Why Do (Some) Americans Like Guns?

I have never understood how my friends in public health do research on gun violence when they don’t know anything about guns. None of them are gun owners, none of them hang out with gun nuts, none of them are members of the gun industry’s trade group, NASGW, none of them go to the big gun shows, or the little shows, for that matter.

Meanwhile, every time that a public health researcher publishes some research on gun violence, there is also a footnote about how the work is being done to help develop more effective approaches to dealing with guns.

Would the SEC publish a new regulation covering the stock market without first passing it by Merrill-Lynch? They wouldn’t dare. Would the FDIC send out a new notice about banking rules without first consulting Bank of America or Chase? Ditto.

The most incisive analysis that public health and other gun-control researchers give us to explain how and why 300 million or 400 million guns are floating around America in private hands is the answer to the question asked in every, single survey conducted by Pew, RAND, Harvard, Hopkins, and everyone else: Why do you own a gun?

The survey respondents, if they are gun owners, are asked to choose between the following answers: (1). self-defense, (2). hunting (3). sport shooting.