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.
When you speak of the Protestant "Irish," you must be referring to the Scots-Irish. The Irish of the Northern states, particularly the Northeast, like the Kennedy clan, are immigrants from Ireland, and are, of course, Catholic.
The Scots-Irish from Ulster, or Northern Ireland, a very different story. Protestants to the man, making up a large part of the south, Bible belt Protestants.
the Italians and Greeks, all Catholic
Wouldn't the the Greeks be Greek Orthodox?
There are TWO major waves of Irish immigration. The first is in the Colonial period ~ and the second is from the 1830s to the 1860s.
During the colonial period the Irish who arrived in America had no friendly Catholic church to greet them. Instead they had Scandinavian Lutherans, English churches (Anglican and Puritan, etc.) and the Scotts ~ who were something, or nothing, but fur shur were not Catholic.
Not that the English had banned Catholics from America, but the original Treaty of London (1604) put the core area(Virginia) off limit to Catholics. That was on the orders of the King of Spain who was doing a cramdown on his enemies and his friends!
As a consequence there were no religious in the area and without them you don't even get an underground Catholic church movement ~ what you get are Protestants, and that's where the majority of America's Irish descend from ~ that first wave of immigrants back in the colonial period.
They got two out of four right.
The study found that while 25 percent of Catholics
I'm one of them.
On a roll here?
The Pope, who claims primacy over all Catholic bishops, recognizes the baptism of many Protestant bodies ~ my own included ~ and we recognize his as well and boy was there a fight over that one!
Now, regarding the Kennedy's, there are probably more Kennedys whose lineage dates from the Colonial period than from the Famine period. They were here longer, bred frequently, had enormous families, and spread out all over the country. The Murphys are even more numerous and have, to their credit THREE GREAT AMERICAN HEROES ~ Timothy Murphy, the most renowned enlisted man in the American Army in the Revolution, and Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in the Armed forces of the United States in WWII. More recently another Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor.
I know the first two are Protestant ~ this latest guy may be Catholic. But they're all Murphy, and that's what counts!
In modern America even the Catholics are in common agreement with the Huguenots regarding firearms ~ don’t leave home without one!
I wasn’t aware of the different waves of Irish coming to this country. Good info. Nor “Greek Catholics,” I would have assumed they would be more ethic than that. Thanks.
You'll get no answer if you don't ping me to the question.
I know the first two are Protestant ~ this latest guy may be Catholic. But they're all Murphy, and that's what counts!
Huzzah!
Russians/Greeks/etc. are Catholics in the sense of the Orthodox Church being officially "the Orthodox Catholic Church," but Eastern Orthodoxy is a separate church and religion from the Catholic Church in Rome. There are Vatican-affiliated Catholic churches among these Orthodox peoples but they are in the minority and traditionally disliked by their Orthodox neighbors for being "uniates."
How can someone who knows so much about Lapland and Santa Claus not know this?
BTW, Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism are NOT different religions! Islam is a different religion, but they are the same religion. The disputes are ecclesiastical.
You just have to give me your Kimber.
Regarding "Lapland", that's a European invention. It's more properly 'the sapma or sapmai' ~ virtually all the original peoples of the Sapma are, in fact, Lutherans or Russian Orthodox ~ in name. It gets very complex after stating that so we'll leave it at that.
Rebellion and independent thinking go deepest in Protestant multi-generational Americans. We reject the doctrine of Papal Infallibility and of Kings. Acceptance of Papal infallibility is only a step away from acceptance of human perfection and authority.
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