Latest Look at Gun Buying Downright Fascinating

Americans buy a lot of guns. Many of those are gun folks buying their dozenth or so firearm, but many others are new gun owners buying for the very first time. It’s a glorious thing that we can do here in the United States that many people in other places simply cannot do. Not like we can.

Sure, some people have a problem with it, but the truth is that we’re buying guns and we’re buying a lot of them.

That’s according to a new Rasmussen poll.

A recent Rasmussen survey revealed what gun dealers and manufacturers already knew, and anti-gunners didn’t like hearing: Despite a downturn in gun sales, Americans are still buying guns, and for the past five years those purchases have surpassed one million per month.

This is happening despite efforts in several states to make buying guns increasingly difficult.

According to Rasmussen, 19 percent of American adults say they, or someone in their household, bought a gun in the past year. Sixty-four percent (64%) of all American Adults say the main reason most people purchase a gun is for self-defense, the veteran polling firm revealed, which says a lot about the public confidence in the ability of law enforcement to respond quickly to violent crime.

Headline news such as the reported raid on an underground nightclub in Colorado Springs, during which more than 100 people were arrested—allegedly many of them illegal aliens—and police recovered drugs and guns, might alarm more people enough to buy a firearm.

…

Political persuasion plays into Rasmussen’s findings. Republicans (71%) are far more likely than Democrats (60%) to believe self-defense is the primary reason for owning a gun. Among Independents, 61 percent think personal protection is the main reason. Likewise, according to Rasmussen, Republicans are more likely to say they or someone in their household bought a gun within the last year.

On the flip side, Democrats are much more likely to think it is too easy to buy a gun, Rasmussen noted.

Nothing shocking about that by any stretch, really. I’m less than thrilled that anyone would believe it’s too easy to buy a gun in this day and age, but I’m not surprised by it, either. The fact that I can walk into a gun store right now and walk out with just about anything in the store if my pockets are deep enough, regardless of what hurdles I have to clear, will always be “too easy” to some people.

But there’s another interesting tidbit that I found interesting.

And here’s an alarming—albeit maybe not surprising—revelation in the Rasmussen survey: “A majority (54%) of government employees believe it’s too easy to buy a gun nowadays, compared to 45% of private sector workers and 40% of retirees.”

While that really doesn’t necessarily play any significant factor in anything–government workers are still just one vote each–the truth is that at least some of those folks work for the ATF.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn this opinion was overrepresented at the ATF, either, though there’s no way to know that one way or the other.

Either way, it’s amusing.

The report also notes that The Trace has updated its estimate of guns in America to 512 million firearms.

My take on that?

Until every man, woman, and child has a few dozen guns, I won’t consider us even close to having enough.

As for what point hits “too many,” such a number does not exist.

If that fact makes some heads explode, well, so be it.