I must admit to not reading the 6 prior pages of replies so maybe someone covered it already.
The purpose of this story is to try and marginalize gun ownership, a step towards further erosion of gun rights.
They are trying to imply that while a lot of guns are in circulation, not many people are gun owners, and so their desires and rights are not as important. They are a tiny minority and you shouldn't be afraid of taking away those rights, and they don't represent most Americans.
However even going with what they say they conveniently say half of guns, while the other half are more evenly spread out. And going with what they say is dubious at best.
They will exaggerate, but it is based on some partial truth.
This is nothing new, I know plenty of people with only a gun, or a couple guns, and some with lots of guns. I seriously doubt many of them would share a realistic number with a poll by a random stranger on the phone. This means the percentage that admit to owning a gun, never mind lots of guns is going to be lower than reality.
Some people make a couple guns do everything, and other people have a gun for different activities or are just collectors.
While plenty have just a single home defense gun, hunting, or pest control, especially younger gun owners.
But many people are distrusting of strangers or the government asking about what they possess especially things people try to take away on occasion, and especially in places where having guns is made to be something negative by the media or culture.
Legal guns are less common in dense urban areas where hunting and pest control is less common, police are everywhere and government is more authoritarian in nature, and legislation frequently makes ownership more challenging. New Jersey the densest population state in the nation traditionally makes ownership hard, and our biggest city New York prevents most honest citizens from going through the hoops for ownership.
Chicago long tried to keeps its citizens disarmed just like DC, and some entire states put so many hurdles many citizens don't go through the trouble.
In these types of places guns are seen with police and criminals.
So the parts of the nation with the highest population density often have the lowest legal private gun ownership rates.
However there is a whole other side of America where guns are common, especially among men. In many of these places people only have a carry piece or a couple guns quite often.
Gun ownership is widespread, and a large percentage of Americans are impacted by what people in DC or or New York think is best for them.
We can't tolerate this manipulation by anti-gun media with an agenda.