I know that this won't come as a surprise to..., well..., anyone but there are a lot of guns in America. Duh, right? America has scads, oodles, boat loads, and a shit ton of firearms. We've got guns, and lots of 'em. In fact IIRC, the United States has more firearms per capita in civilian hands than any other country in the world, with current estimates around 280,000,000. That works out to almost one gun for every man, woman and child, holy crow that’s a lot of firearms.
Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a DKos group of second amendment supporters who also have progressive and liberal values. We don't think that being a liberal means one has to be anti-gun. Some of us are extreme in our second amendment views (no licensing, no restrictions on small arms) and some of us are more moderate (licensing, restrictions on small arms.) Moderate or extreme, we hold one common belief: more gun control equals lost elections. We don't want a repeat of 1994. We are an inclusive group: if you see the Second Amendment as safeguarding our right to keep and bear arms individually, then come join us in our conversation. If you are against the right to keep and bear arms, come join our conversation. We look forward to seeing you, as long as you engage in a civil discussion.
So who owns the vast majority of those firearms? Well if you have spent any time reading the RKBA diaries and following the comments you could be under the impression that those guns are owned by the unreasonable or the unstable, delusional miscreants, the mentally ill, drunken bullies or those suffering from Freudian feelings of inadequacy who living in their parents basement, stand in front of a mirror “fondling” their “gun” quoting “Taxi Driver”.
What I don’t understand is, with so many firearms in the hands of civilians, who could snap at any moment and go on a shooting spree, why we don’t see hundreds of thousands or millions of people dying from gun violence every year? With all those guns out there shouldn’t the number of violent acts committed with a gun be significantly higher than it is?
Seeing that we don’t have hundreds of thousands or millions of people dying from gun violence each year, the only reality based conclusion I can come to is that the vast majority of those hundreds of millions of firearms can't be owned by the unreasonable or the unstable. Hundreds of millions of firearms can't be in the hands of delusional miscreants, the mentally ill, drunken bullies or those suffering from Freudian feelings of inadequacy who living in their parents basement, stand in front of a mirror “fondling” their “gun” quoting “Taxi Driver”. Unfortunately this conclusion is either lost on, missed or completely disregarded by many, seemingly having to have bought into the meme that guns are bad and make people do things that they wouldn’t have done if it wasn't for the gun. Shocking isn’t it.
From Crime and Justice, Vol. 27.
Those who are most likely to own handguns or long guns are in sociodemographic groups that are, on average, least likely to commit or be victimized by crime:...
Guns also tend to be quite “sedentary” in that most do not change hands very frequently – the average gun was acquired around thirteen years ago by its current owner. Notwithstanding the 500,000 – 600,000 guns that are stolen each year, these statistics suggest that most guns are in the hands of those who are unlikely to misuse them and are likely to stay there for some time.
A good question to ask here is “What kind of person uses a gun during the commission of a violent crime?” I think it is pretty safe to say that typically, the people who own the hundreds of millions of firearms out there are not the kind of people that commit violent crimes. Rather the people who commit violence with a gun have a criminal history.
From JAMA.
Handgun purchasers with at least 1 prior misdemeanor conviction were more than 7 times as likely as those with no prior criminal history to be charged with a new offense after handgun purchase (RR, 7.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 6.6-8.7). Among men, those with 2 or more prior convictions for misdemeanor violence were at greatest risk for nonviolent firearm-related offenses such as weapon carrying (RR, 11.7; 95% CI, 6.8-20.0), violent offenses generally (RR, 10.4; 95% CI, 6.9-15.8), and Violent Crime Index offenses (murder or non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, or aggravated assault) (RR, 15.1; 95% CI, 9.4-24.3).
From NIJCDC.
The researchers found that people with a history of a particular type of criminal activity (e.g., felonies) were at no greater risk of committing a new offense of that type than were persons with criminal histories involving only other offenses. There was one exception: People with previous firearm offenses were more likely to be charged with a subsequent firearm offense than were those charged only with other types of offenses. Offenders with no history of a violent offense were more likely to commit a violent offense during the first 3 years after handgun purchase than were people with no criminal history, but that difference faded over the 15-year followup period.
From LIFE-THREATENING VIOLENCE IS PRIMARILY A CRIME PROBLEM: A FOCUS ON PREVENTION, Delbert S. Elliott
...the vast majority of persons involved in life-threatening violence have a long criminal record with many prior contacts with the justice system.
None of this information is new; it’s been around for years and really should be common knowledge. Yet rarely do I see “gun control advocates” looking for ways to reduce criminal activity. For the most part all I hear are calls for more legislation that really only regulates and restricts the tens millions of gun owners who don’t commit crime. When you combine that with comments like these, which are not unusual responses to our diaries:
"Some folk need protecting from themselves."
"In the end the only real solution is to outlaw/restrict guns for everyone. Guns have no place in a democracy."
"There is no reason for a civilian to own any semiautomatic weapon or any pistol (excepting target pistols)."
"Nothing good positive, uplifting, enlightening or worthwhile ever came from a gun or owning a gun."
"Its is simple - I would ban guns,..."
"We need handguns off the streets."
I find it difficult not to conclude that “gun control advocates” aren’t all that interested in reducing violent criminal activity as much as they are interested in controlling the lives of people who are doing little more than exercising a constitutionally protected right.