In article , "Mr.
Luddite" says...


Other than telephone surveys, there's no possible way to determine if
gun ownership is going up or down because there's no national registry
of who owns what. You have to believe that if a stranger calls you
up and asks if you have a gun, that everyone will answer honestly. My
answer would be, "None of your business".

Manufacturing production numbers (yes, and even the resultant company
stock prices) represent a real indicator of guns being sold.
Agreed, many are split between current owners and new owners but
again, those numbers aren't readily available. However, add in the
record number of permit applications, again split between new
applicants and renewals, a logical conclusion is that gun ownership
is going up, despite what random, limited and likely biased surveys
say. If ownership was declining, so would both new permit and renewal
applications. That has not been the case. Where required, the
permit issuing agencies have been swamped. In MA, a new permit
application typically took 6 weeks to process years ago. They are now
taking as much as 6 months due to the backlog.

I don't have any answers, just suspicions about gun ownership.
Here's something from a Boston paper.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2...-toughest-gun-
control-law-made-massachusetts-less-
safe/3845k7xHzkwTrBWy4KpkEM/story.html

I don't know anything about this guy. Sounds like a typical gun nut.
Everybody knows that nobody knows the number of illegal guns.
But he says Mass knows how many legal gun are owned.
?There were nearly 1.5 million active gun licenses in Massachusetts in
1998,? the AP reported. ?In June [2002], that number was down to just
200,000.?
He contradicts you, and jps.

The current figure for legal guns in Mass should be known.
But maybe the NRA got a Fed secrecy act passed so now nobody can get
that info.
I don't believe anything I read about gun ownership.
From the guy above, you, jps, or anybody else.
Because the NRA has made it impossible to get good statistics.
They are slime. Not because guns are inherently bad, but because
the NRA are money-grubbing low-lifes who seek to hide the truth.

Personally, I think most gun purchases are made by people who already
own a gun, and want more guns. Gun nuts.
Criminals get most of their guns from gun nuts.
A much smaller percentage of gun purchases are made by responsible
people - for specific sport use or genuine self-defense concerns.
Criminals also get some of their guns.

With the "general public," I think guns are more and more looked upon as
- excuse the analogy, but it works - cigarettes.
They are found to be increasingly unacceptable.
Like cigarettes, guns won't go away, but will be more highly taxed,
regulated, and suppressed.
And it will make a difference in innocent deaths.
But the NRA will do all they can to keep that from happening.