Perhaps this is to give lawmakers the impression that the constituency that supports Second Amendment rights is shrinking. Or maybe it is a self-congratulatory gesture to convince themselves that they are winning hearts and minds.
Whatever the case, the conclusion is false.
A new study titled “Predicting potential underreporting of firearm ownership in a nationally representative sample” was published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. The authors researched those who “may have falsely denied firearm ownership.”
Their findings were startling. Applying profiles of a sample of 3,500 respondents to quantify honesty in gun ownership reporting, the results showed a threshold between 18% and 86% more gun owners than is normally reported.
This could be indicative, on the high side, of a 60% gun ownership rate nationwide.
According to the researchers, “the implications of false denials of firearm ownership are substantial.” They concluded that this phenomenon “would result in an underestimation of firearm ownership rates and diminish our capacity to test the association between firearm access and various firearm violence-related outcomes.”
Gallup polling showed that in 2020, 32% of American adults said they personally own a firearm while 44% reported living in a household with a gun.
Further, national gun sales broke 1 million in July for the 36th month in a row. The National Shooting Sports Foundation produced figures showing the FBI conducted 1.23 million background checks for the month. This is a common measuring stick to determine how many gun purchases are made.
That total was the third highest for July on record, exceeded only by the previous two years.
