Tragedy underscores multiple gun-ownership trend in U.S.

[billh58]

[center][/center]

WASHINGTON — By all accounts, Nancy Lanza's enthusiasm for guns prompted her to acquire at least four firearms, three of which were recovered inside a Connecticut school where her 20-year-old son launched an assault that left 20 children and six staffers dead.

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An estimated 20% of gun owners possess 65% of the nation's guns, according to a Harvard University survey published in 2007.

A separate review by the General Social Survey, part of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, has tracked a slow decline in the portion of Americans who own guns, from 29% in 1980 to about 21% in 2010.

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Last year, an analysis of the General Social Survey findings by the Violence Policy Center, an advocacy group for stricter gun control, attributed the ownership decline to a variety of reasons, including the aging of the existing gun owning population — primarily white males — and the prevalence of single-parent homes headed by women. The center's analysis also showed that one out of 10 females owned a gun in 2010.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/19/tragedy-stresses-multiple-gun-ownership-trend-in-us/1781285/

Further findings from the survey showed that almost 48% of individual gun owners reported owning four or more guns. The actual numbers based on the estimates shown above equate to 16 million gun owners (20% of 80 million) owning 195 million guns (65% of 300 million) or an average of 12 guns per gun "collector." The other 64 million sane and reasonable American gun owners by-and-large agree with the need for more strict gun control and accountability.

The right-wing NRA and Second Amendment absolutist crowd's claims of an increase in first-time gun buyers is not borne out by the facts. More gun fanatics are buying more guns, while overall gun sales are rapidly declining. This stockpiling of lethal weapons may help to explain the high number of "illegal" guns flooding our streets, and the high level of gun violence in this nation. While overall violent crime rates are declining, death from gun violence is not and is expected to exceed automobile deaths by as early as next year.

Until our legislators at all levels of government are held accountable for their corrupt pandering to the right-wing gun lobby and it's campaign money, we will continue to be plagued by the public health menace of gun violence. The excuse by so-called "conservative Democrats" that they must support the NRA or be voted out has been proven in Virginia and elsewhere to be pure and utter bullshit.

Vote for those Democrats who stand up to the right-wing gun lobby, and support their courage in any way that you can.

[Jgarrick]

1. Given the unlikelihood of passing legislation restricting ownership of multiple firearms,

what solution do you propose (if any) that would address this problem?

[billh58]

2. Welcome back

and what took you so long Bubba? Now run on back to the Gungeon and tell them how you really told those "grabbers" off.

[tosh]

3. I would propose vast expansion of mental health care.

[Jgarrick]

4. Works for me.

[tosh]

5. Gun-hoarding, you know.

[billh58]

7. Gun hoarders call

themselves and their gun buddies who amass arsenals "collectors" in order to make their gun nuttery paranoia seem less psychotic.

[billh58]

6. Do you have a computer

program that picks these screen names for you? The last few have been really inventive.