I think I read somewhere that less than 5% of the people own 50% of the guns in the US. They obviously don't feel safe enough or maybe they're stocking up in case they're ever banned for sale and they can make a fortune on the black market.
I read that stat too. USA Today, 9/22/16 - "Overall, Americans own an estimated 265 million guns – more than one gun for every American adult, according to the study by researchers at Harvard and Northeastern universities. Half of those guns – 133 million – were in the hands of just 3% of American adults, so-called “super owners” who possessed an average of 17 guns each, it showed."
Well, there are different guns for different purposes. I mostly know rural people, and they have an ensemble of guns just like an ensemble of screwdrivers. Rifles are for long-distance prey, shotguns are for birds and small game, handguns are for self- defense. Most of the hunters I know have several of each class -- some for particular uses, some because they're collectors. Guns have their fanciers like any other manufactured product. The people who "hoard" guns are the most likely to respect them and keep them secured in cabinets. Unsecured hand guns are a problem, though, because there's that trade off between accessibility and security: you want to be able to get the gun when a prowler comes, but you don't want your kids stumbling across it while they're being nosy.
@ V V: Oh, good. I wasn't imagining it then! [phew]
@ Stephen: As someone from a non-gun culture I do find the US rather strange in this regard.
I can understand that the military need guns as they'd be pretty useless without them. Likewise (to a lessor extent) the police. I can understand that farmers want to deal with pests and threats to their livelihood with lethal force. I can even appreciate the need for hunting where people are living hundreds of miles from the nearest K-Mart.... I do struggle with the idea of hunting for sport. Shooting pretty defenceless animals from hundreds of meters away with a rifle doesn't seem very sporting to me.... The perceived need to have handguns (or assault rifles!) for personal protection really confounds me though. If it's really *that* dangerous - or even perceived to be that dangerous - then I can't help but wonder if there's something really fundamentally wrong with your civil society when everyday threat levels are that high. I just can't get my head around it.
Deer aren't defenseless! They have two big ears and four long legs. They can disappear in seconds. The game is about finding them without being found and waiting for the shot. A change in the wind, a mis-step on a branch, and it's over. Hunting's not a hobby I've taken up (too expensive, given the hardware), but I understand the appeal. I have cousins who hunt with bows, because it's more challenging: they have to get much closer.
I'm sure Englishers used to be more into hunting when you had more in the way of forests, but I understand these days that Sherwood Forest is nothing more than a plaque next to the highway!
Oh, we still have forests... just small ones - after all we're a pretty small island. Of course for the past 1000 years they've been the hunting preserves of the rich and royalty. If a common pleb was caught hunting in there they'd lose a hand - or worse.
Plus the fact that wolves were hunted to extinction in the 18th century so there's nothing much to hunt here except maybe rabbits - there's LOTS of rabbits...... [grin]
We have deer and coyotes in our backyard on a regular basis. The coyotes were going nuts last night with all their yipping. It sounded like quite a large pack. I don't like to walk the dog after dark because I worry about running into them.
10 comments:
A very clever title.
I can't vouch for the stats but.....
i very much suspect that in the small town we live in, there are twice as many guns as people... or more...
I think I read somewhere that less than 5% of the people own 50% of the guns in the US. They obviously don't feel safe enough or maybe they're stocking up in case they're ever banned for sale and they can make a fortune on the black market.
I read that stat too. USA Today, 9/22/16 - "Overall, Americans own an estimated 265 million guns – more than one gun for every American adult, according to the study by researchers at Harvard and Northeastern universities. Half of those guns – 133 million – were in the hands of just 3% of American adults, so-called “super owners” who possessed an average of 17 guns each, it showed."
Well, there are different guns for different purposes. I mostly know rural people, and they have an ensemble of guns just like an ensemble of screwdrivers. Rifles are for long-distance prey, shotguns are for birds and small game, handguns are for self- defense. Most of the hunters I know have several of each class -- some for particular uses, some because they're collectors. Guns have their fanciers like any other manufactured product. The people who "hoard" guns are the most likely to respect them and keep them secured in cabinets. Unsecured hand guns are a problem, though, because there's that trade off between accessibility and security: you want to be able to get the gun when a prowler comes, but you don't want your kids stumbling across it while they're being nosy.
@ V V: Oh, good. I wasn't imagining it then! [phew]
@ Stephen: As someone from a non-gun culture I do find the US rather strange in this regard.
I can understand that the military need guns as they'd be pretty useless without them. Likewise (to a lessor extent) the police. I can understand that farmers want to deal with pests and threats to their livelihood with lethal force. I can even appreciate the need for hunting where people are living hundreds of miles from the nearest K-Mart.... I do struggle with the idea of hunting for sport. Shooting pretty defenceless animals from hundreds of meters away with a rifle doesn't seem very sporting to me.... The perceived need to have handguns (or assault rifles!) for personal protection really confounds me though. If it's really *that* dangerous - or even perceived to be that dangerous - then I can't help but wonder if there's something really fundamentally wrong with your civil society when everyday threat levels are that high. I just can't get my head around it.
Deer aren't defenseless! They have two big ears and four long legs. They can disappear in seconds. The game is about finding them without being found and waiting for the shot. A change in the wind, a mis-step on a branch, and it's over. Hunting's not a hobby I've taken up (too expensive, given the hardware), but I understand the appeal. I have cousins who hunt with bows, because it's more challenging: they have to get much closer.
I'm sure Englishers used to be more into hunting when you had more in the way of forests, but I understand these days that Sherwood Forest is nothing more than a plaque next to the highway!
Oh, we still have forests... just small ones - after all we're a pretty small island. Of course for the past 1000 years they've been the hunting preserves of the rich and royalty. If a common pleb was caught hunting in there they'd lose a hand - or worse.
Plus the fact that wolves were hunted to extinction in the 18th century so there's nothing much to hunt here except maybe rabbits - there's LOTS of rabbits...... [grin]
We have deer and coyotes in our backyard on a regular basis. The coyotes were going nuts last night with all their yipping. It sounded like quite a large pack. I don't like to walk the dog after dark because I worry about running into them.
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