Gun ownership in the United States

Gun Ownership

Discuss the results of gun ownership over the more than 35-year history of GSS survey.

Over the past 35 years, gun ownership has decreased. In 1973, those who did not own a gun were just over 50%. Since 1977, gun ownership has consistently dropped and those who do not own a gun have increased. This is indicating that more are choosing to not own guns that may have owned guns in the past. In 2002, gun owners made up 35% of the population. Those who did not own a gun were just over 65%. This is significant, because it is showing how there was a major shift in the people who are not owning guns.

Present four separate line graphs displaying the trends in gun ownership for the people living in different kinds of places.

Big City Residents

Suburb Residents

Small City Residents

Rural Residents

Are urbanites, suburbanites, small city residents, or rural residents who are most or least likely to own guns?

Rural residents are the most likely to own a gun with 60% of these people confirming this. While, those individuals that live in: big cities, small cities and in the suburbs are less likely to own a gun. In the case of big city residents, they are the group that is least likely to own a gun (with this accounting for 90% respondents). The next group not likely to own a gun is: small city residents and suburbanites, with 80% of these residents indicating that they do not own a gun.

What other correlations can be identified with the data associated with gun ownership?

Small city residents displayed the largest increase of those not owning a gun in the past 10 years. Even though more rural inhabitants are more likely to own a gun, as this has decreased and those opting to not own a gun have increased in the past 10 years. This is significant, because it is showing major shifts that have taken place.

However, the speculation that the increase in gun ownership is contributing to more crimes is not indicated by these statistics. As, this was found to not have increased in: the big cities, suburban areas, small cities and rural locations. Three of the four groups studied, all showed that more of the population did not own guns, (which has been increasing for the past 10 years). The one group where more of the population owned guns; in comparison with those who did not also displayed a decrease in gun ownership in the past 10 years.

A poignant question was devised by the William J. Krouse. This was pertaining to: whether gun owners were contributing to increased levels in violent crime. According to Krouse, 44 million people owned guns in 1995 which represented: 35% of households and it amounted to 192 million firearms. In 2007, the total number of firearms increased to 294 million (Krouse). Where, the availability of guns increased by: almost 100 million. However, the amount of households owning guns is not indicated in Krouse's information. This has led to a number of questions that are brought up from this data. The most notable include:

Were the guns being purchased by: households that already owned them?

Was the proliferation of guns occurring with: those who could not legitimately own them? (Krouse).