1/3 of American's keep gun in the house!

M

mic007tfp

New member
Did anyone see that the center for Disease Control reported that 1/3 of American's keep a gun in their house? To be honest, I had no idea the figure was so high. Well that'll make would be theives think twice about breaking in! Oh, and the report also stated that 22% of the owners kept their guns unlocked and loaded. I'm kinda split on this issue. I mean i'm a college student and I keep a loaded gun by my bed, but if I were a parent I certainly would want to think twice about doing something like that. I hope you all are being safe... guns and irresponsible kids don't mix. We don't need anymore school shootings. What do you out there think about these figures?




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You're gettin' ready to blow? I'm a mushroom-cloud-layin' motherf**ker, motherf**ker! Every time my fingers touch brain I'm "SUPERFLY T.N.T," I'm the "GUNS OF NAVARONE."

- Jules
 
Seems to me that if the anti-gun hysterics were right, that means that there wouldn't be anyone left alive. After all, we know how those eeevil guns aim themselves and pull their own triggers.

FWIW, I didn't see the report. I don't read anything from CDC since they endorsed Dr. Kellerman's study (43 times, etc).
 
33.3% X 263M= 87.6 million gunowners

22% X 87.6M= 19.3 million owners keep guns loaded and unlocked

Sounds right, so what?

Over half of rural folks keep the keys to the cars and trucks in the ignition.

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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"
 
Well, the numbers seem kind of low to me. Think about it - you get a call from some polling agency. They claim that all the info you give is strictly confidential. Hmmm.... I, for one, am not apt to believe them. I've taken calls like this, and I simply hang up. If many others do the same, or just lie to the pollster, it could equate to a HUGE difference.
 
Sorry Mic.. but I don't see any problem with it. If that many loaded guns are laying around with so many kids and we are not loosing THOUSANDS of small kids a year from them shooting themselves, then this tells me that the overwhelming vast majority of these gun owners are responsible adults and have to be doing something right. As in they are teaching their kids from a very early age that if you touha de gun ya gona die. Papa gona take you out behind the wood shed if you touch his pride and joy. Tells me that we should take heart that so many kids are good kids and don't go out shootin everything in sight.

Richard
 
I don't know anybody in my little town that even knows where the key to their front door is, yet virtually everybody has guns. Hmm, what a dichotomy.

My dad made it clear to me when I was a lad that if I so much as looked as his guns when he wasn't around that I'd probably regret not having shot myself while I had the chance. And whaddaya know, I still haven't shot anybody.

BTW, what good is a locked-up, unloaded gun?

Puzzled in AK

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"All I ask is equal freedom. When it is denied, as it always is, I take it anyhow."
 
The problem with this study is the direction it takes. The results sound familiar to me.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it got the finding from a 1994 telephone poll of 5,238 households, which also revealed that about 22 percent of those owning guns keep them loaded and unlocked.

The poll was published in the June issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, a publication of the American Medical Association.

Researchers said they found that 33 percent of those surveyed had a ``working, powder firearm.'' Pellet guns, tear gas guns and antique or display guns were not included. The 33 percent ownership figure was roughly the same as other studies have found, the report said.

Ninety-five percent of the gun owners also gave information on how they stored the weapons. Of those, nearly 22 percent -- the equivalent of 6.8 million households -- said they kept at least one gun loaded and unlocked. Other surveys found similar storage practices, the study said.

``These ... data show that children are potentially exposed to firearms in many households,'' the report said. ``This health threat illustrates the need for education about the issue of pediatric firearm injuries and for interventions to minimize associated risks.''[/quote]

Didn't the tobacco mess start with "health threat" and "interventions" and "for our children"? I see this as another backdoor attack on guns and gunowners. Just more "educational" material for the "concerned" citizen.



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Dave
 
``These ... data show that children are potentially exposed to firearms in
many households,'' the report said. ``This health threat illustrates the need
for education about the issue of pediatric firearm injuries and for interventions
to minimize associated risks.'
It's clear from the above, the last paragraph of the report, that the data clearly indicate that the overwhelming majority of loaded guns pose no threat whatsoever, and certainly no Health Threat, to anyone in those homes. This 'study' is so riddled with statistical and procedural flaws that no impartial scientific jury would approve its publication.

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An armed man is a citizen; an unarmed man is a subject; a disarmed man is a slave.
 
My guess is the numbers are not close to reality. I know that if I get a so called Poll telephone call wanting to know if I have guns in the house I hang up with no response. Others might just as well deny having guns. Never could see how such numbers could reflect an accurate count.



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John - NRA - Lifer
 
I figured the easiest way to convince kids to treat guns as if they were loaded was to have them loaded! So, as my kids grew up every gun in the house was unlocked and fully loaded. When the kids were under about 4, the guns were also out of their reach. After that we all went shooting together, and I would let them examine any gun they discovered, after making sure they were RIGHT THERE when I unloaded and cleared it, and again when I reloaded it later. No question of pretending, it WAS loaded. Never had the first, tiniest indication of any problem, and by the time they were 10 I would have not ever worried even if they were both walking behind me in the woods carrying loaded rifles. They knew what gun safety meant, and it is NOT "lock them away unloaded".
 
Larry,
Betcha we catch some grief for our "safety" procedures - but I did the same thing with my two younger daughters. They would listen to me.

I would not dare to try this with such as my grandson. He won't listen; in fact he is hell-bent on doing the opposite of what he is told. (He also lives 1500 miles from me and therefore is no problem in my home.)

[This message has been edited by Dennis (edited June 16, 1999).]
 
My Dad did just like Larry and Dennis....by the time I was 10 or 11 one of my "daily chores" was to shoot ground squirrels around the farm....unsupervised. When Dad wanted to hang and bond he'd go with me but most of the time I was alone.

I'm 7 yrs older than my brother, and bro replaced me on squirrel duty when I went off to college.

Never a problem, mishap or incident with either of us.

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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"
 
I know SOME people would consider this a minor point, but did this study determine whether the households where the unlocked, loaded guns were lying about, INCLUDED ANY CHILDREN? Heck, I keep a full magazine (100 rounds) next the the 9MM Calico in my bedroom closet. But I don't have any kids! If and when we have any, I WILL be locking up my guns... With my home defense gun in one of those "instant open" gun safes, of course.
 
Brett,

You took the electrons right out of my keyboard.

I have 4 guns (at present), over 500 shotgun shells, 4000 .22LRs, and a few hundred .357 Magnums. When I'm at home, the guns are out and loaded. When I'm not, they're unloaded and locked in the (coughmumblecough).

And I don't have kids. Well, I consider my cats to be my kids, but until they develop opposable thumbs, I'm not worried about them breaking into the (coughmumblecough) and loading up the guns, then going to the humane society to bust their kin out of jail.

Hmmm... if I'm ever contacted for a survey like this, maybe I'll mess with their heads... "Yes, I keep loaded guns around my kids, they watch while I clean the guns, and they help me sort brass after a day at the range. How old? Well, one is 8, the other is 3. Trigger locks? No, I don't think that would help, since they can't load the guns anyway with their furry little paws... Hello?"
 
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