BY Herschel Smith
8 years, 3 months ago
The Atlantic:
There are hundreds of millions of guns in the United States—enough, according to several estimates, for every American civilian adult to own more than one.
But actual gun ownership is far more lopsided than that.
A sweeping new survey by researchers at Harvard University and Northeastern University finds that roughly half of the nearly 300 million firearms in the United States are concentrated in the hands of a tiny sliver of the U.S. population: Just 3 percent of American adults own some 130 million guns, according to The Trace and Guardian US, two news organizations that first reported on the survey. (The full survey has not yet been released; Guardian US and The Trace reported plans to publish a series of stories about the findings throughout the week.)
This portrait of gun ownership represents the equivalent of about 17 guns per person among a group of “super-owners,” the 7.7 million Americans who own between eight and 140 guns each.
Surveys also show that The Trace and Guardian are full of crap. Here is a tip for all of you aspiring “gun researchers.” Are you listening? No, I mean really listening closely?
Fifty years ago someone might have been honest with you about their gun ownership. Maybe. And just maybe you could have demonstrated that you met the requirements to be taken seriously for legitimate statistics. I would have to review the data. Or better, I would have had to review the data. That was then, this is now.
Today, very few gun owners are going to be honest with you about their gun ownership, if you can even get them to talk to you. Your data is meaningless. All of it. Every last bit of it. It’s worthless. Have a nice day.
