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Half the guns in the U.S. are owned by 3% of adults. So says a revelatory new study on the demographics of gun ownership by Harvard Public Health researchers. These “superowners,” as some have dubbed them, own on average 17 guns apiece. The study also points out that the share of Americans who own a gun has fallen from 25% to 22% in the last 20 years, even as the population as a whole has grown and gun sales have boomed. Clearly a lot of the same people keep buying guns.
Gun ownership in the U.S. is highly concentrated, and the trend promises to continue. The most recent General Social Survey, released in 2015, revealed that gun ownership among young adults has fallen to 14% from 23% in 1980. This is a considerable drop among what should be the NRA’s future membership.
Given these trends, it should come as no surprise that public opinion also stands against the NRA.
Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, polls indicated that more than 70% of Americans favored universal background checks for gun transactions. And a 2015 Johns Hopkins study found that majorities favor a host of stronger gun safety measures, including allowing lawsuits against negligent dealers, enacting safe storage laws and preventing sales to individuals with domestic violence restraining orders. While Missouri lawmakers recently approved a permitless carry law in their state, a majority of residents oppose the measure.
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