Guns in America: A Numbers Game
How many guns are there in America? The latest research stated that the ratio of Americans to guns in America is one to one
The Pew Research Center estimates states that Americans own between two hundred and seventy million and three hundred and ten million guns. This number continues to climb every year.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives calculated that, in 2013 almost eleven million firearms were manufactured—the highest in any one year up to 2013.
A 2015 Gallop poll discovered that over forty percent of Americans have a gun in their possession. Peak years for gun possession were fifty-one percent in 1993 and thirty-five percent in 1999. A 2018 Small Arms Survey stated that there were over a billion small firearms globally. Nearly ninety million or 85% were owned by civilians. In America alone the survey noted that US civilians with firearms accounted for almost fifty percent of the world total of civilian firearms.
Why do Americans Buy Guns?
In a 2015 survey, sixty percent of US gun owners said they owned firearms for protection. This is a significant change from a decade before when the main reason for owning a firearm was hunting. Hunting now lags behind self-defense at only thirty-five percent.
Where do Americans Get Guns?
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives contends that nearly 140,000 licensed firearm dealers sell to Americans in the U.S. This figure factors to almost 60,000 bricks and mortar gun stores. About the same number of collectors and just over eight thousand pawn shops.
Compare these figures to America’s total of just over thirty-eight thousand supermarkets!
Gun Fatalities
The Centers for Disease Control stated that, in 2013, over 33,600 people died of gunshot injuries. The total for traffic fatalities the same year was about the same.
Gun Control Supporters
A survey conducted right after the 2015 Orlando mass shooting noted that 55% of Americans supported tougher gun laws. The last time it was that high was in 2013 right after the shooting of twenty children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.
How Can Gun Sales be Tracked?
During the first half of 2016, FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System conducted over eleven million background checks for firearm purchases. In 2015 they completed over twenty-three million background checks.
When someone applies to own a handgun, the agency searches a database of almost fifteen million.
Who is Prohibited from Owning a Handgun?
Almost seven thousand people were prohibited from purchasing firearms because they were undocumented immigrants. Another almost four and a half million were refused because of mental health issues.
Historically, NICS has denied 1.3 million gun sales due to background checks. That’s only half a percent of all background checks performed.
The Right to Bear Arms
The United States, Mexico, and Guatemala are the only countries to include gun-ownership rights in the constitution.
Originally intended as a way to form militias to protect the people against a corrupt federal government, the parameters changed in 2008 when the U.S. Supreme Court stated that the second amendment also protected right individual American citizen’s right to own guns.
Guns are part of the U.S. culture. An off shoot is that semiautomatic guns that fire bullets in rapid succession have become part of the gun collection of some law-abiding gun owners. They have also, unfortunately, become weapon of choice of mass killers.
Mostly individual states decide gun rules. A trend is to allow concealed carry guns in ever increasing places that now include: churches and schools in many states.
Gun Controls
Gun controls are often offered up as a fast solution to mass shootings. Research shows little proof that this works. Gun owners—especially in rural areas—see gun controls as an attack on their way of life.
The NRA has noted and offered statistics to show that gun controls would have no effect on criminals. Most of their guns are illegal. Instead they content it’s better and safer to arm more—not fewer—people. Then teach them to use these guns responsibly to defend themselves and others.
