New Pew Research Survey on Gun Ownership

Larry Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) goes through the data in a new Pew Research Survey in yesterday's Daily Caller article.

The Pew Research Center has released an extensive survey measuring American’s attitudes about gun ownership and the results offer a mixed picture. With the usual firearm-related survey caveats in mind, Pew generally appears to have taken a relatively unbiased approach. Covering everything from the demographics of gun owners to views on violence in America and opinions on gun control policies, this 80-page report offers several key takeaways.

In terms of ownership, the results show about 42 percent of respondents live in a household with a gun and another 36 percent report that they would be open to owning a gun in the future. At least two-thirds of respondents have lived in a household with a firearm at some point in their lives.

Personal protection topped the reasons for owning a firearm, with a full two-thirds of respondents citing this as their primary reason. Remaining answers for firearm ownership had hunting at 38 percent and sport shooting at 30 percent. Forty-four percent said they had multiple reasons for owning guns.

As with any survey, it all depends how a question is asked or what background information is given to the subject taking the survey on a particular issue, and this survey is not different.  Read the entire article.  Keene does a great job of breaking down the data and showing why some of the information is good, and some should be taken with a grain of salt.