Gun Ownership & Political Affiliation

[billh58]

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/12/19/gun-ownership-political-affiliation/

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Not surprisingly, gun ownership is strongly correlated with political party, with Republicans much more likely to own guns than Democrats. As Silver explains,

Whether someone owns a gun is a more powerful predictor of a person’s political party than her gender, whether she identifies as gay or lesbian, whether she is Hispanic, whether she lives in the South or a number of other demographic characteristics.

That gap between the political parties has grown significantly since he early 1990s, as fewer and fewer Democrat and Independent households own guns:

[center][/center]
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And Silver argues the gap may grow. Younger Democrats are less likely to own guns than older Democrats, but there’s very little difference between Republicans of different age groups (see link for graphs).

The right-wing gun lobby is more effective at attracting it's own kind, while Liberal Democrats are becoming less likely to purchase or own guns.

[DanTex]

1. Interesting. So basically the entire drop in gun ownership is due to Democrats and Independents.

[billh58]

2. That would appear

to be the case, but I also think that it has a lot to do with the premise that younger Americans are prone to adopt Liberal views as they become politically mature. As this trend continues, the right-wing gun lobby will continue to be marginalized and will lose its political clout and ability to intimidate and corrupt politicians at all levels of government.

Contrary to the right-wing fear mongering of the NRA/ALEC/Koch Bothers cabal, this changing political environment will not threaten the rights enumerated by the Second Amendment, but will strengthen the rights of the public to be free from an identified public health hazard.

[jimmy the one]

3. More Smarts, Less Guns!

Gun ownership goes down as educational level increases (why am I not surprised?)
HS or less 41%, Some College 43%
college grad 33%, postgrad 32%

From GSS website, Household gunownership drops from 50% in 70's to 33% now:
In 2010, less than a third of American households reported having a gun in the home.
Graphic II: Household Gun Ownership in the United States, 1973 to 2010
1973 49.1 ...1977 54.0 ...1980 50.8 ... 1990 45.8 ... 2002 36.4. ... 2006 34.5...
2010 32.3

PERSONAL gun ownership, GSS survey: 2010 overall 20.8; male 33.2; female 9.9.
https://www.vpc.org/studies/ownership.pdf

So personal gun ownership is overall at approx. 21%, or 1 in 5 (or 2 in 9), while having a gun in the house is at about 33% or 1 of 3 households has a gun or more.

[Hoyt]

4. Great info. Not really surprising, but good to have confirmation.