Pew Research: NRA and Guns

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Pew Research just released a short study on the public views of guns and the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the US.

Figures from the study (the study is actually more than a year old, but I haven't seen it on Pew before):



2 things stand out:
- The significant shift in reasons for owning a gun from 1999 to 2013 (from hunting to personal defense)
- The large majority in favour of background checks even among NRA gun-owning households

As for differences in the view on guns/NRA based on gender, race and political orientation, these seem to be in accordance with results from previous studies.

Source: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/20 ... n-america/

Please discuss.

I'm glad that less people are hunting. Hopefully that means that there are less idiots out there waving shotguns around.

Better than idiots waving around words on the internet wit ha keyboard.

Yet still we cannot get Congress or even individual states to pass meaningful registration requirements without the NRA and gun lobby pouring millions of dollars into stopping the process. Even though NRA members support it NRA leadership spends money to fight it. Congress does not listen, state lawmakers do not listen, the NRA does not listen. Money controls everything.

I am glad the building I live in has a sign at the front door prohibiting firearms. Even the "bad guys" can see the sign that guns are not allowed here and I cannot recall any incident of anyone ever taking advantage of the lack of guns to do harm to anyone here. So much for gun advocates always telling people who want firmer controls put on guns "put a sign outside your home saying you don't own guns." I have no doubt that every resident in this building is glad to have that restriction.

There are less hunters because people are getting too lazy to drag a deer out of the field.
The real danger are heater hunters,they ride in the truck and shoot from the road.Lazy and not very sporting,and dangerous if they shoot across your yard.

The charts definitely reflect the shift from what we call gun culture 1.0 to gun culture 2.0, the major difference being that 1.0 hunts and is likely to have gotten into firearms through family tradition, where as 2.0 is more interested in "tactical" type stuff like pistols and semi auto rifles, and may have gotten into guns through video games and other media. You do see some crossover from 2.0 to 1.0 as younger people take up hunting, often for more "foody" type reasons than previous generations did (think of how trendy foraging has gotten), where as it's rarer to see it go the other way, with many older hunters making up the group referred to as "Fudds", who incidentally are likely the NRA members who support background checks. It's commonly accepted in the gun worlds that a lot of older hunters don't particularly care about handguns and AR-15s, and tend to see them as possible sacrificial lambs in the political battles, thinking that giving them up will appease the anti-gun forces and let them keep their shotguns and bolt action rifles.

Time to repeal the Brady Bill. How come the NRA isn't lobbying for that?!???

It's a JOKE. It doesn't work. And it's a major inconvenience.

In your case, I agree completely.

Too bad that sign has 0 legal standing whatsoever.

What that would translate to for one thing is more deer getting hit on the highways and causing accidents.
See it often enough....

Could it be that the majority of voters really don't want more gun control?
Could it be that too many elected officials don't want to touch the hot potato that gun control is?
Could it be that gun control is actually ineffective?


Public housing? I've been in one of those kinds of apartment buildings because I have an elderly relative living in one. Rest assured when I've gone to visit I did not leave my piece in the car. I've never even thought to look for any sign and I would have and will ignor it anyway. The building is 11 stories tall with 20 units on most of the floors but a few. It's got a bunch of meth dealers, addicts, and common criminals in it. The cops are having to go there regularly for all kinds of reasons. I have no doubt that my gun is by far not the only one there at any time I've been there and that won't change until they demolish that building.
I'm sure there were No Guns signs at Sandy Hook Elementary in December 2012, too.