Pew Research survey of gun owners

[AlexanderA]

Just ran across this. Very interesting reading.

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017...ntity-experiences-activities-and-involvement/
Excerpts:

"Many, but not all, gun owners exist in a social context where gun ownership is the norm. Roughly half of all gun owners say that all or most of their friends own guns. An additional 38% say some of their friends own guns and 13% say only a few do. In stark contrast, among the non-gun owning public, only one-in-ten say all or most of their friends own guns. These social connections are strongly tied to gun use, as gun owners who say all or most of their friends own guns engage more frequently in hunting and sport shooting than those with fewer friends that own guns."​

"America’s gun owners are divided over whether owning a gun is central to who they are. Some 25% say this is a very important part of their overall identity and another 25% say it is somewhat important. At the same time, fully half say being a gun owner is not too important to their overall identity (30%) or not important at all (20%)."
​

(Incidentally, this is only one page out of eight in the study. The whole study is a treasure trove of information.)

 

[tipoc]

Thanks for posting this.

 

[hdwhit]

AlexanderA quoted the study:
...gun owners who say all or most of their friends own guns engage more frequently in hunting and sport shooting than those with fewer friends that own guns."

We could probably say the same thing about bowling balls, baseball bats, tennis racquets or any other piece of sporting good equipment.. If I and my friends own bowling balls we probably go bowling more often than people who don't. I suppose this would make us participants in some sort of nefarious "bowling ball culture".

We need a "rolling my eyes" emoticon.

 

[Legionnaire]

Thanks for the link; I look forward to taking some time reading through the study.

Gotta say at the outset, though, while I really enjoy firearms for all lawful purposes, I don't attach my "identity" to them.