So-called ” gun super-owners,” people who own at least eight guns and usually more, now make up the majority of American gun owners, according to an unreleased Harvard-Northeastern survey obtained by the Trace and the Guardian.
Put another way, just 3 percent of American adults own the vast majority of guns nationwide.
Though the number of gun-owning Americans decreased slightly during the last 22 years, the number of guns they have grew by 73 million to about 256 million. In comparison, there are about 253 million cars and approximately 248 million adults, according to recent U.S. Census data.
Of all 55 million gun owners, an estimated half own either one or two guns. The other half, who make up just three percent of all American adults, typically have between eight and 140 guns. On average, they own 17. Researchers believe this is the most authoritative study since 1994.
[READ: Parents Not Talking to Pediatricians About Gun Safety, Survey Says]
“Super-owners” are dedicated collectors, firearms instructors, gunsmiths or competitive shooters, while others are survivalists who stockpile guns in case of emergency, the Guardian reported. Others slowly build up a collection with purchases over time.
But it’s the other estimated 27.5 million gun owners who interest Deborah Azrael, director of research at the Harvard Injury Control Research Center and the study’s lead researcher. Understanding how Americans store and protect their guns may prevent the number of suicides by gun, she said. There are more than 30,000 gun deaths in the U.S. every year, and nearly 20,000 of them are suicides.
“Our survey suggests that many more people believe guns in their home make them safer, when in fact, epidemiological research suggests precisely the opposite,” Azrael told the Trace.
Though a 2013 Pew survey found that 56 percent of Americans thought the number of gun crimes had gone up in the last 20 years, both violent crime and the gun homicide rate dropped by nearly half in the 1990s. Since then, gun homicides have leveled off to between 11,000 and 12,000 per year.
Still, Azrael told The Boston Globe she credits public fear and gun industry marketing with the increased desire for guns, particularly among the half of gun owners who own only one or two. The most common reason given for owning a gun, according to the 4,000 Americans surveyed, was protection against other people.
“The desire to own a gun for protection — there’s a disconnect between that and the decreasing rates of lethal violence in this country. It isn’t a response to actuarial reality,” Matthew Miller, one of the study’s authors and a Northeastern and Harvard professor, told the Guardian.
The number of handguns in homes today has sharply increased to an estimated 111 million from 65 million in 1994. More women are buying handguns only for self-defense.
Gun owners are most likely to be white or multiracial males over 60 years old who live in rural areas and grew up with guns in the house, according to a breakdown of the survey by The Boston Globe.
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Just 3 Percent of Americans Own Half the Nation?s Guns originally appeared on usnews.com
