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."
As I suspected. Not only is that a tiny sample, it is skewed by gun owners' reticence to play along with pollsters. Is Michael Bellesiles on the NORC payroll?
I see more people at the range than I used to in the 1970s, of that I am certain. If anything, gun ownership is more widespread than even the '77 numbers suggest.
“and realize how much hinges on the upcoming SCOTUS decision.”
Yes - very true - this is THE most important event in this decade.
I had a year-long membership when I went for my .22 pistol class.
I would dare say we’re in dangerous times, relating to inside this country’s borders not seen until we go way back to the Civil War. These times are that important.
Got myself a delayed Christmas presence - a Rohrbaugh. I still feel guilty when I think about all the money I spent buying the gun that I should have spent on feeding the young ‘ns. Well, first things first.
Fantastic gun.
“So many lies in one article.”
Those are not lies - Roto-Reuters merely misspoke its self and issued inoperative statements. The reason there are sooooo many ‘inoperative statements’ in the article is because they hit the main tank.
Why, don’t Ya know that more and more states are removing right to carry laws? The Brady Bunch sez so!
;-)
Nice post(#33) - are you a history professor? Possibly, you might be the one non-Marxist professor of journalism rumor has been whispering about for the last several years?
A total BS lie. The only way they got the 22% line was Americans not wanting the Imperial Federal Government Stormtroopers knowing if they had a gun or not. They simply refused to acknowledge it. I will acknowledge it, I have a gun, in fact, several guns, and plenty of ammo. If I could buy and RPG or a tank, I would buy that also.
This guy has me convinced I need to go buy a few more AR's before Nov.
Reads like a bunch of skull-full-of-mush wishful thinking
>> Clips - NO, magazines. <<
Thank you. I feel better now. “Clips” are for people like me who weren’t in the military (I spent 5-1/2 years in the Air Force - flying tankers in Southeast Asia during Veet Nam). My Navy and Army buddies tell me that I was among “our civilian friends in uniform”.
I’ve made ammends, though - we teach about 30-50 CCW students each month - I always carry a real clip in my pocket (with spent cartridges). When Mr. Newbie uncases his new Sig and says “clip”, I pull a Paul Hogan on him.
I’m concerned that there might be a nugget of truth to this, and here’s why:
I’m a girl, born and raised in NYC, but with the bulk of my extended family coming from (very) rural Pennsylvania.
I, along with most of my cousins, learned to shoot a .22 when I was 10 years old, up in back of the lake cottage. We were given explicit instructions either by Grandpa, the uncles, or one of our older cousins. Girls and boys all learned to shoot.
So anyway, I grow up. I marry a cop, and I continue to shoot whenever I can (not so easy in NY but VERY easy in PA). My own boys are of the proper age to learn, and have been, under the direction of their father, and with my blessing.
Last week, I went to Uncle Joe’s funeral. He was the uncle who probably taught me the most about the art of shooting. He has 12 children — 10 boys, 2 girls. One of the topics of conversation was “what to do with Dad’s guns?”
Stupidly, I thought the boys would just divvy them all up and pass them down to their own kids (dozens of them, all boys except for one). But no...it seems my cousins’ WIVES won’t allow their children to handle firearms. I was shocked to learn that only a very few of them had EVER fired a gun.
So, if the gun culture is “winding down slowly,” I can see why: Mommy won’t let little Johnny learn. I can’t tell you how sad this whole episode made me. I was really appalled.
What happened to the guns you ask? I told my cousins that if nobody else wanted them, I’d take them and hold them in safekeeping until MY boys were old enough to have them. And I said it right in front of all their wives, too.
Regards,
Get their rights back after a lengthy and expensive procedure involving lawyers and courts. Color me unimpressed.
The thought has crossed my mind...multiple times.
I'm quite blessed. Dear Old Dad (G_d rest his soul) taught me quite early, and even went hunting with him. (quite fun!) Anyway, the other two never did, and now that they are a little older, I told them I would take them and show them. (esp. since I inhereted my father's collection.)
I sleep quite easily now that I have his collection at the house.
A very good friend of mine wisely said, “I have regretted many things in my life. But I have never regretted buying any of the firearms I own.”
Something told me you were never a voting member.
I’m not impressed by anyone sitting on the sidelines and doing nothing.
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