Posted on 01/13/2008 8:13:54 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Is America, land of shooting massacres in schools and public places, slowly falling out of love with guns?
The answer is yes, and it runs counter to popular perceptions of the United States as a country where most citizens are armed to the teeth and believe it is every American's inalienable right to buy an AK 47-style assault rifle with the minimum of bureaucratic paperwork.
But in fact, gun ownership in the United States has been declining steadily over more than three decades, relegating gun owners to minority status.
At the same time, support for stricter gun controls has been growing steadily and those in favour make up a majority.
This is a little-reported phenomenon but the trend is shown clearly by statistics compiled by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center (NORC), which has been tracking gun ownership and attitudes on firearms since 1972, the longest-running survey on the subject in the United States.
The number of households with guns dropped from a high of 54 percent in 1977 to 34.5 percent in 2006, according to NORC, and the percentage of Americans who reported personally owning a gun has shrunk to just under 22 percent.
So, by the rules of democratic play, one might assume that the majority would have major influence on legislation. But that's not how it works, thanks to the enormous influence of the gun lobby.
The long-term decline monitored by the Chicago survey has buoyed proponents of tighter gun controls. "America's gun culture is fading," says Josh Sugarmann, who heads the Washington-based Violence Policy Center.
According to Sugarmann, those keeping the culture alive and those most vocal in resisting tighter regulations are white, middle-aged men whose enthusiasm for firearms, hunting and shooting is not shared by younger Americans.
Yet, at the moment it's difficult to imagine the U.S. without its gun culture.
But then, who could have imagined France with a ban on smoking in public places, Germany with speed limits on almost half its autobahns, or a black man as a serious contender in this year's presidential elections in the United States?
To what extent gun ownership will continue to shrink depends, at least in part, on a decision by the U.S. Supreme court expected this summer. The court will rule on one of the most acrimonious disputes in the United States: do Americans have the constitutional right to own and bear arms?
GUN RAMPAGES PART OF LIFE
At the heart of the long-running debate, argued with more passion than almost any other, is the meaning of the U.S. constitution's second amendment.
Written 219 years ago, it says: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
A string of lower court rulings over several decades held that the amendment meant to guarantee the collective right of state militias, not individual citizens. Such rulings have had limited impact: gun regulations vary from state to state and in most, weapons are easy to buy and legal to keep.
There are a few exceptions: handguns are illegal in Chicago and in Washington, where a court ruled in December that its total ban violated the constitution. That is the case the Supreme Court will take up this year.
No matter how it rules, the court's decision is unlikely to make much immediate difference to the mass shootings by unhinged citizens that have become part of American life.
Gun rampages happen with such numbing regularity -- on average one every three weeks in 2007 -- that they barely make news unless the death toll climbs into double digits, as happened at the Virginia Tech university. There, a student with mental problems killed 32 of his peers and himself.
President George W. Bush this week signed into law a bill meant to prevent people with a record of mental disease from buying weapons.
Virginia Tech was the worst school shooting in U.S. history and rekindled the debate over the easy availability of guns in America. There are more private firearms in the United States than anywhere else in the world -- at least 200 million.
While that arsenal has been growing every year, the proportion of U.S. households where guns are held has been shrinking. In other words: Fewer people have more guns.
One estimate, by the National Police Foundation, says that 10 percent of the country's adults own roughly three quarters of all firearms.
PREVENTION, NOT CURE
That is the hard core, which counts on the gun lobby, chief of all the National Rifle Association (NRA), to throttle attempts to impose restrictions on the sale of firearms.
The NRA, a group that claims some 3 million members, calls itself "America's foremost defender of Second Amendment rights" and backs candidates for political office on their stand on one issue -- gun ownership -- regardless of party affiliation.
Politicians tend to pander to the NRA, some more shamelessly than others. One of the Republican candidates for the 2008 presidential race, Mitt Romney, went so far as to falsely claim that he was a lifelong hunter and had received an official NRA endorsement in 2002.
Small wonder, then, that the debates following every shooting massacre tend to focus not on the easy availability of guns but on preventive security measures.
Metal detectors at the entrances of shopping malls, for example. Or bullet-proof backpacks. They were developed in the wake of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, where two teenagers killed 12 students and teachers and then themselves.
The Columbine-inspired backpacks went on sale in August and have sold briskly. "Sales picked up considerably in the Christmas period," said Mike Pelonzi, one of the two men -- both fathers -- who designed and market them. "Our market is expanding."
I did the same at Academy Sports; it was too good a deal to pass up. Never thought I’d buy a “striker fired” but the deal was great and the pistol really “fits” in the hand.
***But in fact, gun ownership in the United States has been declining steadily over more than three decades, relegating gun owners to minority status.***
That line is a lie.
Reminders for everyone:
Take friends to the range!
Get your kids stay involved in the sport. Get their friends involved too.
Join a local gun club.
Shoot regularly.
BLOAT.
***The NRA fully supported that law and in fact that support helped the bill sail through.***
Another reason I’m not renewing my membership.
In the autumn of my life I possess many weapons and arms. I have never fired any of these in anger. I am very competent with them. I shoot a great deal.
I do know what the 2nd amendment says.
It’s enough to make me go out and buy a gun.
Not that I need an excuse!
Why force yourself into such a Hobson’s Choice? Get both!
http://cuttingedge.org/news/n1344.cfm
Gun Control....the whole story of how the libs passed it.
Interesting how Hucks hometown is the cross point.
Very insightful post. Imagine what bringing 'white male culture' and 'old America' down will look like. For me, it'd mark the end of Mall Shopping.
The disrespect for individual rights will tragically devolve into 'communal' rights claimed by none other than clans and gangs. Vast portions of America will become 'off-limits' to persons of undesirable color. By liberal standards a success, I suppose.
>>But in fact, gun ownership in the United States has been declining steadily over more than three decades, relegating gun owners to minority status.<<
Americans who vote regularly are a minority too - that doesn’t make the right to vote any less critical.
No matter how it rules, the court's decision is unlikely to make much immediate difference to the mass shootings by unhinged citizens that have become part of American life.
No court ruling is ever going to "make much immediate difference" or any difference to deranged lunatics who'll manage to steal a gun.
Johns Hopkins has done "business" with the grabbers for years, taking research subventions (some of it public money) and coming up with data support for snappy one-liners for grabber NGO's. In fact, I'd be willing to wager they're the source of most of uberwonk Josh Sugarman's best propaganda zingers and a lot of the Million Moms/Bell Campaign slogans we've heard over the last 10 years.
What load of crap. In places that make it nearly prohibitive due to government infringement on the 2nd amendment, people simply ignore the law and own/carry anyways. The risk of being caught is of minimal concern where the risk to one's life is seen as greater.
Few people are willing to let bureaucrats make life and death decisions for them where they can easily circumvent such stupidity.
I never thought I would say this but Gun Owners Of America have more conviction than the NRA.
That's because I choose whether or not I want to reveal if I own guns. In other words, It's nobody's damn business, whether I do or not.
The law was going to be passed anyway with or without the help of the NRA. The NRA was able to get a provision in the law that allows people to get their Rights back which is something that they couldn’t do since 1968.
The anti’s are upset that the NRA ruined their gun law.
Read the Bill.
I don’t believe you were ever a member.
There’s always an excuse to do nothing, isn’t there?
The article quotes a very small statistical sample.
When someone calls me and asks if I am a gun owner I hang up on them.
I too notice more women and minorities at gun stores and gun shows.I suspect this poll did prequalification for the participants and missed those people.
To a point, it does, but then I look at everyone to the left of Fred in the POTUS race, and realize how much hinges on the upcoming SCOTUS decision.
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