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Is the great American Gun Nut a dying species?
The Myth of the Rise in Female Gun Ownership
As gun sales have surged, stories on rising female gun ownership have become a staple for local and national news outlets. The sheer frequency of such headlines gives them the ring of truth. But the best available data says their sweeping conclusions don’t hold up.
The CBS News and Lake News reports were each sourced to a survey of gun dealers by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), who told the group that they were seeing more female gun buyers. The catch is that the NSSF survey and others like it, researchers say, are based on anecdotal evidence that does not reflect reality.
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The GSS report has not prevented a credulous press from publishing stories based on the faulty studies. Gun advocates and trade groups continue to push such stories, perhaps because of another trend made clear in the GSS data: While the number of female gun owners has remained essentially the same over that last 30-plus years, the proportion of men who own guns has steadily declined over that same period. From 1980 to 1990, between 44 and 52 percent of male respondents said they owned a gun. In the past five years, that number has averaged close to 35 percent.
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. . . it doesn’t appear that the gun industry has been able to introduce significantly more women to shooting. Instead, the statistics suggest that the gun business depends on a shrinking group of customers — male and female — who buy more and more weapons. Stories about first-time female gun owners, even if they’re based more on anecdotes than hard evidence, obscure that unsettling fact.
As gun sales have surged, stories on rising female gun ownership have become a staple for local and national news outlets. The sheer frequency of such headlines gives them the ring of truth. But the best available data says their sweeping conclusions don’t hold up.
The CBS News and Lake News reports were each sourced to a survey of gun dealers by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), who told the group that they were seeing more female gun buyers. The catch is that the NSSF survey and others like it, researchers say, are based on anecdotal evidence that does not reflect reality.
====
The GSS report has not prevented a credulous press from publishing stories based on the faulty studies. Gun advocates and trade groups continue to push such stories, perhaps because of another trend made clear in the GSS data: While the number of female gun owners has remained essentially the same over that last 30-plus years, the proportion of men who own guns has steadily declined over that same period. From 1980 to 1990, between 44 and 52 percent of male respondents said they owned a gun. In the past five years, that number has averaged close to 35 percent.
====
. . . it doesn’t appear that the gun industry has been able to introduce significantly more women to shooting. Instead, the statistics suggest that the gun business depends on a shrinking group of customers — male and female — who buy more and more weapons. Stories about first-time female gun owners, even if they’re based more on anecdotes than hard evidence, obscure that unsettling fact.
http://www.thetrace.org/2016/03/female-gun-ownership-debunked/
Cue the gunners; "The GSS is wrong because I wouldn't tell any one I have a gun!" They say the same thing about the CDC except the ONE TIME it cited Kleck's faulty study that says there are 2 million defensive gun uses a year in which case they were on the CDC like a duck on a junebug. Nobody with a gun will admit to owning one but they're only too proud to claim using it in self defense? Wishful thinking much?
If the GSS isn't enough how about words from the gun industry itself:
“If we don’t improve at cultivating new hunters and shooters, the sport we love and industry we work in will eventually die away. That’s a strong diagnosis, but a realistic one. Like many enthusiast sports in this busy, competitive world, people are leaving faster than new ones are coming in — and this is a recipe for industry-wide trouble down the road.”
“Shooting for a New Audience: Reaching New Demographics is Critical to Our Industry,” Shooting Sports Retailer, May/June 2007
“We’re talking about a tiny gun intended for the very youngest shooters — the ultimate first gun. ‘We’re targeting the six- to 12-year-old range....’ With the number of hunters declining, it’s crucial to get kids introduced to the sport as early as possible. The HotShot [youth rifle] means that even the youngest shooters now have a gun sized just for them.”
“Test Fire: Thompson/Center HotShot,” NRA Family, January 2, 2014
Don't hold your breath thinking the gunners will accept any of this. They'd rather believe whatever the gun industry tells them, like smart guns are un-reliable and suppressors (silencers) are a hearing protection safety accessory. If the gun makers say it, it's true!
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