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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 (see Graphic 1, Graphic 2).
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 period of 21.6 percent in 2006 (see Graphic 1, Graphic 3).
These numbers, the most recent and comprehensive data available, come from the General Social Survey (GSS). The GSS is conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC)1 at the University of Chicago. Begun in 1972, the GSS completed its 26th round in 2006. According to NORC, “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.”
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The problem is .... the people who have guns but do not take part in these statistical surveys.
Go to a city like Philadelphia and live for a year or two... You would sometimes think you were living in Dodge City, circa 1873.
I'm no fan of guns. But if I ever were forced to live in a city like Ghettodelphia again..... I would seriously consider owning one. The city is out of control. I saw a lot of scary sh*t in the two years I lived there.
Just read yesterday that two armored guards, retired Philadelphia cops - were killed at an ATM in Philly that I had been to at least 100 times. I doubt their killer - or those responsible for the other hundreds of murders in that city each year - take part in surveys on gun ownership...
The vast, vast majority of people of who report gun ownership are not the real problem. The real problem is the people who have them illegally....obviously.
Berkshires you are correct. The vast majority of people who own a fire arm never use them for criminal deeds. A criminal will not go to a gun shop to buy the gun he wishes to murder people with. Drug dealers dont buy guns legally. Organized crime do not buy their weapons from the local gunshops.
The fact is if all guns were made illegal today organized crime would still buy their weapons as they always have.
Berkshires you are correct. The vast majority of people who own a fire arm never use them for criminal deeds. A criminal will not go to a gun shop to buy the gun he wishes to murder people with. Drug dealers dont buy guns legally. Organized crime do not buy their weapons from the local gunshops.
The fact is if all guns were made illegal today organized crime would still buy their weapons as they always have.
You seem to be saying that acquiring an illegal gun is something like a "fact of nature" like rain failing from the sky. How does a person get a gun illegally? Do they manufacture the gun themselves? If not, then the gun was manufactured by someone, then made available to the criminal. Where did the gun come from? Does the gun manufacturer sell or give guns directly to criminals? If not, then the guns are being acquired either illegally from a customer of the manufacturer or illegally from a customer somewhere up the line who did acquire the gun legally. Else the gun was smuggled into the country, which is another avenue to examine. So the theft and siphoning off of guns, more specifically of handguns, from the legal commerce in guns is the issue to be gotten hold of by the authorities, by this reasoning so far.
The lack of controls in the U.S. on the commerce in guns, especially handguns, is leading to this plague of handgun-related crimes and deaths. Contrast, for instance, with England.
You seem to be saying that acquiring an illegal gun is something like a "fact of nature" like rain failing from the sky. How does a person get a gun illegally? Do they manufacture the gun themselves? If not, then the gun was manufactured by someone, then made available to the criminal. Where did the gun come from? Does the gun manufacturer sell or give guns directly to criminals? If not, then the guns are being acquired either illegally from a customer of the manufacturer or illegally from a customer somewhere up the line who did acquire the gun legally. Else the gun was smuggled into the country, which is another avenue to examine. So the theft and siphoning off of guns, more specifically of handguns, from the legal commerce in guns is the issue to be gotten hold of by the authorities, by this reasoning so far.
The lack of controls in the U.S. on the commerce in guns, especially handguns, is leading to this plague of handgun-related crimes and deaths. Contrast, for instance, with England.
My handguns have never commited a crime of any kind !
You seem to be saying that acquiring an illegal gun is something like a "fact of nature" like rain failing from the sky. How does a person get a gun illegally? Do they manufacture the gun themselves? If not, then the gun was manufactured by someone, then made available to the criminal. Where did the gun come from? Does the gun manufacturer sell or give guns directly to criminals? If not, then the guns are being acquired either illegally from a customer of the manufacturer or illegally from a customer somewhere up the line who did acquire the gun legally. Else the gun was smuggled into the country, which is another avenue to examine. So the theft and siphoning off of guns, more specifically of handguns, from the legal commerce in guns is the issue to be gotten hold of by the authorities, by this reasoning so far.
The lack of controls in the U.S. on the commerce in guns, especially handguns, is leading to this plague of handgun-related crimes and deaths. Contrast, for instance, with England.
I don't know how they get here, but go to almost any bad neighborhood in America an you can find one on the street in the $50 range.
[[QUOTEParkTwain;1663823.............Contrast, for instance, with England[/quote]
What about England? I do know that, for the most part, the law abiding turned in their weapons. I'm not sure about the not-so law abiding.
Also, there seems to be a lot of information available, from different sources, both in the US and England, that indicate English citizens are no safer because of the forced confiscation.
Our forefathers were a lot smarter than today's yahoos running the show IMO. I trust their judgement a lot more than what we have today.
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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 (see Graphic 1, Graphic 2).
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 period of 21.6 percent in 2006 (see Graphic 1, Graphic 3).
These numbers, the most recent and comprehensive data available, come from the General Social Survey (GSS). The GSS is conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC)1 at the University of Chicago. Begun in 1972, the GSS completed its 26th round in 2006. According to NORC, “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.”
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2 possibilities america has become so safe that people just don't need them anymore.
other
people have been intimidated and harrassed out of defending themselves.
hello the bad guys have not gone away.
when the good guys have guns, it makes the job of the bad guys much much more difficult.
stephen s
san diego ca
You seem to be saying that acquiring an illegal gun is something like a "fact of nature" like rain failing from the sky. How does a person get a gun illegally? Do they manufacture the gun themselves? If not, then the gun was manufactured by someone, then made available to the criminal. Where did the gun come from? Does the gun manufacturer sell or give guns directly to criminals? If not, then the guns are being acquired either illegally from a customer of the manufacturer or illegally from a customer somewhere up the line who did acquire the gun legally. Else the gun was smuggled into the country, which is another avenue to examine. So the theft and siphoning off of guns, more specifically of handguns, from the legal commerce in guns is the issue to be gotten hold of by the authorities, by this reasoning so far.
The lack of controls in the U.S. on the commerce in guns, especially handguns, is leading to this plague of handgun-related crimes and deaths. Contrast, for instance, with England.
In fact, lets DO compare it to England. Or Australia. Or Canada. Or wherever.
And yes, as a few notes in passing, a person who has any sort of rudimentary knowledge of how things work can manufacture a crude gun. (Ever heard of a "zip gun"?)
Park Twain, can I ask you something? Where are you from? What do you do for a living? I am betting, assuming I liked to gamble (halo over head), you are one of some combination of: 1. Urban area, and likely of the Northeast or West Coast. 2. Don't know a thing about guns, never owned one, and neither have any of your friends.
There are points 4 and 5 to be made, but for the moment, I feel like having a beer, and then hitting the sack.
But yeah, secure in the knowledge that if anyone breaks into my house, in which case it is presumed they come in to hurt me or mine, that I have the means right handy to, being blunt, blast their butts right back out the door they illegally entered.
It is they who have made the choice to violate the social contract a free society is based on. That is, the sanctity of being secure in one's own home. And thank God that, in Texas (and the other Southern states) the right to use counterforece against such an outrage is protected by the law itself.
But, then, what would YOU do? And how would you stop them? Telling them you had a cell phone and were, by gawd, calling 911?
Last edited by TexasReb; 10-05-2007 at 11:35 PM..
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