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| -Land of the Free |
| Kuntzman: 3% of American adults hold us all hostage |
| 2016-09-21 |
| [NYDailyNews] America is being held hostage by a tiny minority of absolute lunatics for whom owning two, three, eight or even 10 guns is simply not enough. That’s the main finding of the first comprehensive study of gun owners in two decades. No, the main finding is that the vast majority of gun owners are serious, sober, responsible people, whether they own one gun or ten. Among the many findings — that handgun purchases are soaring, that Americans wrongly believe Just a little judgmental, aren't we? hey need more guns for personal safety, and that there are more privately held guns in this country than cars — is a bit of news so shocking, it should embolden our spineless lawmakers in Washington: Why? Nothing seems to 'embolden' our spineless Congress-critters. Terrorism, economic collapse, national debt, health care, none of that emboldens them. Why should a non-crisis like gun ownership? Roughly half of all guns are owned by just 3% of American adults. The study by Harvard and Northeastern Universities — leaked to the gun website The Trace and the Guardian US before publication next year — estimates that there are now 265 million firearms in private hands in the U.S. And about 130 million of these guns are owned by that 3% — what the Guardian called “a group of super-owners who have amassed an average of 17 guns each.” Any of them committing crimes? Any of them violating the law? Any of them threatening anyone? Call them “super owners” or, as I prefer, “super paranoid whack jobs” — but whatever you call them, they have a disproportionate influence over gun policy in this country. Considering the thousands of gun control laws in this country, I'd say the obverse is true. Certainly, millions of Americans own guns — 55 million in the new study, up from 44 million two decades ago — but as a share of the population, gun owners have dropped from 25% to 22%. So if gun owners represent a smaller portion of our population — and nearly half of all guns are owned by dead-enders — isn’t it time for our politicians to realize that they don’t have to listen to them anymore? Yes. Ignore a minority. How.. American. The study also offers another reason why our lawmakers should ignore the worst fears of gun owners: Two out of three firearm owners say that self-defense was their primary motivation for getting a gun. That’s up from 46% in 1994. A motivation, but wrong. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is to keep a tyrannical government in check. That could be a major reason why Congress leaves guns alone. What has happened during those 20 years? Crime has plummeted. FBI stats show that overall violent crime and murder are half of what they were in the early 1990s. Robbery has been reduced by more than half. Paging Fox Butterfield to the headline courtesy phone: as gun ownership grows, crime has gone down. Frankly, this self-defense argument should be handled by the psychiatrists of all these fraidy cats rather than our politicians, who should be debating concrete facts, not unfounded fears. This is the guy who was frightened at the sound of an AR firing last summer. Just who is the "fraidy cat"? Worse, the only thing the self-defense crowd has to fear is the self-defense crowd itself: Studies show that people who die in accidental shootings were more than three times as likely to have had a firearm in their home. Duh. More weapons present in any scenario means accidents will be higher than when no weapons are present. That's one of the reasons why we have an NRA, which teaches gun safety. So, memo to Washington lawmakers: The vast majority of Americans does not own guns. So when the three-percenters come to you looking for fewer gun restrictions, you can tell them to buzz off. We the people have got your back. Have their back? With what? Your good intentions? Classic case of 'othering'. Mr. Kuntzman sees gun owners, conservatives and the like as deplorable, irredeemable, and un-American. The eliminationist rhetoric is next. As Hershel Smith has remarked, why do academics think that gun owners will tell them the truth about gun ownership? |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #25 I looked that beast up. Véry nice. $1700 all up, $1000 bare. Looks like it is worth every penney. And it sounds like it needs a suppressor (also found). Bullet selection is 'limited' but I have a Corbin hydro swaging setup. .458 conical looks like a place to start. Will go longer if I have to. Thank you again. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2016-09-21 23:18 |
| #24 SwksvolFF. Wow I had no idea! Great info. TY sir or madam! Off to look NOW. And I never respond to polls. Congenital defect I suppose. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2016-09-21 22:37 |
| #23 Math be hard, BrerRabbit. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2016-09-21 18:07 |
| #22 3% of 55 million is 1650000 peeps. 130 million guns divided by 1.65 million peeps is an average of 79 guns. New math? |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2016-09-21 17:17 |
| #21 Blah, blah, blah More people are killed by cars than guns. Let's condemn every two+ car family |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2016-09-21 16:48 |
| #20 I can't hang out with Neil Steinberg anymore; he always gets drunk and hits me. |
| Posted by: Gersh Kuntzman 2016-09-21 15:20 |
| #19 Whiskey Mike, there are some real nice Pre-Charged Pneumatic Air Rifles out there. AirForce Big Bore Texan claims a .45 @ 1000ft/s. Probably want an air compressor or compressed air tank so you are not sitting around the campfire pumping the tank for 6 hours. And I agree, when talking to strangers the answer is always no. newc's link claims the data was by polling. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2016-09-21 15:17 |
| #18 Problems with the new Harvard-Northeastern Gun Survey Saved for future discussions on the subject. Thank you, newc. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2016-09-21 14:58 |
| #17 K ---> C & |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-09-21 14:38 |
| #16 I'd like a nice air rifle. Say, like one of the Lewis and Clark walkabout types (Girardoni). A better air reservoir would not be refused. But (on topic) if anyone asked me if I had any firearms, I would walk away. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2016-09-21 14:33 |
| #15 For your amusement: Our first encounter with Mr. Kuntzman Our second encounter with dear Mr. Kuntzman -- he really is irresistible. And between times the owner of the gun shop where our hero played with guns responded. Rantburg won't let me add a third link to my comment, but it is available in the second encounter if you want to read it. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2016-09-21 13:43 |
| #14 There is a lot wrong with this. First, the study: how was this data obtained? Did we do a survey? Get ahold of purchase records? Does the count include air rifles? How? A sportsman, with the money and proper storage space, will get to 17 quite quickly. A collector may get to 17 just doing History and Evolution of the M-1. Then, someone who has that many firearms and that much political influence isn't holding up gas stations. Much more influential is the out of money meth head with a ghetto banger - all of which is illegal, unlike the gun collector. Oooohhh, Mrs. Kuntzman, AR-15 felt like a bazooka in her mouth, felt like a cannon on her rear, caught the PTSD. Smelled of sulfur and brimstone, have her irritable bowels. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2016-09-21 13:03 |
| #13 Accurate name. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2016-09-21 12:56 |
| #12 It's NYDN - by posting here you likely doubled its audience |
| Posted by: Frank G 2016-09-21 12:50 |
| #11 I guess I'm a 1%er. I have more than 17. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2016-09-21 11:58 |
| #10 #4In 2013, 44,000 people died from drug overdoses and these deaths are on the rise. Drug overdose deaths exceeded motor vehicle-related fatalities in 36 states. Posted by JohnQC Bingo. But, but, but we NEED more methadone clinics and suboxone clinics to ruin our communities... And less enforcement on the Mexican border in order to keep the prices low on the poison crossing our borders...in order to muddle the heads of the D voters. If a few die from OD - well then that is the Police's fault... Sigh... |
| Posted by: Tennessee 2016-09-21 11:10 |
| #9 Problems with the new Harvard-Northeastern Gun Survey Because harvard is useless. |
| Posted by: newc 2016-09-21 11:09 |
| #8 I like the way they count the guns as if it is each gun that votes and not the owners (or non-owners who are still pro-2nd ammendment.) Clever twisted logic that probably works on the liberals. I bet this stat gets added to hundreds of coffee conversations over the next week. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2016-09-21 11:08 |
| #7 When I read the headline, I thought this was going to be about trannies. |
| Posted by: charger 2016-09-21 10:31 |
| #6 ...they have a disproportionate influence over gun policy in this country. The people who care most about a subject always have a disproportionate influence over it; for some decades they were at a disadvantage to the equally passionate anti-gun crowd, but that crowd has shrunk dramatically as liberals have increasingly found reasons to invest in their first gun. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2016-09-21 10:27 |
| #5 -but whatever you call them, they have a disproportionate influence over gun policy in this country. And yet this douchebag provides absolutely zero documentation to substantiate this claim. (Hint: because there is none) |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2016-09-21 10:01 |
| #4 In 2013, 44,000 people died from drug overdoses and these deaths are on the rise. Drug overdose deaths exceeded motor vehicle-related fatalities in 36 states. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2016-09-21 08:52 |
| #3 Be advised - You will pry my Hummel 'Sensitive Hunter' from my cold dead hands. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-09-21 08:48 |
| #2 Ditto P2K that was one of my first thoughts too. Are there any other collectibles that need to be regulated? How about snow globes or Hummel figures? Tea pots? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2016-09-21 08:43 |
| #1 Cars kill more people than guns. Let's talk to Jay Leno why he needs so many. Here we're talking about a 1 percenter. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2016-09-21 07:38 |