The number of gun owners in America...

AND ?? How many cars does the average American have? Any idea of how many hammers they have? Owning a hammer or a car does not make a murderer, neither does a firearm. I live in on of the highest firearm per capita country in the world and whilst murders HAVE increase in recent years they do not average more than 15 a year. So what is your agenda?

My agenda? Oh, that's easy. I want to own more hammers.
Currently, I have at least 8 regular hammers of different sizes. Usually, when I cannot find one, I'll run to the hardware store and buy another. Most are the small ones used for detailed work, like hammering headless nails in picture frame molding. I used to have a big (freakin) hammer for roofing trusses, but I sold my house and it was bought in a yard sale.

I don't own a ballpeen hammer. Not that I need one, but it would be cool to own one.

A straight claw hammer with a fiberglass handle should be on the list. I was a helper on my first job in a cabinet shop. It must have been around 1974 and the installer cut something wrong. He was so angry that he swung the hammer into the countertop (claw first - of course) and drove that b*tch so deep into the top he struggled to pull it out. The top was wasted and he got fired.
I was so impressed at the damage a claw hammer could do, I think I should own one in this lifetime!

Let me know if you need to see photos of the different types of hammers.

You're good at those detouring statements. I'm surprised you didn't mention more people die from lung cancer than by guns. That's always a good deterrent of conversation.

Now, you want to know how many knives Jeffrey Ferguson had in his house?
That's a tough one...

Let's see. I'm guessing they had their everyday service for 8, then they had service for 10 only used on holidays. His wife probably had a knife block with 6 steak knives, 2 larger ones and a meat cleaver. Thanksgiving, they probably brought out the electric knife... if that counts.
He must have had a razor knife in the garage and at least one fishing knife.

My answer is 30.
Yeah, final answer is 30.

Where do you think he stashed the rifle?

I noticed you like to be politically correct on every issue too... that must also make you a good liberal. Glad we see things the same.

Chat, I believe that framing hammer( that would be the freaking big one) fell off a truss and hit you in the head sometime ago. Constantly going off on people because you don't like their comment. Smh! Didn't you get your nap in today? So grumpy!

Low.. back so soon?
Happy Friday.
I LOVE comments and I'm not 'going off' on anyone here... it's a delightful humorous reply.

Running errands this morning, I was able to stop by the Italian market and did a quick shop of cooked food. Lasagna with meat sauce... it was delicious.
I got the nap right after lunch. No reason to be grumpy.

I'll say it again... No reason to be grumpy.
I bid 5 projects this week and sold 4 of them !!
That surprised me they responded so soon.
First of the month and BAM!!

Now, regarding hammers, I recommend you stop by Lows or The Home Depot and visit the tool department. Check out one of the 28 ounce framing hammers.
Go ahead, wield that daddy and see how well it's balanced. Impressive?
You betcha!
Just be careful you don't swing it near the salesman or he will call security and have you escorted out of the store.



At $35 bucks, you simply cannot go wrong.
You got a tool box big enough for one?

There you go with that 'liberal shit' again. They must be living rent free in your mind.

@hoo curious piece of cherry-picking indeed. Why didn't you choose shotguns with even more favourable statistic? of the 14 odd thousand counted in that table 11.5+ thousand were by firearm - around 80% - and knives were about 7%. But you want to quibble about knives? Statistics is clearly not a forte of yours, hmmm? For comparison, murder weapon of choice in Australia is indeed knife (38%), followed by beating (27%). The gun murder rate (per 100k) in Oz is < 1.0 whereas it is >12.0 in US
@riz The numbers are inconsistent however since the same site quotes 21k for 2020 and an increase of 6% for 2021 (also 21-22k), yet the numbers displayed amount only to 14k or so.

@hoo Oh, I see Texas accounts for 10% of US murders, whereas Arizona only contributes a meagre 1%! You Good ol boys need to get a move on! Texans murder at more than double your rate per capita, shame on you!

We should all note tthat the FBI statistics include lawful and justifiable shootings as well as illegal homicides. By far the greatest method of firearms death in America is actually suicide and not murder. We should also note the statistics often cited for how many guns are in America is ludicrously pm tje ;low side as the 'official' count is based on firearms made after 1968 (the year US gun laws began requiring licensed manufacturers (the largest portion of gun makers) to report their numbers to the ATF. Guns made prior to 1968 usually work just fine and with reasonable maintenance should do so for at least 200 years.

[I myself own about a dozen made more than 150 years ago and they all work just fine. Yes finding ammunition for some of the older ones is virtually impossible and I have to shape my own brass and make the rounds from scratch, melt lead into bullets, make gun powder, make primers, etc. Quite doable and a good way to pass a rainy or snowy day.]

Anyway, I missed the 2023 statistics but the last time I remember reading an ATF report on such it claimed only about 180 million in the US. I am not sure if that number includes the millions of guns America and private citizens have supplied to places like Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq (and lately per news reports) Mexico. The number however is pretty small compared to the reality as there are many types of firearm models whose numbers produced are in the multiples of millions. For instance a Winchester 1894 I bought in 1994 has a serial number in the high 8 millions.. Serial numbers, although used by some makers since the early 1800s were never required for new guns until 1968. Most makers saw no need for a serial number viewing it only as a not needed production expense since until 1958 anyone could buy as many as they wanted with no questions asked. Some makers use an Alphanumeric numbering system, i.e., A00001 up through A99999 at which point they switch to B00001 up to B99999, then go to C, D etc. When the finish Z they go to AB00001, etc. There is at least one maker with numbers made floating around FK#####. Like cars and beers consumers keep the production lines running.

Are there Americans legally prohibited from ever owning or even touching a gun? Yes, literally millions of them. ATF calls them prohibited persons. Felons, individuals adjudicated to be insane, illegal aliens, people under indictment (like Trump), etc. Are their people who never had the chance to own one? Yes. Potential victims all. When criminals identify them and think the unarmed folk have something, they will eventually show up to take it, whatever it be.

I have no idea why OP assumes the judge 'stashed' the gun. It is perfectly legal to just throw it in the morning trash if you don't want it anymore. A gun shop owner who decided to get out of the business made news earlier this year when trash men discovered the two trash dumpsters behind his now closed store contained over 200 ARs and various other guns along with tens of thousands of various kinds of rounds of ammunition. I will agree that was a little irresponsible, but ATF, FBI and the local police determined it was perfectly legal. His property he could do what he wanted with it. It is still legal in many places to simply give a gun away. I have given several as gifts to people lawfully allowed to own one, while other people have legally given me guns as gifts. I would not describe any of those gifts as a 'stashing 'of the gun.

Then we get into the guns made in a home, the so called ghost gun. Before 1990 there were only a few thousand of those, but technology changes and tools get better. A college degree (accredited) I recently (2020, had to do something to avoid boredom during Covid) earned required me to make at home, not one, but 3 different types of working ghost guns as part of the degree process. For fun afterwards I made a 4th kind with a different operation system than the others

@ken your 'by far' is an overstatement, although it is indeed a small majority - 54% are suicides, 43% murders. The institutional legal shooting is in fact excluded, but amounts to around 1000 shot by police. The FBI figures quoted above are strictly murders.

But does it also include justifiable shootings by crime victims fighting off their attackers or have those been somehow blurred into other categories?

@luk what do you mean? Approximately 40% of adult Americans own an average of 3 guns each. SA has fewer than 6m weapons for 40m adults - by comparison US is armed to the teeth.

wow!
that pic is pure hammer porn, Chat!

Reminds me of a song Led Zeppelin ripped from an old blues singer..
He banged her all night long!

I would like to remind everyone how/why I started this blog:

I commented on a blog last week referencing the number of guns sold in America versus the population. I felt the connection may be inaccurate because many gun owners have several guns making it appear that each American owned a gun.

My example: Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, who was arrested for the murder his wife. Police found 47 weapons and more than 26,000 rounds of ammunition during a search of his home.

Let's not get into a pissing contest about guns, governments, etc. to prove some unnecessary point.

Seems quite hard to locate any reliable information. Bit I found that may offer some estimation includes:
There are more than 81 million gun owners that live in America. However, that number still doesn't do justice to the sheer number of guns in the country. As of 2021, guns per capita in the U.S. reached a staggering 120.5 guns for every 100 residents.

In 2017, there was estimated to be near 400 million guns in the United States between police, the military, and American civilians. Over 393 Million (Over 98%) of those guns are in civilian hands, the equivalent of 120 firearms per 100 citizens.
In 2023, the number of firearms in America is around 466 million due to record breaking sales during the pandemic.
There were approximately 18.8 million firearms purchased in 2021. This is slightly down from 2020, which set an all time record for number of guns purchasing in a year with an estimated 21.5 million firearm sales. These numbers are calculated using the FBI’s background check records.

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Gunmakers have produced more firearms for the U.S. market in recent years than ever before.

Between 2015 and 2019, gunmakers produced more than 13 million guns a year on average for the U.S. market, the ATF data shows, a figure that includes both domestic manufacturing and imports. In 2020, record demand spurred by the pandemic meant a total of 17 million guns hit the domestic market.

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Gun violence is a leading cause of premature death in the U.S. Guns kill more than 38,000 people and cause nearly 85,000 injuries each year. As a longtime advocate for violence prevention policies, APHA recognizes a comprehensive public health approach to addressing this growing crisis is necessary.

Everyone wants the newest and best gun. Every few years another design is deemed to be the best one. So a gun owner gets that one and the last year's best sits in his gun safe / vault. Then next year there is a newer, "better" design, so they buy that one and move the other one to the collection vault. Or (rarely) sell it. One never knows, sometimes what one gun writer claims is the best, turns out to be junk when you actually buy it. The Remington R51 pistol comes to mind as a for instance example. What a lemon that turned out to be. So bad even selling a used one was hard. Internal parts made of soft plastic that self destructed after 100 shots turning the pistol into a fishing weight. Most new designs aren't that bad. Some are okay, some are pretty good.

Another issue causing multiple gun ownership is some firearms are pretty decent at one task, but horrid at others. The rifle great for taking antelope at 800 yards (they don't normally let humans get closer than that) is pretty useless for concealed self defense carry. That small easily concealed pistol will make a charging Brown Bear really angry if you try to shoot him with that. That big magnum pistol that stretches the bear out dead is a pretty poor choice for skeet shooting. That shotgun can't hit the side of a barn past 100 yards. And on and on. A small .22 rifle for squirrel and rabbit hunting. A .22 pistol for plinking tin cans. That old 19th century Sharps Buffalo rifle or British Brown Bess (or Martini Henry) looks great hanging over the fireplace. Etc.

I totally understand the logic about the need for specialized weapons.
The same applies to fishermen with different types of rods, reels, line weights, hooks, live bait versus flies.
Guitarists with string thicknesses, single pole pickups, humbuckers, solid body, hollow body...

It looks like Jeffrey had a gun for every day of the week, am or pm.

Is it telling that America is a country raised on violence?

How so?

Of course we are. In violence in a hostile environment is how America was created. Our Westward expansion and seizure of lands from indigenous people was also accomplished through acts of violent genocide. This was done in a time frame when most government leaders idd not consider non-white, or non-Christian to actually be human. Just troublesome animals shaped like real people but also smart enough to use weapons. The discoery that some of those natives with inferior technology had gold and other precious metals on their lands did not help their cause and merely provided a profit incentive for further assaults and genocidal acts. The acts of aggressive violence were successful and many Whites became rich as a result. Although the American Civil War's Emancipation Proclamation and the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution afterwards improved the situation for former slaves of African descent, the decision of the 'civilized tribes' on the Oklahoma Reservation, previously called Indian Territory, to join the southern Confederacy during the Civil War, and the refusal of Confederate General Stand Watie, who had also been elected to the position of Principle Chief, of the "civilized tribes' of the Indian Territories to accept the surrender terms of the Appomattox Peace Treaty that ended the war for the White portion of the Confederacy while continuing to attack Union troops while also keeping slaves of their own led to all Indians being viewed as hostile War Criminals.and formally began the period the US Army calls the Indian Wars. That some Indian tribes to the West had either refused to formally join the Confederacy (the Sioux under Chief Red Cloud for instance) or in point of fact knew nothing about the US Civil War or the issues of, was utterly irrelevant to most of White society.

Any Indian off a US Army Reservation was viewed as fair game, and indeed at least one North central US State which had no Army Reservations offered a cash bounty for the head (of any sex or age) found in the state. as a means of clearing them from the state.

<As Ken19 I had posted a link a half decade ago to a photo of a19th century newspaper announcement of the bounty offer. Someone else can hunt for it if desired.>

In many areas the killing of a native indigenous aborigine was not considered a major crime in western territories and it was not until the early 20th century that it became an act of murder in all states. Prior to that bored young men hunted Indians for sport and Indian women when caught were viewed in the West as disposable chattel. While the US Army managed the Reservations Indians were for the most part forbidden to leave them. That the food supply was inadequate was irrelevant. Geneva Convention Accords regarding the treatment of prisoners did not yet exist. When control of the Reservations was taken away from the Army and transferred to the Department of the Interior is when things began to change.

Similar attitudes existed towards the so-called Yellow (Asians) in America. They were considered closer to being human, but not quite. In most cities they needed special permission to live anyplace but in designated China Towns. Their treatment was not good and many died working as indentured servants for US railroads and ship builders by order of their Empress.back in China.

Laws and government attitudes changed and everyone became people. The passage of the Civil Rights Act and the later Eqial Employment Opportunity Act made everyone legally equal. Many Whites who lost jobs or money via the results of those legislative changes resented them and passed the resentments to their children. At the same time some emancipated in the 1960s by those acts seek revenge and teach their children the Whites are evil. So some non-government sanctioned racial violence still occurs. Some older politicians wish for a return

Which book?

The invasion of Ukraine lies solely with Putin, that you believe his lies is up to you, blaming a US President who had zero input is just a sign of your agenda against Biden, rather than looking at all the facts.

.

Judge Jeffrey Ferguson age 72, is older than I am. He grew up as an Army brat in a time frame when any person could legally buy any kind of gun via mail, even machine guns (if the barrel was plugged with lead, and or the bolt spot welded shut aka DEWATS). He was 17 before the passage of the 1968 Gun Control Act (GCA) restricted his ability to buy a handgun. Before that many youngsters in America had routinely been given firearms as gifts at various ages as their parents wished, or simply bought one in a local store with allowance money. It was a time when it was perfectly legal for a man to physically disciplin a wife if he felt the woman's acts or comments or attire neexed some corrective disciplin (rule of thumb). It was also a time when hunting was a much more widespread activity.

I wouldn't overly focus on the number of guns he had considering his age and the culture he grew up in. Rather instead I would be curious about their age. A typical standard battery for an American is a pistol for self defense, a .22 rimfire for small game hunting, a high(er) powered rifle for larger game hunting, and a shotgun for bird hunting. Many, many Americans had at least those four by the time the Judge first attended college in the 1970s. I don't see a detailed inventory list of the 47 guns, but it is normal for Americans to hang on to their first guns as sentimental objects provided by family members. Often in addition to whatever guns parents or friends provided as a gift, the act of inheritance sometimes results in also acquiring a departed relative (grandparents, uncle, aunt, etc.) own battery when they die. Sometimes those are old or rare enough to be considered valuable, collectible items. Let;s imagine he had his original 4 guns, then inherited 5 or 6 more from various relatives by the time he was 30. Not unusual. So there is the first 10 guns. Then as a grown adult he learns of nicer, better, guns. <I would love to be able to afford throwing money at a custom Holland & Holland or similar custom weapon. If I had worked as an attorney, possibly I would have.> The phenomena of new and better (and cooler) enters into the game. When I salt water fish I often use an old Penn Delmar or Surf Master (metal spooled of course). However just a few weeks ago I handled (and drooled) over a nice Penn Senator reel and balanced pole someone had for sale at a local flea market. If I had had the price he wanted in my wallet I would have bought that instead of the used chain saw I needed. Imppulse buying applies to guns too. Since the weapon used to shoot his wife (I understand what happened and it looks like unintentional homicide while drunk to me) was a small Glock .40 small enough for his ankle holster, obviously he fell victim at some point to teh newer and 'better' phenomena. Otherwise it would have probably been an old Detective Special or S&W J frame .38. 'Better' is subjective. Those old revolvers require a serious intentional pull of the trigger. Simple careless touching of the trigger is all a Glock needs to go off. Never point any gun at something you don't really want to destroy. That includes a wife you are angry at who goads you. Leave the gun alone.

Anyway, 47 weapons.., how old were they? How many are less than 10 years old, how many are much older? Yes, if 46 of them are brand new almost identical ARs, there may be an issue, but I suspect while there may be one or two of those <ARs are currently America's most popular rifle as it is usable for small and medium game hunting as well as lighting up hostile intruders in a home (if you don't care about your neighbors).

LoL always with the Russian, poor us, thought. Actually I myself am in frequent contact with some in Ukraine (and one or two surrounding countries. I understand the conflict fully. Russia;s own Duma have publicly stated on Russia's own Federal Television the purpose of the conflict is the seizure of the natural resources of Ukraine, the total domination of the Black Sea, and the elimination of the people of Ukraine. The broadcasts about that were recorded and I have previously provided a link to one such recording. Mr. Prigozhin also stated that numerous times before Putin had him eliminated.

Actually history shows President Biden repeatedly urged Russia to not invade Ukraine and warned of bad things if they did. Putin signed the order for the invasion early on February 23, 2022, then later the same day on public TV stated there was no pending invasion. The very next day, February 24, 2022, per Putin's order Russia invaded.

Thank you for providing an opportunity for truth.

Wow, seems I made you scared, as belittling is a sure sign of someone without a valid argument.

What did I state that makes you think I'm an idiot? I stated that Putin attacked Ukraine, but I never gave a reason for that invasion.

You are so pro Russia it is pointless discussing anything with you, that you can't/won't see that Russia invading Ukraine is for a lot more than being scared NATO would be there.

Having lived and worked in Ukraine, I have a more valid opinion than some SA arsehole with a chip on his shoulder.

Good day Sir.