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"Why the NRA is so powerful, in one chart"
Yep. Of course they should have referred to the gun rights movement. But, astonishingly, the article comes from The Washington Post!
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Agree with your observation, but not your implicit conclusion that the second graph is accurate; the first graph is of "an opinion" while the second graph requests a "factual representation". (As well there are many quips about statistics; no need to repeat them here.) I suggest that the increasing success of a government that promotes distrust among the populace may make it more difficult for pollsters (even objective, independent ones) to elicit participation and honesty from those that "politely" do participate.
I agree with [email protected]:02P 11/11/14 -
It has literally become more dangerous to admit that you own a gun - and the biggest danger seems to come from the government. The chances of being shot by the government seem to go down when they do not approach you, based on the mere fact of gun ownership, as if they were going up against Ma Barker and her boys.
To that end, I have stopped responding to questions about whether or not I own a gun, or how many I own, or what type(s)I own.
stay safe.
I love the first chart. However, I suggest that the second chart is biased toward negative responses because respondents are not likely to disclose that they have a gun in their home. This skews the chart so as to undercount guns in the homes.
Obvious respondent bias aside, I wonder if there may also be a sampling bias involved: the answers you get in one neighborhood may be entirely different than another, and between the two the results could change 180 degrees depending on the day that they send people going door to door.
That being said, note that the second graph does NOT purport to show the number of households that own firearms, it instead shows the percentage of households that own firearms. While the number of guns has steadily increased, and the number of gun owners has done likewise, that doesn't mean that the number of independent "households" which contain firearms has increased proportionally.
Hard to believe the number of homes with guns has not gone up over time. This doesn't square with the regular stories of dealers seeing continuing increases in the number of first time gun owners. Since "the authorities" cannot routinely search homes for guns, it's more likely that when asked about guns in the home more people are taking a "none of your business" attitude and just saying "no." I know I would, if asked.