Yes the Constitution has a second amendment which addresses the issue of gun ownership. But not until the Heller decision in 2008 did individual gun ownership come to the fore. This now famous landmark case, whose decision was written by Antonin Scalia, ended up a demarcation for Continue reading “Gun Control and the Heller Decision”
Tag: gun ownership
Gun Ownership–A New Picture
A new survey jointly conducted by public health researchers at Harvard and Northeastern Universities gives a fuller and edifying picture of gun ownership in the US. There are, says the survey whose results were first published in The Guardian, 265 m guns in the US, which is more than one for every adult. Here is the intriguing statistic, 133 m of these guns are in the hands of 3% of US adults. This suggests an average of 17 guns per super gun owner. The US gun stock has increased by Continue reading “Gun Ownership–A New Picture”
“When Will They Ever Learn?”
“When will they ever learn?” This was written by Pete Seeger as the refrain and last line of the anti-war song popular during the Viet Nam War “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” And now it seems to apply to guns and mass-shootings. A Washington Post blog cites the San Bernardino shooting on December 2, 2015 as the 355th for the year. Of course just a few days before there was one in Colorado. Not all mass shooting grab the headlines, and depending on how they are counted—whether it is 4 of less casualties—the reports may differ, still even a fraction Continue reading ““When Will They Ever Learn?””
Gun Ownership: Bit of Hope
32% of Americans either own a firearm or live with someone who does. That is actually a significant decline since the 1970’s and 1980’s when about half the population told researchers they lived in a household which had a gun. We’re not used to seeing encouraging trends when it comes to gun ownership, but a new survey by a respected research organization based at the University of Chicago documents what seems a hopeful movement, small but there nonetheless. Although the number of households with guns is declining, overall the number of guns purchased has not. The FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check shows there’s been an increase in the number of background checks. While this suggests the number of guns purchased is going up, it also suggests a greater concentration of ownership, meaning fewer Americans own guns—22% down from the 31% who said they did in 1985. The demographics of gun ownership point to a gender gap, indicating that the percentage of men who own guns declined. They are also older, 31% being over 65. Half gun owners are Republicans, and 4 in 10 are white, as opposed to 2 in 10 being black.
All in all these numbers remind us that as long as there’s progress in declining gun ownership, it doesn’t matter how slow it is.