Happiness is a warm gun!

[red-beard]

Trigger Happy

By ARTHUR C. BROOKS
April 19, 2008

In words that he has come to regret, Barack Obama opined as to why he was having a hard time winning over many blue-collar voters: "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or antitrade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
It was a throwaway line to a private audience at a San Francisco fund-raiser. And it was made public on a liberal Internet blog, not by right-wing commentators. But Mr. Obama's opponents seized on the quote. It was evidence, they claimed, that he is "elitist," caricaturing middle Americans as gun-toting, immigrant-despising, religious rednecks – who are also deeply unhappy people. And as a contrite Mr. Obama admitted, "I am the first to admit that some of the words I chose, I chose badly."
The comment may or may not be an indication of Mr. Obama's real views about those ordinary Americans who've not enjoyed the full fruits of economic growth over the past decades. Yet his casual portrayal no doubt had heads nodding vigorously in assent among his supporters, and probably among many others.
That anybody would find this portrayal realistic illustrates how little some Americans know about their neighbors. And nothing reveals the truth better than the data on guns.
According to the 2006 General Social Survey, which has tracked gun ownership since 1973, 34% of American homes have guns in them. This statistic is sure to surprise many people in cities like San Francisco – as it did me when I first encountered it. (Growing up in Seattle, I knew nobody who owned a gun.)
Who are all these gun owners? Are they the uneducated poor, left behind? It turns out they have the same level of formal education as nongun owners, on average. Furthermore, they earn 32% more per year than nonowners. Americans with guns are neither a small nor downtrodden group.
Nor are they "bitter." In 2006, 36% of gun owners said they were "very happy," while 9% were "not too happy." Meanwhile, only 30% of people without guns were very happy, and 16% were not too happy.
In 1996, gun owners spent about 15% less of their time than nonowners feeling "outraged at something somebody had done." It's easy enough in certain precincts to caricature armed Americans as an angry and miserable fringe group. But it just isn't true. The data say that the people in the approximately 40 million American households with guns are generally happier than those people in households that don't have guns.
The gun-owning happiness gap exists on both sides of the political aisle. Gun-owning Republicans are more likely than nonowning Republicans to be very happy (46% to 37%). Democrats with guns are slightly likelier than Democrats without guns to be very happy as well (32% to 29%). Similarly, holding income constant, one still finds that gun owners are happiest.
Why are gun owners so happy? One plausible reason is a sense of self-reliance, in terms of self-defense or even in terms of the ability to hunt their own dinner.
Many studies over the years have shown that a belief in one's control over the environment dramatically adds to happiness. Example: a famous study of elderly nursing home patients in the 1970s. It showed dramatic improvements in life satisfaction from elements of control as seemingly insignificant as being able to care for one's plants.
A bit of evidence that self-reliance is at work among gun owners comes from the General Social Survey. It asked whether one agrees with the statement, "Those in need have to take care of themselves." In 2004, gun owners were 10 percentage points more likely than nonowners to agree (60% to 50%).
That response is not evidence that gun owners only care about themselves, however. In 2002, they were more likely to give money to charity than people without guns (83% to 75%). This charity gap doesn't reflect their somewhat higher incomes. Gun owners were also more likely to give in other ways, such as donating blood. Are gun owners unsentimental? In 2004, they were more likely than those without guns to strongly agree that they would "endure all things" for the one they loved (45% to 37%).
None of this is to dictate what gun policy should be in our nation and its communities, let alone whether gun owners deserve to be happier than those of us without firearms. Guns are an important area of debate about freedom and security, not to mention constitutionality. What we do know, however, is that contrary to the implication of Mr. Obama's comments, for many Americans, happiness often does indeed involve a warm gun.
Mr. Brooks, a professor at Syracuse University's Maxwell School and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is the author of the just-published "Gross National Happiness" (Basic Books).

[Joeaksa]

Why is a gun better than a woman?

#10 - You can trade an old 44 for a new 22.

#9 - You can keep one gun at home and have another for when you are on-the-road.

#8 - If you admire a friend's gun and tell him so, he will probably let you try it out a few times.

#7 - Your primary gun doesn't mind if you keep another gun for a backup.

#6 - Your gun will stay with you even if you run out of ammo.

#5 - A gun doesn't take up a lot of closet space.

#4 - A gun functions normally every day of the month.

#3 - A gun doesn't ask, 'Do these grips make me look fat?'.

#2 - A gun doesn't mind if you go to sleep after you use it.



And, the #1 reason a gun is favored over a woman...............






YOU CAN BUY A SILENCER FOR A GUN!!!

[onewhippedpuppy]

Taking PPOT as a microcosm of society, there is a large contingent of gun owners. Those who frequent this BBS are probably, on average, above average earners. Not exactly poor rednecks.

C'mon, lets face facts here. Guns are expensive. So is ammo. You have to have a little spare money to collect or shoot guns. So it's no shock that most gun owners are not poor homeless people. No real shock that Obama is disconnected from this reality.

[red-beard]

And it costs money to support the NRA to keep people, like Obama, and their grubby little hands off my guns!

[9dreizig]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Taking PPOT as a microcosm of society, there is a large contingent of gun owners. Those who frequent this BBS are probably, on average, above average earners. Not exactly poor rednecks.

C'mon, lets face facts here. Guns are expensive. So is ammo. You have to have a little spare money to collect or shoot guns. So it's no shock that most gun owners are not poor homeless people. No real shock that Obama is disconnected from this reality.

Are you forgetting about the thugs that steal them ?? Oh wait, that's a bunch of Obama's constituety....

[legion]

That article confirms my belief that one's views on guns (especially politicians) is a good proxy for how one views the greater issue of personal responsibility.

[competentone]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

C'mon, lets face facts here. Guns are expensive. So is ammo. You have to have a little spare money to collect or shoot guns.

One can own and shoot guns for a lot less than the costs for many other sports or "entertainment" activities people engage in.

One is more limited in the choices of firearms if one isn't wealthy, but firearms/gun collecting is a sport/hobby that can be enjoyed even if one is living on a pretty tight budget.

[on2wheels52]

I have figures showing 290 million firearms and 47.8 million households with one or more.
In 2005 there were 730 accidential deaths by firearms. Cars should be so safe.
Jim

[Rick Lee]

Guns are pretty far down on the list of causes of accidental deaths. I don't understand why they get so much attention when cars and swimming pools are exponentially more dangerous.

[varmint]

costs?

i'm into guns and motorcycles. my neighbor is into pot and play station. i think our hobbies cost about the same.

[speeder]

Guns make me feel warm and fuzzy. It's true what that article says. I feel more in control of my own destiny, and therefore safer and less stressed as a gun owner.

[pwd72s]

People who own firearms tend to think independently. Despots don't like people who think independently.

[HardDrive]

Funny you post this. Yesterday when I was feeling so bad, I went to the shooting range. I hadn't been there in about 2 months. Its was comforting.

There is something about the smell of gun powder that takes me back to winter mornings hunting rabbits with my dad in Michigan as a boy. The huge 'thud' from my .357 that makes everyone take a step back is pretty satisfying too!

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by speeder

Guns make me feel warm and fuzzy. It's true what that article says. I feel more in control of my own destiny, and therefore safer and less stressed as a gun owner.

You are a liberal living in Kalifornia. You cannot feel this way. Its not allowed!

Turn in your liberal member card or your gun, its one or the other!

[speeder]

Who you callin' liberal, boy?

[Gogar]

Originally Posted by on2wheels52

I have figures showing 290 million firearms and 47.8 million households with one or more.
In 2005 there were 730 accidential deaths by firearms. Cars should be so safe.
Jim

That's only slightly misleading Jim, since you left out the number of INTENTIONAL deaths.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by Gogar

That's only slightly misleading Jim, since you left out the number of INTENTIONAL deaths.

Doctors kill more people accidentally in the US every year than guns- from all shooting causes combined.

The answer is as clear as it is simple. Ban doctors.

[Gogar]

No, no. Give the doctors some guns.

[3.2 CAB]

I still have about 45 pre-ban, collector arms that I would like to be "disconnected"(using a word I borrowed from, onewhippedpuppy) from. These are not your "everyday" weapons. These come from a private collection dating back to the early 1970's. An example would be the "EBS" and the "EBR" "EBC" and "EBP" I believe the more knowledgeable firearms people know what these are. PM or EMAIL if you would like additional info. One thing, if your state does not allow high-cap mags, or "certain types" of weapons, that could be a deal breaker. Tony.

[Jim Sims]

Given that a handgun is basically a machine for the taking of human life it is not surprising that of the approximate 30,000 firearms deaths per year in the US, the majority are suicides and homicides. Firearms are the second highest non-natural cause of death (most are homicides) of US children after vehicle related deaths.

More information available from (the below paragraph is lifted from this article): http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/TUTORIAL/GUNS/GUNSTAT.html


"The issue of "home defense" or protection against intruders may well be misrepresented. Of 626 shootings in or around a residence in three U.S. cities revealed that, for every time a gun in the home was used in a self-defense or legally justifiable shooting, there were four unintentional shootings, seven criminal assaults or homicides, and 11 attempted or completed suicides (Kellermann et al, 1998). Over 50% of all households in the U.S. admit to having firearms (Nelson et al, 1987). In another study, regardless of storage practice, type of gun, or number of firearms in the home, having a gun in the home was associated with an increased risk of firearm homicide and suicide in the home (Dahlberg, Ikeda and Kresnow, 2004). Persons who own a gun and who engage in abuse of intimate partners such as a spouse are more likely to use a gun to threaten their intimate partner. (Rothman, et al) It would appear that, rather than benign use for defense, most of these weapons inflict injuries on the owners and their families."