I was surprised by this. Sales of firearms have been brisk, but I didn't realize that fewer people than ever own guns. Its the people who already own guns that are driving sales, by purchasing ever more firearms.
The share of American households with guns has declined over the past four decades, a national survey shows, with some of the most surprising drops in the South and the Western mountain states, where guns are deeply embedded in the culture...
The findings contrast with the impression left by a flurry of news reports about people rushing to buy guns and clearing shop shelves of assault rifles after the massacre last year at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
“There are all these claims that gun ownership is going through the roof,” said Daniel Webster, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. “But I suspect the increase in gun sales has been limited mostly to current gun owners. The most reputable surveys show a decline over time in the share of households with guns.”
That decline, which has been studied by researchers for years but is relatively unknown among the general public, suggests that even as the conversation on guns remains contentious, a broad shift away from gun ownership is under way in a growing number of American homes. It also raises questions about the future politics of gun control. Will efforts to regulate guns eventually meet with less resistance if they are increasingly concentrated in fewer hands — or more resistance?
I personally own more than one gun, but my inventory shrank by one last month, when I sold my .38 revolver. Its a nice, compact weapon, but I haven't used it years. I bought it some 15 years ago for use when I worked a plain clothes detail, but shortly afterwards, my job dictated that only semiautomatic weapons could be carried, and it was relegated to a drawer. While I had a trigger lock on it, and I stored the key and ammunition separately, now that I have a three year old daughter, I was worried about that gun. What if she finds it? And the key? And the ammunition? The chance of a tragedy was small, but it was still there. Weighing my need for the weapon (pretty much nil) against the risk (small, but there) I could see no reason to have it in the house. By getting rid of that gun, I eliminated any chance of mishap.
Which leaves me with two weapons, a single shot muzzle loading musket, and my bolt-action SMLE. I have both those guns for my reenactment hobby. I don't keep ammunition for either of them, just blank cartridges, so again, the chance of my little girl accidentally hurting herself or someone else is near zero (and I still keep these weapons locked up).
Quite frankly, if it weren't for my hobby, my household would also be a gun-free home. That's my choice of course, and someone else's situation may be entirely different. I just find it quite interesting that the spike in gun sales is fueled by people who already have guns buying ever more weaponry. How that plays out politically is yet to be seen.