Chapter 2
How Many Guns Are There, and Who Owns Them?

OWNERSHIP BY PRIVATE CITIZENS
U.S. FIREARMS MANUFACTURING
IMPORTS
EXPORTS
AUTOMATIC AND SEMIAUTOMATIC FIREARMS
TYPES OF GUNS USED IN CRIME
GUNS IN THE HOME
CHARACTERISTICS OF PRIVATELY OWNED FIREARMS AND THEIR OWNERS
REASONS FOR OWNING OR NOT OWNING A GUN
CARRYING HANDGUNS
WOMEN AND GUNS

OWNERSHIP BY PRIVATE CITIZENS

There Can Only Be Estimates

“How many guns are there?” is a question that cannot be answered with exact figures for the United States due to differences among the states. Each has its own system of counting and classifying guns. Some states do not require registration of guns, and unregistered guns cannot be included in an official count. In addition, some types of gun data have been restricted from public access in recent years. The result is that there can only be estimates of the total number of guns that U.S. citizens possess.

The ATF Estimates

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is a law enforcement organization in charge of reducing violent crime, among other tasks. One of its duties is to keep legally acquired firearms out of the hands of criminals. The ATF is also responsible for estimating the total number of firearms in the United States. It does this by adding domestic firearms production and imports since 1899, then subtracting firearms exports during the same period. The ATF does not take into account guns that are destroyed or that no longer work. The ATF statistics also do not account for guns smuggled into or out of the United States or guns manufactured illegally.

According to the ATF report Firearms Commerce in the United States—2001/2002 (2002), from 1899 through 1999 an estimated 248 million guns became available for sale in the United States (not including those produced for the military). This number included more than eighty-seven million rifles, eighty-six million handguns, and seventy-two million shotguns. According to estimates from the ATF, there were 1.5 million guns produced in the United States in 1950, 3.7 million in 1970, 5.6 million in 1980, 3.8 million in 1990, and 4 million in 1999. The ATF data suggest that the number of imported rifles, shotguns, and handguns combined averaged one million per year in the 1990s, with handguns accounting for roughly half of that figure. Exports averaged fewer than four hundred thousand per year. Putting all estimates together, by the end of 1999 the total number of guns privately owned or available for sale in the United States came to more than 260 million, nearly enough for every man, woman, and child in the country.

THE TIAHRT AMENDMENT: RESTRICTING PUBLIC ACCESS TO GUN INFORMATION Even though the ATF expected to report annually on firearms commerce (the buying and selling of guns), Firearms Commerce in the United States—2001/2002 was the last such document published. Beginning in 2003 the ATF was legally prohibited from publishing certain statistics concerning the production and imports of firearms under an amendment sponsored by Representative Todd Tiahrt (1951–; R-KS). The amendment, which was approved as part of legislation that provided funding for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, also made it illegal for the agency to report on sales of multiple handguns and firearms tracing statistics (gun trace statistics).

The concept of gun trace statistics is explained in ATF National Tracing Center Division Information for Law Enforcement Agencies (August 2005, http://www.atf.gov/pub/fire-explo_pub/p33127.pdf): “Firearms tracing is the systematic tracking of the movement of a firearm recovered by law enforcement officials from its first sale by the manufacturer or importer through the distribution chain (wholesaler/retailer) to the first retail purchaser.” Firearms tracing is used in criminal investigations to link particular firearms to criminals, to identify gun traffickers, and to detect patterns in the sources and types of guns used in crime.

From 2003 through 2006 the Tiahrt Amendment became more restrictive each year. In 2007, however, the amendment allowed the ATF to release gun trace statistics to federal, state, and local agencies for use in criminal

investigations. In addition, the ATF was allowed to release state-by-state crime gun trace data http://www.atf.gov/firearms/trace_data/index.htm).

In 2008 the arguments for and against the Tiahrt Amendment still raged on. Those in favor of the amendment argued that all guns are not crime guns and that data on all guns should be restricted to protect noncriminals and the gun industry. In addition, the advocates said that public access to crime gun data permits anyone to know the names of investigators, targeted gun dealers, and other information related to criminal investigations, which jeopardizes not only those investigations but also individuals involved in those investigations. Those against the amendment argued that the amendment was too restrictive and that it impeded efforts by officials to investigate national patterns of gun trafficking and identify gun dealers who are most involved with illegal gun trafficking. Furthermore, opponents said that the amendment's restrictions did not allow the public to have information about guns and crime.

In March 2008 the Firearms Information Use Act (S. 2769) was introduced in the U.S. Senate to repeal the Tiahrt Amendment. As of June 2008, this bill was being deliberated in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

U.S. FIREARMS MANUFACTURING

Table 2.1 shows the number of firearms manufactured in the United States from 1998 through 2006, except for machine guns and all other National Firearms Act (NFA) weapons. NFA weapons include machine guns, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers, and destructive devices. (See Chapter 1 for a description of the National Firearms Act of 1934. In addition, Table 1.1 in Chapter 1 lists and describes types of firearms.) In 1986 Congress banned the manufacture of machine guns for private sale, but they can be manufactured for export, for the military, and for law enforcement personnel. The annual manufacture of machine guns and other NFA weapons increased from 1994 to 2001. After 2001, machine gun and other NFA weapons data were no longer available to the public.

Table 2.1 also shows that the numbers of pistols and rifles manufactured between 1998 and 2006 rose and fell several times. The result of all these ups and downs was that eight years later the numbers of pistols and rifles manufactured in the United States were only slightly higher in 2006 than in 1998. During those years pistol manufacture rose only 6%, from 960,365 in 1998 to 1,021,260 in 2006. Rifle manufacture rose by 11%, from 1,345,899 in 1998 to 1,496,505 in 2006.

The manufacture of shotguns rose slightly from 1998 to 1999, but then fell dramatically in 2000 and 2001. (See Table 2.1.) After a slight rise in 2002, the number of shotguns manufactured remained steady through 2006. The result was that eight years later the number of shotguns manufactured was down 31%, from 1,036,520 in 1998 to 714,618 in 2006.

The manufacture of revolvers was relatively steady from 1998 through 2001, rose slightly in 2002, then dropped between 2003 through 2005. (See Table 2.1.) A considerable rise in the number of revolvers manufactured occurred from 2005 to 2006. The result was that eight years later the number of revolvers manufactured was up nearly 18%, from 324,390 in 1998 to 382,069 in 2006.

IMPORTS

The United States is a big importer of guns. In 2008 the most recent gun import statistics available were from the International Trade Commission. Table 2.2 shows that gun imports for the U.S. civilian market went from 1,170,080 in 1998 to 3,221,999 in 2007, a 175% increase. According to the 1968 Gun Control Act, imported firearms must be “generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes, excluding surplus military firearms.” Table 2.3 and Table 2.4 show the countries from which firearms were imported between 1998 and 2007.

In 2007 the top-five importers of rifles and shotguns to the United States were Brazil (316,562), Italy (267,140), Canada (210,542), Spain (185,939), and Turkey (180,704). (See Table 2.3.) The top-five importers of pistols to the United States were Brazil (397,917), Austria (347,188), Croatia (204,379), Germany (173,899), and Italy (68,415) (See Table 2.4.)

EXPORTS

Table 2.5 shows the number of firearms exported by the United States from 1998 through 2006. Not shown in the table is that firearms exports, according to ATF figures, reached an all-time high in 1995 (438,809), including a record number of pistols and revolvers (229,603). After 1995 exports declined. In 2000 the United States exported 188,460 firearms, a decrease of 13% from the 1998 figure (215,896). By 2004 firearms exports were down approximately 35% from 1998, but this percentage is likely high because of missing export figures for machine guns and all other NFA weapons on which the ATF could no longer release information. (See the footnotes in Table 2.5 for information regarding NFA weapons.) After 2004 firearms exports increased dramatically in 2005 (194,682) and 2006 (367,521). The most dramatic increase was in the export of pistols.

AUTOMATIC AND SEMIAUTOMATIC FIREARMS

The Firearms Owners' Protection Act, which amended the Gun Control Act of 1968, was signed into law in May 1986 and banned private ownership of any machine gun not already lawfully owned. Machine guns are fully automatic weapons, which means that they can fire a steady stream of bullets. (See Table 1.1 in Chapter 1.)

Then in 1989 the ATF issued an order banning the importation of forty-three models of semiautomatic assault-type guns following a schoolyard shooting in Stockton, California, that killed five people and wounded twenty-nine others. Assault-type guns, or assault weapons, generally refer to military-style semiautomatic firearms. Military-style simply means the weapons look like guns used in the military; they are not military weapons. Semiautomatic means the weapons fire only a single shot for each pull of the trigger, but that bullets are automatically loaded into the chamber. However, the phrase “assault weapons” is often used by the media and the public to refer to machine guns, which are military weapons. Thus, the meaning of the phrase “assault weapons” is not always clearly understood or defined.

The Violent Crime Control Act of 1994 banned the sale and possession of nineteen assault-type firearms and copycat models, including the Uzi, the TEC-9, and the Street Sweeper. The act also limited the capacity of newly manufactured magazines to ten bullets. A magazine is a cartridge holder that feeds the gun chamber automatically. (Chapter 3 describes this law in more detail.)

According to the ATF, in Firearms Commerce in the United States—2001/2002, assault weapons account for less than 2% of all guns in the United States, but they account for about 6% to 8% of guns used in crimes each year.

Those in favor of gun control argued that semiautomatic firearms are lethal and effective killing tools that should be banned because they are suitable only for criminal purposes. The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) defended the use of semiautomatic firearms for hunting, informal target shooting, and competitive target shooting. The NRA further claimed that many other guns offer criminals the same capacity to kill and that the only way to stop their use is to control the criminals, not the weapons. On September 13, 2004, the assault weapons ban expired and was not renewed as of June 2008. (See Chapter 9 for the June 23, 2006, statement by Senator Carl Levin [1934–; D-MI] in support of renewing the assault weapons ban.)

TYPES OF GUNS USED IN CRIME

Because of the lack of current national crime gun trace data (see the previous section on the Tiahrt Amendment), Figure 2.1 provides crime gun data from 2000.

This graph shows that handguns (semiautomatic pistols and revolvers) were used in most crimes involving guns in that year. Rifles and shotguns were used with much less frequency in committing crimes. In addition, adults aged twenty-five and older were less likely than youth aged twenty-four and younger to use semiautomatic pistols when committing crimes, but these older criminals were slightly more likely to use rifles and shotguns.

GUNS IN THE HOME

Trends in the percentages of adults having guns in their homes are presented in Table 2.6. Survey results show that 47.3% of adults had a gun in the home in 1973, compared to 32.5% of adults in 2000. After 2000, however, the percentage of people with guns in the home increased to 41.6% in 2006, perhaps in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Table 2.6 also shows that having long guns in the home (shotguns and rifles) is more popular with the American public than having handguns in the home (pistols or revolvers). In 2006, 21.7% of those with guns in the home had pistols or revolvers, whereas 49.8% had shotguns (25.1%) or rifles (24.7%). Comparing these data with that in Figure 2.1 shows that guns used in crime are predominantly handguns, whereas guns found in homes are predominantly long guns.

Guns in the Home and Safety

Do Americans believe that having guns in the home makes it a safer or a more dangerous place to be? Gallup Organization researchers have asked this question on three occasions, beginning in 2000. Frank Newport of

the Gallup Organization reveals in Americans by Slight Margin Say Gun in the Home Makes It Safer (October 20, 2006, http://www.gallup.com/poll/25090/Americans-Slight-Margin-Say-Gun-Home-Makes-Safer.aspx) that public opinion has changed on this question. In 2000, 51% of respondents thought that having a gun in the home made it a more dangerous place, whereas 35% of respondents thought that having a gun in the home made it safer. (See Figure 2.2.) By 2004 the percentage of those who thought a home with guns was more dangerous declined to 46%, whereas those who thought that homes with guns were safer increased to 42%. Newport indicates that by 2006 the decrease and increase, respectively, continued. Only 43% of respondents thought that having a gun in the home made it a more dangerous place to be, whereas 47% thought that having a gun in the home made it a safer place to be.

When the 2006 responses are shown by subgroup, differences in feelings among the subgroups on this issue become apparent. Newport notes that in 2006, 56% of male respondents thought that having guns in the home made it a safer place to be, whereas only 39% of female respondents felt the same way. (See Table 2.7.) People in the South (56%) were more likely than those in the West (48%), Midwest (41%), and East (41%) to think that guns made a home safer. A large majority (63%) of rural inhabitants thought guns made the home safer, compared to urban (40%) and suburban residents (45%). Republicans (53%) were more likely than Democrats (41%) to agree that having a gun in the home makes it a safer place to be.

Guns in the Home and Homicide

Guns in the home can be used to protect those in the home from intruders, but are they associated with a risk of increased injury and death to those residing in the home? The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports in “Crime Characteristics” (December 19, 2007, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict_c.htm) that approximately one-quarter of the violent crimes committed in the United States in 2005 occurred in or around victims' homes. This relationship has been known in the past as well. Thus, studies have been conducted to explore the relationship between guns and crime in the home.

A study on gun ownership and homicide in the home was conducted by Linda L. Dahlberg, Robin M. Ikeda, and Marci-jo Kresnow and reported in “Guns in the Home and Risk of a Violent Death in the Home: Findings from a National Study” (American Journal of Epidemiology, vol. 160, no. 10, 2004). The researchers' results show an association between guns in the home and risk of violent death. Their data also show a strong association between guns in the home and risk of dying from a firearm-related homicide. However, Dahlberg, Ikeda, and Kresnow find that men are more likely to be the victims of homicides in homes with guns than women. The researchers also note that more than three-quarters of homicide victims knew the person who killed them and that this person was often a family member. Thus, most homicide victims in homes with guns were not shot by unknown intruders.

In “Homicide and Suicide Risks Associated with Firearms in the Home: A National Case-Control Study” (Annals of Emergency Medicine, vol. 41, no. 6, 2003), Douglas J. Wiebe investigates homicide in the home by comparing those who lived in homes with guns to those who did not. Wiebe determines that adults in homes with guns were about one and a half times as likely to be intentionally killed in the home as those without guns in the home. His data, unlike the Dahlberg, Ikeda, and Kresnow data, show that the risk was higher for women than for men. In addition, Wiebe's results reveal that women with guns in the home were about two to four times as likely to be intentionally killed as women without guns in the home. Further analysis reveals that a gun in the home was a risk factor for homicide by means of a firearm but not by other means.

Guns in the Home and Unintentional Gunshot Fatalities

Wiebe also investigates unintentional gunshot fatalities in “Firearms in U.S. Homes as a Risk Factor for Unintentional Gunshot Fatality” (Accident Analysis and Prevention, vol. 35, no. 5, September 2003) by comparing those who lived in homes with guns to those who did not. Wiebe finds that people with guns in the home were approximately two to seven times more likely to be killed by being shot unintentionally than those who did not have guns in the home. The risk was slightly lower in homes with long guns only (rifles and shotguns), compared to homes with handguns only (pistols and revolvers) or homes with handguns and long guns.

Guns in the Home and Suicide

Wiebe and Dahlberg, Ikeda, and Kresnow also examine the risk of suicide by firearm for those who lived in homes with guns. Results of both studies reveal an increased risk of firearm suicide in homes with guns. Wiebe's data show that people who had a firearm in the home were about thirteen to twenty-two times more likely to commit suicide with a gun than people not living in homes with guns. People who had guns in the home were less likely to commit suicide by means other than guns than those who did not have guns in the home. Dahlberg, Ikeda, and Kresnow find similar results. More specifically, they find that those with guns in the home were about twenty to fifty times more likely to have died from suicide committed with a firearm than from suicide committed with another method.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PRIVATELY OWNED FIREARMS AND THEIR OWNERS

Lisa Hepburn et al. conducted a national telephone survey in 2004 “to explore the characteristics of privately owned firearms in the US” and reported their findings in “The U.S. Gun Stock: Results from the 2004 National Firearms Survey” (Injury Prevention, vol. 13, no. 1, 2007). The researchers determined that 33% of the firearms owned in the United States were rifles, 21% were shotguns, 20% were revolvers, 14% were semiautomatic pistols, 6% were other long guns, 5% were other handguns, and 1% were other guns.

The demographic characteristics of the owners of these firearms are shown in Table 2.8. According to Hepburn et al., in 2004 gun ownership varied with many factors including gender, geographic location, military service, age, and race. Men (42%) were far more likely to own guns than were women (11%). More respondents in the South (32%) said they owned a firearm, compared to 27% of those in the Midwest, 24% of those in the West, and 17% of those in the Northeast. Veterans of military service (53%) were much more likely to own a firearm than those currently in the military (31%) or people with no military service (22%). People aged forty-five to sixty-four years were the most likely to own a firearm (30%), compared to those over sixty-five (27%) or those aged twenty-five to forty-four (26%). People younger than twenty-five years were the least likely to own a firearm (16%). Whites were twice as likely to own a gun (30%) than nonwhites (15%).

REASONS FOR OWNING OR NOT OWNING A GUN

The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) of the University of Chicago has been conducting social science research on a variety of topics since its establishment in 1941. The General Social Survey (GSS), which began in 1972 and monitors social change in the United States, is one of the NORC's major survey projects. The National Gun Policy Survey is included in the GSS, but not all questions are asked with each survey. Tom W. Smith of the NORC indicates in 1997–98 National Gun Policy Survey of the National Opinion Research Center :

Research Findings (September 1998, http://www2.norc.org/online/guns97.pdf) that participants in the survey who did not personally own a gun were asked to give reasons for not owning a firearm. The major reason, given by 35.2%, was a lack of interest in having a gun. Other reasons included opposition to guns on ethical grounds (11.6%), having children in the house (11%), and feeling that guns were more a threat than a source of protection (8.4).

In 2001 National Gun Policy Survey of the National Opinion Research Center: Research Findings (December 2001,http://www.mindchanging.com/politics/guncontrolsurvey.pdf), Smith examines the gun-carrying behaviors of gun owners and the prevalence of such behaviors based on the most recent data available on this topic. He indicates that in 2001 Americans carried guns for a number of reasons: target practice (70.1%), hunting (46.7%), protection (41.6%), and work purposes (10.7%). (See Table 2.9.) Smith also measures how often owners carried their guns, where they took their guns, how they carried their weapons, and whether they had a permit to carry a weapon (33.3% did, whereas 62.3% did not).

Smith discusses how gun ownership made the owner feel. For a significant majority of the people interviewed

in 2001, carrying a gun resulted in feelings of safety and protection (59.4%). (See Table 2.9.) Yet, in 9.8% of the respondents, carrying a gun made them feel less safe. For 26.5% of the respondents, they felt the same whether they carried a gun or not.

Smith presents a further breakdown of gun ownership behavior by sociodemographics, based on data found in the 2001 NORC National Gun Policy Survey. Regarding gender, more men than women carried a gun for work (13.2% versus 4.8%), carried a gun for protection (42.7% versus 39%), usually carried their gun unloaded (43.5% versus 31.5%), and carried their gun in their car (53% versus 48.2%). (See Table 2.10.) However, more women (61.5%) than men (54.2%) carried their gun concealed. Regarding race, more African-Americans than whites carried a gun for work (16.3% versus 9.8%), carried a gun for protection (57% versus 40.2%), usually carried their gun unloaded (46.5% versus 39.7%), and carried their gun concealed (60.3% versus 54.6%). However, more whites (53%) than African-Americans (49.4%) carried their gun in their car.

CARRYING HANDGUNS

According to the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action (2008, http://www.nraila.org/images/rtcmaplg.jpg), as of 2006 thirty-six states had passed “shall-issue” laws. These laws require local officials to issue a concealed handgun carry permit to anyone who applies, unless the applicant is prohibited by law from carrying a weapon. Vermont does not require a permit for any adult who is legally allowed to possess a firearm. Alabama, Connecticut, and Iowa will generally issue a permit to people who would qualify for a permit in a shall-issue state. However, their statutes are not completely shall-issue. The remaining ten states generally do not allow handguns to be carried in public areas or allow only limited permits.

According to Smith, the 2001 NORC National Gun Policy Survey asked participants whether they carried handguns outside of their homes within the past year. Over 20% of respondents said yes. Of those, only 33% had a permit to carry the gun and 38% said they usually carried their gun loaded.

WOMEN AND GUNS

The number of females who own firearms can only be estimated, and these estimates vary. In “Changes in Firearm Ownership among Women, 1980–1994” (Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, vol. 86, no. 1, autumn 1995), Tom W. Smith and Robert J. Smith of the NORC show that female gun ownership increased slightly between 1980 and 1994—from an estimated 10.5% of women in 1980 to 12.7% in 1994. The researchers conclude that even though gun manufacturers had begun targeting the female market beginning in the early 1980s, women were little more likely to buy guns in 1994 than they had been in 1980.

Smith notes in 1997–98 National Gun Policy Survey of the National Opinion Research Center that by 1997–98 only 11.4% of the female population in the United States owned a gun. Hepburn et al. indicate that this figure was the same in 2004. (See Table 2.8.) Joseph Carroll of the Gallup Organization reports in Gun Ownership and Use in America (November 22, 2005,http://www.gallup.com/poll/20098/Gun-Ownership-Use-America.aspx) that in 2005, 13% of women owned guns.

Why do women buy guns? Peggy Tartaro reveals in “Readers by the Numbers” (Women & Guns, May–June 2004) that female gun owners are motivated to buy a gun primarily out of a general concern for their safety. Other reasons include a specific response to a crime committed against them or someone they know.