American thoughts on gun ownership

Pavel Prikhodko, Ph.D. Machine Learning

As we previously discussed, the issue of gun ownership is one of the most controversial in the US. In this post, we’ll analyze a bit more information about what people think of free gun possession in America. According to Statista.com, the most-armed American state is currently Texas, with 403,185 registered weapons. California comes in second with 312,264 registered weapons, and Virginia takes third with 268,234 registered weapons in the state. Florida and Pennsylvania round out the top five, with 254,391 and 225,377 respectively.

American people have diverse opinions – gun owners have always touted the idea of a massive gun culture in the U.S. In 2011, almost 50 percent of men responded that they personally owned a gun, while about 23 percent of female respondents said that they were gun owners. If we consider the share of American gun owners by their political affiliation in the same year, we see that 28 percent of respondents who defined themselves as Democrats identified themselves as gun owners. In comparison, 41 percent of Republicans stated that they owned a gun.

33

The survey published at Statista.com also represented the opinions of different generations on gun control in 2014. Thus, 49 percent of Millennials (born 1981-1996) believed that the process of controlling gun ownership is more important than controlling gun rights. Slightly fewer Gen X (born 1965-1980) representatives (48 percent) stated that controlling gun ownership is more important. Almost 45 percent of Boomers (born 1928-1945) shared the same opinion. Silent generation representatives (born 1928-1945) also preferred gun ownership control above gun rights control.

3

One of the hot topics regarding gun possession in America is whether there should be or shouldn’t be a law that would ban the possession of handguns, except by police or other authorized personnel. According to the 2015 survey results, about 72 percent of respondents feel that there shouldn’t be any other law that would ban the private possession of handguns. In comparison, the percentage of people who felt the same in 1990 was 55 percent. The share of people who feel that there should be a law that would ban gun possession in 2015 is 27 percent, compared to 41 percent in 1990.
4

Weapons bans could reduce the total number of potential health-related aspects. About 12,000 deaths (not including suicides) and 84,300 injuries were caused by firearms in 2015. Medical and health-related costs stemming from firearms added up to $174 billion in the U.S.

Discuss this article on our forum with over 1,900,000 registered members.

About Pavel Prikhodko

Pavel Prikhodko, Ph.D. Machine Learning

Pavel has worked for many years as a researcher and developer on a wide range of applications (varying from mechanics and manufacturing to social data, finance and advertising), building predictive systems and trying to find stories that data can tell.

In his free time, he enjoys being with his family.

Other posts by Pavel Prikhodko:

3 thoughts on “American thoughts on gun ownership”

  1. I found this Blog by chance today and find it very interesting.
    I’m an Italian retired teacher in Philosophy and History.
    I hope to have the possibility to receive your future posts.
    Many thanks,
    Carolina

  2. Prior to the final paragraph,…where the piece falls apart, the important statistics of defending ones life with a firearm are noticeably and perhaps conveniently absent. The math? 96,300 deaths or injuries total 174 billion? $1.8 million per death or injury is pure hogwash. Furthermore, who’s to say those injuries would’ve never happened in the absence of guns?

    The final paragraph might be the authors particular point of view but if health costs and body counts are the metric for supporting a cause, tobacco related deaths and abortion completely destroy gun numbers. Where’s the outrage with those deaths? Tobacco has no constitutional protection and aborted babies probably wouldn’t think the convenience abortion affords the mother is best for THEIR health.

    1. These numbers at the end of the article are not true. Not true unless you boost the numbers with the police force. But those arnt the guns proposed to be ban. This article is bullshit and crrupt.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *