Middle-Class, Rural White Guys Own Almost All Guns

Just another instance of the media selectivly reporting the facts. Let's see, if there are 200 million firearms in the U.S.
(source: http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles/165476.txt)

and 200 million adults (over 18)

(source : http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/nation/intfile2-1.txt)

then according to that article, 20 million people own 160 million firearms. So that leaves 40 million firearms left over. Say another 20 or 30 million owners (one or two guns each). so that's a total of 40 or 50 million gun owners. That's one out of 5 or one out of 4 ADULTS that own a gun legally. That puts a little more perpective on it I think. Are they willing to deny 20 to 25 percent of the population the right to own a firearm for personal protection? They purposely focus on the "white rural male" to perpetuate some uneducated redneck stereotype. My "estimates" are supported in the study I cited above.

Oh yeah, I'm a white male in a suburb of a city OVER 250,000. Our county had 960,000 people in 1990.


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The first step is registration, the second step is confiscation, the final step is subjugation.
 
WHO ARE THE PEOPLE USING GUNS TO COMMIT CRIMES?!

Don't get dragged down this rat hole.

You want a statistic? (Fact)A certain number of people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cervical cancer this year. (Fact)There are a certain number of people living in the U.S.(Fact) HelgeS is a person living in the U.S.

Therefore, HelgeS has an X% chance of developing cervical cancer and having it diagnosed this year. I am sure he will make an appointment for a PAP smear asap.
 
HelgeS, I've been refraining from responding to your posts in part because I'm not certain if you're here to genuinely participate or to just raise some members' blood pressure.

A poll of TFL would be of little use to counter the CBS poll because, well, we're all gun owners here. It would be akin to taking a poll at a Harley riders forum to prove that all motorcyclists in the US ride Harleys.

I don't recall from your first post how long you've been in this country, so it's unclear how much time you've spent evaluating the media and its bias. Many of us, unfortunately, have seen firsthand the distortions, omissions and outright lies the media uses to advance an anti-gun agenda. We therefore are immediately suspicious of anything the media has to say about guns or gun owners.

For example, you may have read about a study that the media just loves, which concludes that having a gun in the home makes one 43 times more likely to kill a family member or acquaintance, or be killed by one. That study was done by Kellerman, a one-man production line of questionable studies. His sample group consisted of just three counties over a one-year period. He counted only homicides to reach his conclusions, ignoring non-fatal self-defense shootings or simple brandishing of weapons to ward off criminals. In reporting his study, the media also ignored the fact that the majority of the homicides were drug-related.

Another media tactic involves bait-and-switch. They will do a story about semi-automatic assault weapons (a term which is a misnomer) and show footage of people firing fully-automatic weapons. The media must do this because they predicated their entire assault weapon tirade on the premise that the general population would confuse semiautomatic and full auto.

Another media distortion is the oft-repeated statement that "13 children a day are killed by guns." This would be true if you defined as "children" gang-bangers and drug dealers as old as 21. The true numbers (from the United States government's Center for Disease Control) show that in 1997 there were 338 children under the age of 14 killed in firearms homicides, and 142 killed in firearms accidents. You can check the numbers yourself at http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus.html

I could go on and on with examples of media bias, but I think you get the idea. This is why Americans, and gun owners in particular, have a general distrust of anything the media has to say.

Dick
Want to send a message to Bush? Sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/monk/petition.html and forward the link to every gun owner you know.
 
Personally I don't question the numbers in the CBS story. I'm sure they've been manipulated to some extent (Nothing is ever exactly 80/20), but I think that they probably depict a fair, but somewhat blurry picture of gun ownership in our country.

What's the point? dZ said it in one word: "M A R G I N A L I Z A T I O N" Even if we can refute the numbers, what difference does it make. The point, as I see it, is that the CBS article is trying to place the blame of urban violence on rural people.

<sarcasm>They've got all the guns, and guns cause violence, so they're the cause of the problem.</sarcasm>

Some take the approach that if you refute their statistics, you can refute their entire argument. I think we can just refute their conclusion using logic and supportable facts. Their facts don't support their conclusion. Unfortunately, most of the American population doesn't think as critically as the members of this board. They will take the CBS report as gospel and perpetuate the unsupported conclusion.

Just because 'B' follows 'A' doesn't mean that 'A' caused 'B'.

Any unscientific 'poll' conducted here would be pointless.

We don't need to refute their statistics because they are meaningless to the argument.


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RKBA!
"The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security"
Ohio Constitution, Article I, Section 4 Concealed Carry is illegal in Ohio.
Ohioans for Concealed Carry Website
 
This is being discussed on FreeRepublic.com as well. Since he openly advertises that he doesn't believe in owning firearms, and he openly declares his work address and maintains a listing for his home address, I am sure he won't mind when burglars and other assorted felons help themselves to this information. My response"]http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a39641b541b65.htm#10]response[/url][/url] follows:

Huh. That's news to this non-white, suburban, upper class male. Jens Ludwig is a lying sack of putrid goat vomit who would be the first to reach for a Model 1911 if confronted with a violent felon in his home. The man doesn't know the meaning of self-defence, and it will take the loss or rape of a loved one to convince him; perhaps not even then. He is a flaming felon enabler, a.k.a. gun control advocate.

His home page contains abstracts of recent papers he has written, and his c.v., which lists such lovely "Professional Activities" as "Submission of Affidavit to Court of Appeal of Province of Alberta, Canada, April 18, 1997 in support of the Canadian Firearms Act (S.C. 1995, Chapter 39) at the request of Coalition for Gun Control, Toronto, Canada.". That's right, folks. He was one of the players that took away the guns in Canada. My Canadian brothers and sisters in conservatism, should you ever be unfortunate enough to have a violent crime befall a loved one for lack of self-defence, heap your rage at the doorstep of this petty excuse for a man.

Feh. May his posterity (should the gene pool ever be unlucky enough to have any sires of his introduced into it) curse his memory as they bear the chains of the tyranny he heaped upon them.
 
What a bunch of tripe.

On the page that it linked to above, there is a "Feedback" link. I suggest we all use it and flood CBSNews with some reall opinion ans statistics.

I am also appalled at how they portray gun owners as ignorant hicks who can't speak proper English.

Here's what I sent them:

"I find your web content entitled "Guns In America", particularly the article entitled "First-Time Gun Buyers the Exception" to be filled with inaccurate statistics and biased opinions - passed off as actual news reporting. I believe this is not only dishonest, but unethical and anti-freedom, and only serves to create socialist propaganda.

It is clear from BATF data that your statistics are not accurate. This information is available from the National Institute of Justice Research at(www.ncjrs.org). The title of the report is "Guns In America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms". Of course, these statistics likely don't include guns owned by those who do not conform to the law - to whom more gun laws would not make any difference anyway. They are criminals by definition and choice.

Saying that most guns are owned by rural whites skirts the real issue, unfortunate as it may be: that most gun associated crimes are committed by inner-city minorities. The problem is the criminals, not the guns. Guns are merely inanimate objects - tools - they cannot be good nor evil since they are just things - not sentient beings. How a tool or object is used, for good or evil, is the decision of the holder and user of the tool - not the tool itself. Guns are not 'designed to kill', they are designed to propel a projectile. If the gun is pointed in an unsafe direction or misused, someone will get hurt.

I suggest you make a greater effort to show both sides of the issue with fairness and objectivity - otherwise, your credibility is seriously weakened. Also, it appears that Professor Ludwig has an agenda, and I question his credibility and professionalism as well.

Thank you and God bless America."

Thanks to Scott Evans for the ATF stats.
 
Maybe the govt wants me to sell my guns and move to the city?

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You have to be there when it's all over. Otherwise you can't say "I told you so."

Better days to be,

Ed
 
Most guns are owned by rural white guys ? COOL!!! The problem being ...........????
Just think how nice the world would be when we own THEM ALL !!!!!

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TOM
SASS AMERICAN LEGION NRA
 
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