when discussing private gun ownership rates

[gejohnston]

is it more accurate based on estimated number of guns per capita?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country
This has the top four as:
US, Yemen, Switzerland, Finland

or
The number of households with at least one gun?
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvinco.html
http://www.uncjin.org/Statistics/firearms/index.htm#data
which puts either US, Norway, Canada, Finland or Finland, US, Norway, Canada.

Of course there are margins of error, limited and dated statistics in all of these.

[jimmy the one]

1. Neither Nor

gjohnston: when discussing private gun ownership rates
is it more accurate based on estimated number of guns per capita?

Has nowt to do with accurate private gun ownership rates.

or The number of households with at least one gun?

Has nowt to do with accurate private gun ownership rates.

The first figure, 'estimated number of guns per capita' would have nearly all 310 million americans owning one & only one firearm, whereas only about 90 million americans own a firearm.
The second figure, 'households with at least one gun' could involve multiple guns by one person, or multiple owners in each household.
Was this a trick question or something? The answer to your somewhat invalid concern (accuracy) would have to be by households, since it backs into winner, being closer (~40-45%) to private gun ownership rates of ~33%, whereas the 90-99% figure per capita is ludicrous.

[Jenoch]

2. Referring to American gun owners

as 'only 90 million' is ludicrous.

[AtheistCrusader]

5. As a percentage of the population, it gets pretty hilarious when you

first deduct people who cannot own guns (Children, felons, etc) from the pool, and then consider the percentage.

[Common Sense Party]

4. "She turned me into a nowt!"

"A nowt?"





"I got better."

[kudzu22]

7. I'm guessing he meant "naught"

I would have mentioned it but I have renounced my membership in the Grammar Nazi party.

[Lizzie Poppet]

3. I would base that question on relevancy, rather than accuracy.

Neither is likely to be all that accurate (given that a considerable degree of unverifiable estimation is needed to arrive at any number at all). It may be more useful to consider which basis is more relevant to the discussion of the place of firearms in the US.

To me, the obvious answer to that question is the latter: number of households with guns. A gun will have a single owner, but multiple persons may have access to it.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. This is true.

I have my guns, and my wife has hers. I always ask permission to use hers.

[jimmy the one]

9. GOINO's

Jenoch Referring to American gun owners as 'only 90 million' is ludicrous.

Yeah I guess it would be in some cases, but you took how I applied it out of context, where the usage of 'only' makes complete sense, & thus I regard your remark above as what is a bit ludicrous.
.. (how I applied 'only' in context): 'estimated number of guns per capita' would have nearly all 310 million americans owning one & only one firearm, whereas only about 90 million americans own a firearm.
.. it would've been a bit weird to phrase it this way, jenoch: '310 million american guns is one per person, whereas a whopping 90 million are gunowners'.

AtheistCrusader As a percentage of the population, it gets pretty hilarious when you first deduct people who cannot own guns (Children, felons, etc) from the pool, and then consider the percentage.

Ludicrous now hilarious, are they synonymous? What is the truer percentage then? subtracting disallowed person? be adult about it, about half?
Then you'd need consider people owning one gun (or even a few) which have been neutered or gelded over the years; & people being pro gun-control & hating nra or even guns, then 80-90+ yo ggma's or ggpa's who own a gun their spouse or relative left them but it's kept trigger locked in a safe with firing pin removed & ggma's can't have them anyway cause they've quite forgotten what a gun is. GO-INOs. FOIDs for FOINOs.

Common Sense Party "She turned me into a nowt!""A nowt?"
kudzu22 (1,090 posts) I'm guessing he meant "naught"

No I meant nowt, fewer letters while synonymous. At least both of youse have expanded your vocabularies, bravo. (note: ref youse, google). Note also the ampersand '&' I generally use & how it reduces writing 'and' out, replacing it with one simple keystroke. Sometimes I will also use the abbreviation GN, replacing a 6 letter word with 2.

lizzie poppet: Neither is likely to be all that accurate .. To me, the obvious answer to that question is the latter: number of households with guns. A gun will have a single owner, but multiple persons may have access to it.

Wow, someone actually had something to say about the actual OP (AC too in related sense) rather than attempting to turn my remarks into a punching bag. Note that lizzie reinforces what I wrote, rather than applying 40 whacks.

[Bazinga]

11. what is ludicrous and hilarious

is jimmy worrying about saving a few keystrokes!

[CokeMachine]

12. Now that was funny!! nt

[Jenoch]

13. Hey Jimmy...

How about: "...nearly all 310 million americans owning one & only one firearm, whereas about 90 million americans own a firearm." That's fact-based without opinion, as long as you were writing about facts.

[petronius]

8. Any of those numbers can be accurate or inaccurate depending on how the data

was collected. Which statistic (total # of guns, guns per capita, # of gun owners, households with guns, etc) is most appropriate for a particular analysis depends on the purpose of the analysis. Personally, I think the number of actual gun owners in the population - and their demographics and voting behavior - is most relevant in a political/policy discussion. Households containing firearms might be more meaningful in a discussion about access/safety...

[gejohnston]

10. When antis use the false comparison

of US vs UK or Japan, I think it is about access. One thing I have found interesting is the derisive comparison to Yemen, since I doubt most of these people know anything about the place other than it is next to Saudi Arabia and Oman.
Another question I should have asked is:
What number or percentage divides "high ownership" vs "low ownership rate"? Finland and the US are definitely high ownership. Japan and UK are definitely low ownership.

Where do you put Iceland? It sits at 30.3 per 100. According to gunpolicy.org, there are about 2K owned by cops and defense force combined. There are about 90K guns in private hands, in a country with the population of 319,000.