[Vanders9]

The author is only using the only figures that are available. As many have pointed out, many folk will refuse to tell pollsters how many guns they have, or even whether they have any at all. Anyway, there may very well be more than four guns per household. The simple fact is we really dont know, and frankly, if you want to keep the government honest, perhaps that's the way it should be.

For what its worth, I think your ball park figure is probably more accurate.

[Hodar]

If my guess is in the ballpark (60-75%), which is simply based upon my personal experience - this also includes guns that have never been fired (collectors items) and antique guns. For example, I just spent a couple weeks re-polishing the stock on my Grandfathers Montgomery Ward’s 1938 bolt action .22 rifle. I got a little carried away, I had the trigger guard, stock butt, mounting bold and screws all plated (Bronze colored to look gold), 12 layers of Linseed oil/varnish on that.

Kinda amazing what an old walnut stock can look like with a little elbow grease and time. I didn’t touch the barrel or workings - and didn’t polish out the various dings on the stock. It’s 75 yrs old and deserves the battle scars it’s had, being the first rifle that taught 3 (going on 4)generations how to shoot safely.

There are quite a few guns out there that are old, and are kept for purely sentimental reasons. Some still shoot (like mine) while others no longer work and are just treasured momentos.

However, if SHTF and communities needed to “arm up”, I think everyone would be surprised at the number of guns that would appear out of the woodwork.