Kind reader John R. sent me the link and I will admit that I suck at statistics and overly complicated math stuff, but I can do some simple calculations. The gist of the article is that there are not as many gun owners as people think, that we are miniscule in the great arena of things USA. And they engage in mathematical explanations and the sort.
I just want to quote one little part: their official percentile count of gun owners.
In reality, only about 25 percent of Americans own a gun.
OK,, let’s say for the sake of the argument they are right and only 25% of Americans own guns. According to the Census Bureau, the us population is 325.7 million (2017.) That comes about 81,250,000 Americans with firepower. Let’s make it simpler: Eighty One Million Americans Own Guns.
The largest army in the world is the People’s Liberation Army of China with 2 million active personnel and 2.4 million in reserve. That makes us almost 40 times bigger than the whole Chinese Army. The Russians boast a million active and two and a half in reserves for 3.5 million. How about at home? US active and reserves barely top one million.
So, if we combine the Chinese, Russian and US armies, we get only 9 million which thanks to the hard work of the Washington Post, gives me confirmation that the 81 million Armed US Citizens is the biggest (and coolest) army in the world.
Behind every blade of grass.
Who tells the truth to pollsters, medical clinics, or any other busybody that asks, “Do you Mr. Consumer (whom we have a name, address, and all kinds of other marketing information on) own a gun? My attitude is you have to be damn stupid to tell them anything.
Lie! Lie like the wind!
And let’s continue with the math madness calculations and assert a supposition, i.e. that, let’s say, 25% of 80 million have been trained in some sort of proficient credible defensive type gun training programs at one point or another in their lives. That amounts to…20,250,000 skilled armed Americans. We could go even further and divide that number into 50 states or 3147 total national counties, but….that would be too much fun for one day.
As always, one wonders about the motivation behind this sort of article.
“They are not a big group, we can overwhelm them in an election and subjugate them.”
The enforce the lie that gun ownership is not widespread in this country, which I would find to be a big ass lie. You want some fun math, lets get the number of background checks run in the last 20 years against the “25%” that own guns and lets see how many guns per person there are?
It’s numbers being used to offset the oft-used statements such as “…as many guns as people in America…”, “50% of households have a gun”, and similar stuff. The left’s knee-jerk response is “It’s not that many!”, “They’re mostly concentrated in the hands of Super-Owners!”, “Hunting is on the decline!”, “It’s mostly rural folks!” and other sound bites that help them to whistle past the graveyard as they contemplate the huge difficulties of gun registration and (eventual) confiscation.
Gotta lay the groundwork early; get the masses used to the hearing about the idea well in advance. Then it’s not such a big deal when it begins. “Oh,yeah, I’ve heard that was coming for years…”.
So the WP article about how the numbers of gun owners are wrong starts with: As some 70,000 people attended the NRA’s annual convention…
Vs. the actual number: 87,145 (Per GFZ post)
Hmm, that means they were off by 20%. (70,000/87,145=0.8032)
I thought the people at the WaPo liked minorities…?
Oh, that’s right, they don’t when the minorities disagree with them.
Your number is wrong because the total population includes children who cannot own, or even use, guns. You should break down the stats by age starting at age 17. I would probably break it down this way: 17-45 (“the militia”), 18-25, 26-35, 36-45, 46-55, 55+
Adding notifications
Children can’t use guns? Oleg Volk would disagree with that. Can’t own, sure.
A great point. So I did a fast Bing Search, and the first few results all claim that there are about 240 million Americans 18 or older—25-27% of 328 million are under 18 or 82-86 million. Meaning 25% of legal age gun owners is 60 million of which I assert that perhaps 25% of that number are educated-experienced self-defense trained individuals, which would make an army of 15 million strong.
David Douglass:
Good point.
Alternatively, 25% (WaPo’s number) of 328 million Americans (total) is 82 million gun owners.
82 million gun owners among 246 million ADULT Americans means ~33-35% of Americans legally able to own a gun, own at least one gun.
Which is much more in-line with the pro-gun side’s beliefs about gun ownership in America, and more in-line with the public perception of gun ownership (WaPo even said that non-gun-owners average 35% in their responses about it).
Bottom line: Without seeing their actual numbers, AND the questions they asked during their “poll”, I wouldn’t put it past WaPo to lump children (who can’t legally own guns) into the total to artificially lower the “gun ownership” rate, just like they lump suicides in with homicides to artificially raise the “gun death” rate.
That’s a strange article.
It says that they conducted a survey to ask people what percentage of Americans own guns, then they say that they (the authors) estimated the number and since those two numbers differ, everyone else is wrong. Not just wrong, but innumerate – the mathematical equivalent of illiterate. Seems a bit extreme for just having a different guess.
At no point do they attempt to introduce a real number, tell us what the real answer is, they just compare guesses and say they’re always right, everyone else is always wrong. The authors don’t just say they’re right, they insult people who disagree with them.
There literally is nothing there.
Of course, it starts out with big factual error, saying 70,000 people attended the NRA meeting, not a record over 87,000. Maybe they’re that accurate in their other numbers.
They are always right… so when they give us a percentage that leads to 81 million, up from the 60 million Gun Control said it was about 10-15 years, I am more than happy to display it
My favorite statistics quote (from my Dad) “Figures don’t lie, but liars can sure as hell figure,”
25%, huh? As in, 1 in 4?
With all due respect to whoever originally said it (not Benjamin Franklin, although he’s often credited): “Democracy is three wolves and one lamb voting on what’s for supper. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”
And there is so much wrong in that article, it’s not even funny. It’s so far off I’d even assume it’s unfunny parody, except that it’s WaPo.
“Drawing on sources cited by gun rights and gun regulation groups, we estimated — generously — that roughly 20 to 30 percent of Americans personally own one or more guns.”
What does “personally own” mean? Does it mean that if I own three guns and my wife can access and use them all, but she didn’t buy them, that she “personally owns” zero guns? If all three are considered “marital assets”, does that mean neither of us “personally own” any? Where is the line drawn here?
“In estimates like these, research suggests that people’s personal experiences influence their perceptions about the size of minority populations. For example, both white and black Americans who said they often had interactions with African Americans overestimated the African American population. Similarly, people who reported knowing a gay person estimated a larger gay population than those who did not. Similarly, neighbors of immigrants were more likely to offer higher estimates of immigrant populations than those living in neighborhoods without immigrants.”
WaPo (correctly) senses a bias here, but they don’t bother to delve into its source — and no, it’s not racism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. It’s much simpler than that: Everyone assumes everyone else’s experiences mirror their own. So if you live in an urban area with a higher-than-average population of black people or immigrants, it’s natural to assume that everywhere in America reflects your little slice. My AO is mostly white but has a sizable Hispanic population, and very few blacks. If I had never been other places, I might assume that America’s black population is much smaller than it is and the Hispanic population much larger than it is (but I have, and so I don’t).
“Given all this, we suspected gun owners would likely overestimate the gun-owner population. After all, gun owners often attend gun shows, read trade magazines, receive targeted advertising from gun interests, possess NRA memberships and practice at firing ranges. They often come into contact with other gun owners — certainly, more often than do non-gun owners.”
Well, yeah. People with similar interests tend to hang out together. This is my shocked face.
“And, indeed, that was the case. On average, gun owners estimated that 45.5 percent of Americans own guns — while non-gun owners estimated that figure at 39 percent.”
Hold the damn phone. Above, they said the “real” number gun owners is between 20% and 30% of Americans, and then they (correctly, by their definition) predicted that gun owners would overestimate their own population.
But now they’re saying that NON-gun-owners are ALSO overestimating the gun owner population. We’re talking people who DON’T “attend gun shows, read trade magazines, receive targeted advertising from gun interests, possess NRA memberships and practice at firing ranges,” and yet they’re STILL overestimating the gun owner population by nearly the same amount that gun owners do? (The difference between estimates is 6% — 45% vs. 39% — which is smaller than the 10% [“between 20 and 30%”] spread in WaPo’s estimate of the “real” number.)
Could it be possible that maybe — just maybe — WaPo’s “generous” 25% number is wrong, and everyone else is right?
All of which is entirely beside the point.
It doesn’t matter if 80% of Americans own guns, or 50%, or 25%, or 5%, or even 1%. It doesn’t even matter if the only Second-Amendment-exercising people in America are the dozen or so folks posting comments on this site.
The whole reason we have a Constitutional republic — complete with a Bill of Rights — and not a pure democracy is the protection of minority rights, to prevent the “tyranny of the majority”. Under our Constitution, the majority cannot vote away the rights of the minority, regardless of how small a minority it is.
As Ayn Rand said, “The smallest minority on Earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”
You’re going to break the internet if you keep this up—posting logic and reason succinctly and concisely.
“Washington Post vastly underestimates the number of gun owners.”
Fixed it for you. Yeesh.
And this out of “scholars” at KU, my home state institution. Please accept my apologies.
There again, you haven’t figured in the ones who were military, like myself, who “BUILT” their OWN weapons… AR15 AR10, and other variants. They are NOT included in the background checks, nor the study. I would say at least 12% more are not counted, and are trained, as I am in guerrilla warfare, and special ops. We can walk in to combat… TODAY, and most of us are deadly, one shot, one kill…. they fail to think how devastating it will be, for them to try to come to a house like mine, where there are great sniper roosts, and nearly impenetrable camouflaged areas, easy to protect themselves against ANY insurgent persons, without being exposed to the intruder… deadly situation, and not very good for people who have no common sense tactical experience… Most hunters, display this, naturally, during their hunt. I’ve seen some sneak up on elk, and shoot them from less than 100 yards, without being detected….
HOW THE HELL DO THEY THINK THEY’RE GONNA WIN THAT??
MORONS… BRING IT. I’LL EVEN GIVE YOU MY ADDRESS!!!!! IDIOTS!!!!
It’s an attempt to build a bandwagon. To tell the naive that gun ownership is uncool, and none of the cool people do it. To tell politicians that gun ownership is declining, so why not vote for “reasonable restrictions”.
Thing is, this can bite those pushing a narrative right where it hurts if they actually come to believe their own propaganda- see also Clinton 2016. Which is good for us- the more Dem politicos believe that guns are going away, the more the mask slips, and the more votes they lose.
Everything printed in the WaPo is pulled out of someone’s ass, including this. The figures aren’t even an educated guess.
[…] via WaPo: Americans vastly overestimate the number of gun owners. […]
There are more firearms in Florida than there are adults. I did a blog post of my own on this:
http://street-pharmacy.blogspot.com/2018/05/florida-statistics.html
I believe the number of gun owners is badly underestimated. Though I own the guns, my wife and five children are trained and willing to use my weapons. Are they gun owners?
The closing line reminded me of this YT video by the same title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KihAwNn-zoM&index=0&list=PLpq7ShEha3En8WuxeN4PfBBDV08SGXi6T
Thanks, Miguel
Thanks to the laws of common sense what gun owner would give the anti-gun communist gooberment or ur enemy tactical information?
Even if some anti-gun government passes illegal laws against our inherent unalienable right to self defense it changes nothing!
The 2nd amendment just acknowledges a right we already had from birth..its a declaration and warning to government not to go down the road of disarming free citizens who built this country from oppression.
That is why #SHALLNOTBEINFRINGED is added to the #2ndAmendment!
[…] at The Gun Free Zone, a blog founded to criticize the illogical establishment of zones devoid of firear… which arguably results in homicidal maniacs recognizing such zones as potential targets, Miguel […]
[…] Gun Free ZoneI just want to quote one little part: their official percentile count of gun owners. In reality, only about 25 percent of Americans own a gun.OK,, let’s say for the sake of the argument they are right and only 25% of Americans own guns. According to the Census Bureau, the us population is 325.7 million (2017.) That comes about 81,250,000 Americans with firepower. Let’s make it simpler: Eighty One Million Americans Own Guns.The largest army in the world is the People’s Liberation Army of China with 2 million active personnel and 2.4 million in reserve. That makes us almost 40 times bigger than the whole Chinese Army. The Russians boast a million active and two and a half in reserves for 3.5 million. How about at home? US active and reserves barely top one million.So, if we combine the Chinese, Russian and US armies, we get only 9 million which thanks to the hard work of the Washington Post, gives me confirmation that the 81 million Armed US Citizens is the biggest (and coolest) army in the world.Behind every blade of grass.I'm just going to add a few points here. If 25% of Americans own a gun, and each American family has four people on average (2 adults, 2 kids), then we're right back to "on average, every American family owns a gun." And that's probably true. I know there are many American families that don't really think of themselves as gun owners, and will probably tell a survey-taker they don't own any guns, but when you get down to brass tacks, there's an old shotgun in the closet from Granddad or a revolver in the attic from Uncle Harry or a forgotten squirrel-hunting 22 that hasn't been used since they moved to the city, or just gets passed down from father to son with a "Ssh, don't tell mom."And then there are the people who can, and will, arm their whole neighborhood out of their gun safe when the flying fecal matter impacts the rotating air circulator.Only in the one-party-rule blue states that have successfully destroyed their gun culture are Americans even close to actually being disarmed. And even there, it's limited to the major metropolitan ares that enforce such laws vigorously. […]