Posted on 02/04/2013 6:54:55 AM PST by Alex Murphy
Gun owners in the country tend to be men, white, married and living in the South, shows a Gallup study published Friday. The analysis of surveys for the last five years also shows that Protestants are more likely to own guns than Catholics.
An average of 30 percent of Americans said they personally own a gun and another 14 percent said they did not personally own a gun but live in a household with someone who does, according to an analysis of Gallup surveys of some 6,000 U.S. adults from 2007 to 2012.
The study also found that men, at 45 percent, are three times more likely than women, at 15 percent, to personally own guns. Gun ownership also varies significantly by region, with Southerners, at 38 percent, more likely to own guns than those living in other regions of the country – East at 21 percent, Midwest at 29 percent and West at 27 percent.
Marriage is also a strong predictor of gun ownership, with 37 percent of married people likely to own guns compared with 22 percent of those not married.
The study found that while 25 percent of Catholics are likely to own guns, gun ownership likely stands at 36 percent among Protestants or other Christians. Thirty-two percent of those who attend church weekly are likely to be in possession of guns. The gun ownership rates slightly decrease among those who attend church nearly weekly or monthly, or even seldom of never – at 29 percent.
The analysis also found that Republican Party identification is associated with higher rates of gun ownership – 38 percent versus 22 percent for Democrats. However, higher rates of Republican gun ownership likely result more from the fact that men, Southerners, and married people tend to identify as Republicans than from something about being a Republican drawing one to owning a gun, Gallup's Jeffrey M. Jones explained.
The analysis does not provide reasons behind higher rates of gun ownership among Protestants and other Christians than among Catholics. But for the strong relationship between gender and personal gun ownership, Jones said it may be due to men being more likely than women to participate in activities that require guns, such as hunting or sport shooting.
Gun ownership in general may appeal more to men than to women for those who do not actively use guns for recreational activities, the study suggests. Moreover, it says, men are more likely to have served in the military and thus to have had experience with firearms. However, that doesn't mean women have hardly any exposure to guns, given that many women live in a household that has a gun, the analysis notes.
The reasons behind the relationship between marital status and gun ownership could be that marriage rates are higher among other subgroups that tend to own guns, such as older Americans and those who are politically conservative, Jones suggested. Married people may also have greater financial resources to own a gun, and may be more likely to feel a need to own a gun for security reasons – though there is no difference in gun ownership among people with and without young children.
The high level of gun ownership means efforts in Washington to restrict gun ownership will potentially affect tens of millions of Americans. From a political standpoint, the question is whether those gun owners are more likely to see possible new restrictions on guns as a necessary step to try to limit gun violence in the country or as an unacceptable limitation on their ability to own guns, Jones said.
The analysis also found that Republican Party identification is associated with higher rates of gun ownership – 38 percent versus 22 percent for Democrats. However, higher rates of Republican gun ownership likely result more from the fact that men, Southerners, and married people tend to identify as Republicans than from something about being a Republican drawing one to owning a gun, Gallup's Jeffrey M. Jones explained.
No percentages were given as to how many Christian gun owners were also bitter.
The difference is better explained by ethnicity than by religious affiliation. It all has to do with whether or not your ancestors got here before or after the Civil War.
How about if you are female, Catholic, bitter and clinging? That would be me. :-)
Who in the world would tell a polling busy-body that they own a gun? These numbers are way low.
I’d also say it reflects WHERE you live. California, The Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes and southern New England states, where so many Catholics live shun guns.
I’d also say it reflects WHERE you live. California, The Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes and southern New England states, where so many Catholics live shun guns.
I live in Alaska, where everyone pretty much has a gun, that is if they ever go outside city limits. A serious, walk in Wallmart and walk out with a 50 caliber pistol in your pocket kinda place. Which I mention to point out the uselessness of polls. They lump demographics to say what they want, and very rarely mean squat.
In the post war period the gates were opened to Eastern European Catholic farmers ~ Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, more Germans, etc. The railroads made it possible to convert the vast American desert into a world of wheat and other grains. Coal mining brought in even more of them.
Once all the plants were planted, fields ploughed and barns built, the Italians and Greeks, all Catholic, came into the Eastern cities ~ and California ~ to build urban infrastructure.
“Who in the world would tell a polling busy-body that they own a gun?”
Bingo! Those who do tell pollsters they own a gun are the stupider tip of an extremely large iceberg.
In this political environment, what do YOU tell polsters asking about guns?
No damn way I’m telling somebody that calls me, what my business is!
Their politics and religious culture is reflected in the political parties that they vote for.
Consider the large urban areas that have for so long had gun laws that forbid gun ownership and right there you have a notworthy percentage of the Catholics who a survey like this would show as not owning any guns. It’s probably more a matter of their not admitting they own a gun.
In my experience, a lot of people in a lot of places that have laws against owning guns have at least a pistol and/or a shotgun they don’t admit they have to anyone they don’t know well. Years ago I knew a guy in NYC that traveled the Mid Atlantic states as far south as VA and who sold guns out of his basement to people he knew well and who said they wanted a gun.
I’m sure he sold a few dozen guns to various folks during the years I knew him, either to people he met and got to know or who his wife met and got to know. People were paranoid abut more riots and more roving bands of thugs so they were glad to have the guy get them one and make a few bucks in the middle. None of those people would never admit they owned a gun to some random questioner and given the social functions this guy was always a part of his customers were probably almost all Catholics.
An average of 30 percent of Americans said they personally own a gun and another 14 percent said they did not personally own a gun but live in a household with someone who does, according to an analysis of Gallup surveys of some 6,000 U.S. adults from 2007 to 2012.
The numbers are higher, count on it.
Some random guy calls you on the phone and asks about your guns? Yeah, I'm going to be straight with him. (Not.)
Ping to read the article later.
Speaking as a white catholic republican woman transplanted to the south.
Two out of 5 . hmmm our numbers are growing.
There was time I didn’t personally know anyone that was gunless; now I don’t anyone that owns one, including me ;).
I’m a Catholic and own guns (including EEEE- VIL ASSAULT RIFLE)
Does that make me a bitter clinger....?
Yeah... pretty much the same in MT... I wonder what is skewing the West's numbers so badly (27% is bullcrap, at least here)- Perhaps it is the prevalence of population in mega-cities(the left coast), as compared to the relatively low population in more rural areas...
It never gets that far ... If I even bother to pick up the phone, I hang up as soon as I find out it's a pollster on the other end of the line.
American Catholic attitudes (including the idiotic anti-gun diatribes of the American Bishops) reflect this cultural dichotomy. The same probably goes for the attitude toward guns of Orthodox Jews in America.
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