When the current leader in the Republican presidential nomination field campaigns and tells his audience that Obama is coming to get their guns, then naturally, those misguided folks run to the gun store to get more guns. So this new report stating that the average gun owner has 8 guns, is not surprising.
There are nearly twice as many guns in the average gun-owning household today as there were 20 years ago, according to new Wonkblog estimates based data from surveys and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In 2013, there were an estimated 8.1 firearms in the typical gun-owning household, according to these data. In 1994, the average gun-owning household owned 4.2 guns.
These numbers comport with what survey research has shown for several years now: the share of gun-owning households has been declining over the past 20 years and possibly more, according to numbers from Gallup and the General Social Survey. On the other hand, domestic firearm production and imports of firearms have risen sharply, particularly in recent years. If those numbers are correct, it follows that increasing gun purchases are being driven primarily by existing owners stocking up rather than first-time buyers.
Now gun owners stocking up on guns is nothing new, but campaign lies from the likes of Donald Trump that the government was on its way to take your gun plays on the emotions of the few, and gun stores stay happy.
