Interesting Data?

[roy reali]

I found this chart while playing around on the net.

http://www.swivel.com/data_sets/spreadsheet/1003599

I tried to figure out how the data was obtained, no luck. I am not sure if I agree with all the numbers. It seems like the percentage aound here should be higher. I do find the differences between the states to be interesting.

I am surprised by Florida's number. I always pictured that state to be gun friendly. My son lives in Arizona. I am surprised that less then one-third of the people there have guns. I thought it was closer to one-third didn't own guns. Do you agree with your state's data?

So, your thoughts?

 

[johnwilliamson062]

Just taking a quick look at that I have to say I think either it or the usual "40%" of Americans figure is incorrect. All those above 50% states have almost no people and all the well populated states seem to be much lower. Hard to tell though. 32% for Ohio seems low but not unbelievable. Think about how much these numbers have changed over the last year.

 

[Dragon55]

The figures for some of the states are surprising. I think...and that's dangerous for me....that I would like to see one of those color coded maps instead that ignored state lines since those were arbitrarily placed once upon a time.

Case in point......
What was once touted as the state of Appalachia which encompasses East Tennessee, western edge of North Carolina, southern end of Virginia, most of West Virginia, and the south eastern tip of Kentucky would would have a much higher percentage than any of the individual states represented.

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

Some of those figures definitely seem a bit off base but who knows, my take on them is decidedly based on stereotypes.

21% of Californians own firearms? With LA, SanFran, Sacramento..... I find that hard to believe but, like I said, purely stereotypical.

NY seems like it might be right, we've only got one REALLY BIG city to skew the numbers, but it is like 45% of the entire state population. The ownership rate in the rest of the state is pretty high.

 

[TailGator]

Hard to evaluate the veracity of the figures without any notes as to how they were compiled.

As to the question about Florida, I as a Florida resident don't have much reason to question it. I would think gun ownership in rural areas to be considerably higher than that, but overcome by lower rates in the major urban areas of Miami, Orlando, and Tampa/St. Pete. Driving around the state, gun shops are much more common in small towns than in large ones. Just my guess, though.

 

[Frank Ettin]

Seems about right to me. If the Florida and Arizona numbers seem low to some people, remember that those states include a lot of transplanted/retired people from urban areas in the North and Northeast.

And if those numbers seem generally too low, remember that anti-gun politicians keep getting elected in a lot of places.

 

[TRX]

The data are meaningless without some sort of explanation of how they were derived, as you noted.

To me, the collection of the data would be of vastly more interest than the little list. My state, county, and city have no regulation or registration of firearms, and neither know nor care. Most of my firearms were bought in private transactions, perfectly legal here. Only a couple were purchased over the counter, and those over 20 years ago.

Knocking on doors and asking, census-style, wouldn't necessarily prove much. I'm not likely to admit to a stranger at my house that there are firearms inside, because I'd like them not to get stolen when I'm not home. Even if I were to answer, I might admit to one or two, but not everything.

Then there are people like my Dad, who never owned a gun in his life until last month when he bought a .38 snubnose. Despite the fact that he's owned a Stevens 12-gauge for 65 years and a Marlin .22 for 35 years. He was born in Georgia in 1929, and to him they're simply tools. A "gun" is a pistol or a military arm of some sort.

Let's see... registration, 4473s, canvassing with questionnaires... companies that sell homeowner's insurance might give a better picture. Not everyone has homeowner's insurance, and not everyone's policy would cover their guns.

Then there are the children. For the last 10 to 15 years, if you take your child to a doctor, they're liable to ask them if there are any guns in their house. This is a "risk assessment" form many clinics use. Also, some public schools have been doing this for at least as long. That this is done has been widely reported; where the collected data winds up has never been made clear to me.

You'd need most or all of those sources to provide a reasonably useful picture of gun ownership demographics. You could probably wind up with a 15% margin of error if you were careful, good enough for government work, anyway.

 

[PhoenixConflagration]

The only thing that makes me question the Florida number is that I've read before that Florida is in the top five in issued CHLs. I can't remember if that was per capita or pure volume. I know they have a non-resident program, so that may account for the discrepancy.