Guns per person has gone up significantly. A wild guess might be 20-40%, but exact estimates are difficult. Sales are tracked and have gone way up, which is the starting point for estimating change in guns per person, but difficulty in estimating and combining all the factors makes it difficult to integrate.
(Most states don't track ownership, background checks aren't 1:1 with guns, gun purchase stats depending on how they're reported might include used guns, guns manufactured aren't necessarily going to civilians, and of course some guns are permanently lost or destroyed, or taken out of the country.)
Guns are of little use unless you have many tucked away in various locations, all loaded (ready for trigger pull). This principle is drilled into you when taking CCW training. I have several carries that will often cross paths. One for the trail, one for the glove box, for instance.
One is for wild hogs and one is for whatever bullshit happens at a random intersection (I live in an area that experiences significant amounts of random violence).
I'm far from a gun nut. I haven't fired a weapon in ten years, since I moved away from the farm. I bought my first pistol when I discovered motorcycle gang activity in my vacinity over twenty years ago. You never forget that warm feeling you get when you lose your vulnerability to the shine of a Ruger 357. The crazy part is that I didn't think it made me safe or helped the situation at all. I just decided it was better to have it out instead of getting cucked by some shitty gang member.
Young men get firearms for respect and dignity. In the inner city you have a lot of this, resulting in boys carrying guns they have never fired...until someone disrespects them enough. The cops should invite these boys to their $7MM firing range.
Hmm interesting I was under the impression that multiple locations with ready weapons was a newish thing(2000s), and before that it was either CCW all the time + home shotgun or don’t.
Either way, I see the logic. And I think it’s a good causal expansion behind the large per-capita ratio we got going on gun ownership.
For what it’s worth, I also contribute to this statistic.
Guns per person has gone up significantly. A wild guess might be 20-40%, but exact estimates are difficult. Sales are tracked and have gone way up, which is the starting point for estimating change in guns per person, but difficulty in estimating and combining all the factors makes it difficult to integrate.
(Most states don't track ownership, background checks aren't 1:1 with guns, gun purchase stats depending on how they're reported might include used guns, guns manufactured aren't necessarily going to civilians, and of course some guns are permanently lost or destroyed, or taken out of the country.)