Guns, sales and core principles

[SecularMotion]

Colt files for bankruptcy. Smith & Wesson's sales and stock still slump. So do Strum, Ruger's numbers. And now Wal-Mart pulls AR-15s because of low demand. Couple that with poll numbers showing falling gun ownership, and you can see Americans have a very different view of gun ownership.

You'll find no shortage of articles, liberal and conservative, that claim gun sales are still booming, even since the Newtown, Conn., shootings. They rarely, if ever, cite gun sales statistics. They note membership in a gun group like the NRA. Or they'll list background check data.

But as Josh Horwitz points out, there are many reasons for background checks, many of which can be unrelated to gun sales. Not every background check can constitute the sale of a gun.

Evidence from the General Social Survey (GSS) shows that the number of Americans who report owning a gun dropped from nearly 50 percent in 1974 to 22 percent today. The GSS is conducted by the University of Chicago, hardly a liberal bastion. That's even with so many states loosening regulations on gun laws.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article32633949.html