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SecularMotion

(7,981 posts)
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 05:50 PM Mar 2016

Out of the roughly 300 million guns in the US

How many are legal? How many are illegal?


1 vote, 3 passes | Time left: Unlimited
75% legal, 25% illegal
1 (100%)
50% legal, 50% illegal
0 (0%)
25% legal, 75% illegal
0 (0%)
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Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll
14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Out of the roughly 300 million guns in the US (Original Post) SecularMotion Mar 2016 OP
Does it matter? Do illegal guns kill faster than legal guns? Jackie Wilson Said Mar 2016 #1
How many do you want to be legal/illegal? discntnt_irny_srcsm Mar 2016 #2
I'd say 98%/2%. Very few guns are actually "illegal." Even miniguns are legal with the right papers. Decoy of Fenris Mar 2016 #3
There are very few 'illegal' guns GreydeeThos Mar 2016 #4
So, how many? SecularMotion Mar 2016 #5
The statistic you request is impossible to determine GreydeeThos Mar 2016 #6
I never had a survey call... CompanyFirstSergeant Mar 2016 #7
98% legal would be my guess. ileus Mar 2016 #8
What percentage of alcohol sales are illegal? Nuclear Unicorn Mar 2016 #9
If you want an overly inflated guestimate of illegally owned guns, ManiacJoe Mar 2016 #10
300 million is a lowball estimate now, benEzra Mar 2016 #11
Oh, criminally illegal. beardown Mar 2016 #12
law abiding gun owners, sometimes not jimmy the one Mar 2016 #13
Nice post beardown Mar 2016 #14

GreydeeThos

(958 posts)
4. There are very few 'illegal' guns
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 08:07 PM
Mar 2016

SecularMotion seems to be confusing criminals in possession of a gun as opposed to the physical piece of metal being 'illegal'.

 

SecularMotion

(7,981 posts)
5. So, how many?
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 08:16 PM
Mar 2016

Out of roughly 300 million guns, how many are owned by criminals and how many are owned by non-criminals?

GreydeeThos

(958 posts)
6. The statistic you request is impossible to determine
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 08:22 PM
Mar 2016

Most criminals do not respond to data calls about their criminal activities.

 

CompanyFirstSergeant

(1,558 posts)
7. I never had a survey call...
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 08:42 PM
Mar 2016

...and ask if I were a criminal. They just don't do that.

The problem with questions like these, is that they cannot be answered at face value because they are too vague to make sense.

Perhaps you could ask: 'How many guns in the USA...'

- Are the proceeds of a burglary, have not been recovered and returned to their owner, and therefore, by definition, are in the hands of a criminal...

- Were obtained via a 'straw purchaser' and passed on to someone not legally eligible to own one...

- Regularly carried for criminal purposes or in conjunction with other criminal activity, such as an armed drug dealer.

Those are the questions to ask.

Police departments take the task of 'getting illegal guns off the streets' very seriously.

ManiacJoe

(10,136 posts)
10. If you want an overly inflated guestimate of illegally owned guns,
Fri Mar 11, 2016, 05:59 AM
Mar 2016

look at the crime statistics and assume each crime is committed with a different gun.

benEzra

(12,148 posts)
11. 300 million is a lowball estimate now,
Wed Mar 16, 2016, 06:45 PM
Mar 2016

and I'd estimate 99%+ are owned by people who can legally own guns under Federal law.

In the few states that require registration of protruding rifle handgrips or restrict post-Civil-War magazine capacities, or in a few jurisdictions where it is easier to get a gun on the black market rather than through legal channels, I'm sure the fraction of noncompliant ownership is higher. I'm not sure I'd lump an accountant with a 15-round Beretta in the same category as an armed robber or violent felon, though, even if you don't see a difference.

I know you want to make that percentage as close to 0% as you can get it, of course...

beardown

(363 posts)
12. Oh, criminally illegal.
Thu Mar 17, 2016, 01:20 PM
Mar 2016

I thought the question was about guns illegally sneaking in across the border and taking the roles of legal guns.

I need to change my answer.

jimmy the one

(2,708 posts)
13. law abiding gun owners, sometimes not
Thu Mar 17, 2016, 01:26 PM
Mar 2016
Out of the roughly 300 million guns in the US How many are legal? How many are illegal?

75/25 is the closest to the truth, imo. I think more like 88/12 or so, 8 incrementals woulda been better, imo.

I'm also including an 'illegal' gun as one which was purchased legally but which is owned by someone who shouldn't be owning it, due improper licensing, black market purchase, stolen, illegal in his state due recent bans or other gun control laws (sometimes due a move to another state), etc.
As well as handling a legal gun by a legal owner in an illegal manner, often clandestinely, on a regular basis.
Plus smuggled in from other countries, including substandard sh*t.

How then should firearms in states with Child Access Prevention (CAP) laws be looked at? those homes with young children where the CAP law mandates firearms be stored either in gun safes, trigger locked, ammo separate, how should these guns be listed? illegal or not? those being 'illegally' or illicitly kept about the house where kids could stumble across them & shoot willy nilly (some atrocious proportion of homes in some progun states where ~30% of guns violate the CAP law).
Law abiding gun owners, are sometimes, not so abiding.

beardown

(363 posts)
14. Nice post
Thu Mar 17, 2016, 01:33 PM
Mar 2016

Good laying foundation for your numbers.

You point out an important issue is that are different levels of illegal so a second breakdown could be pct felony illegal and pct poor handling illegal which you covered with the CAP, etc type question.

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