Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Bark louder, little dog.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Republicans in disarray!

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Everybody saw this coming.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

This fight is for everything.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

You are here: Home / Gun Issues / Ammosexuals / Just 3% of American Adults Own 50% of the Guns

Just 3% of American Adults Own 50% of the Guns

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I have been furious every time I have looked at the computer today.

First the report that Rex Tillerson called Donald Trump a moron, or perhaps a fucking moron, quickly followed by Tillerson’s obeisance to the Master.

The continuing news about the Las Vegas shooting.

The idiocy of Trump’s visit to Puerto Rico and the way he is retarding the island’s recovery.

Continuing news of his kleptocratic family.

Tom Cotton’s bloodthirsty desire for regime change in Iran. We don’t have enough war in the Middle East now.

Nothing immediately enraging about North Korea beyond the usual.

I found this kind of amazing, though, and a source of a little bit of hope, anyway.

78% of American adults (that’s adults, not the entire population) don’t own any guns.

19% of American adults own 50% of the guns (corrected)

3% own the other 50%

So it’s that 3% that particularly need watching. More data at the link.

 

And open thread!

Reader Interactions

149Comments

  2. 2.

    CarolDuhart2

    That is a significant part of the gun fanatic frenzy. They’re down to basically the crazies now, whether or not they know they are a significant minority or not. They feel beleagured and alone in a world that doesn’t really understand them or so they think.

  6. 6.

    Major Major Major Major

    It gets crazier. America, 4% of the world’s population, owns 30% of the world’s guns, which means that .12% of the world owns 15% of the total guns, on the entire planet, and they’re all your insane fucking neighbors.

    EDIT math is hard

  8. 8.

    BKinNC

    Uh, ain’t that 103%? Unless the 3% that own the other 50% of the guns are not adults.

    And I suppose you could kinda assume that from their toy collections.

  9. 9.

    Ohio Mom

    19 + 3 = 21, which is very near that famous 27%.

    There apparently is a bell curve of sanity in this country, and the crazy tail end of it isn’t going anywhere.

  10. 10.

    patrick II

    Atop the list of the many things that pissed me off today was the news that the Trump administration was not allowing people to use their food stamps to buy hot food.

    Puerto Ricans dependant on food stamps are struggling because supermarkets that have lost power are unable to process food stamp cards, thus rendering the cards useless….Although the federal government denied the request to allow food stamps to be used for hot or pre-prepared meals, Rosselló said he was still hoping Trump’s administration would issue a waiver for the stamps—just as it did in Texas and Florida after the states were hit by hurricanes.

    What could be different about Puerto Rico?

  14. 14.

    lamh36

    Open thread…cool.

    What’s up BJers!!! Got back from my family vaykay to DC yesterday afternoon. Back to work today and my legs and feet are STILL hurting from all that walking i’m not used to. I’m TIRED AF!

    I’m was planning on writing a series of blog posts bout the family D.C. trip today, but I’m too tired and instead gonna catch up on some sleep after work!!!

    Still, my goal is to have have 2 maybe 3 new blog post ready by Saturday!! But here’s a little taste, from the “Black-sonian”!!!

    March to Montgomery (blurb)

    March to Montgomery (photo)

  19. 19.

    Warren Terra

    The comparison I’ve been making, that I find useful, is to alcohol. Gun makers and alcohol makers – by which I mean the producers of cheap, commodity beer and booze – have a strikingly similar business model.

    I’ve seen numbers a bit different from those in the post – I’ve seen it claimed that 1/3 of Americans own guns, not 22% – but everyone agrees on a few points: the proportion of Americans owning guns is going down even as the number of guns goes up. The average is now 8 guns per gun owner; I don’t know the distribution, but there’s a small number of people out there with a lot of guns. Furthermore, that’s the gun makers’ market: they make their money not by promoting gun ownership but by selling more, bigger, and scarier gun to people who already own several, or many. People who are hoarding guns and I’d suggest are exhibiting pathological behavior.

    Now, compare that to alcohol: only about 1/3 Americans drinks alcohol in a quantity or with a frequency worth mentioning (another half drinks occasionally and in moderate amounts). But 1/10 of Americans consume 80% of the alcohol (by volume); a still-smaller fraction consumes a majority. Basically, Anheuser Busch is in business because of a single-digit percentage of Americans who are abjectly addicted to alcohol, people who consume 8 or more drinks every single day. Without those people consuming vast quantities, only the craft producers would survive in anything like their current form.

    But there’s a hugely important difference between the two. If the alcohol makers were openly to promote alcohol addiction, mental illness, and pathological behavior, there’d be a huge outcry. By contrast, the NRA, being the voice of the gun makers, is free to promote paranoia and hatred, to instill fear and encourage people in their delusions in order to sell them that third, eighth, or twentieth firearm. Not to mention a vast stockpile of ammunition and a kit to convert the rifle to a large-magazine weapon of war that “mimics” fully automatic fire, meaning it provides fully automatic fire.

    But once you have a whole sub-population of paranoid delusionaries with huge arsenals, it’s inevitable that from time to time one will act out their fantasies, and carnage will ensue. They’re literally Chekhov’s Gun Nuts.

  20. 20.

    Mike J

    In 1965, 40% of adults smoked. Now at 15%.

    Gun ownership is going in the same direction. It would help if there were the same sort of coördinated effort to make them uncool, as happened with cigarettes.

  22. 22.

    debbie

    Last night, I listened to an interview with a Nevada gun shop owner, and he said he had customers who owned thousands of guns. He said they were collectors, but those were guns they were collecting.

    Sometimes, I look at this world and feel like an alien from outer space. This place is nuts and makes no sense.

  24. 24.

    Steeplejack

    @lamh36:

    Where did you end up going for dinner? You can’t hit us up for recommendations and then not give us closure!

  29. 29.

    Mnemosyne

    @jl:

    True, the only reason she knows about guns is because she was on the wrong end of Dan White’s workplace shooting rampage. How can we trust someone who survived a shooting rampage to be objective about guns, amirite?

    (I know you were snarking. I’m snarking back.)

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I finished the one I was reading. I really need to get my craft room/writing space straightened out so I can use it, but I’m procrastinating.

    I’m procrastinating on a lot of stuff, actually. I just got back from vacation and I already need another one.

  31. 31.

    patrick II

    @Baud:

    You are right, they did reverse that, and what I said is now out of date. Why it happened in the first place, I don’t know, but I am glad someone had the sense to reverse that.

  32. 32.

    MomSense

    @Mnemosyne:

    I toughed it out today and will try to do the same tomorrow but this cold my son brought home from school is killing me. I just want to get in bed for a week.

  35. 35.

    lamh36

    @Steeplejack: LOL..sorry. We ended up eating Chinese from this place in Chinatown on Day 1, and for the sister’s birthday Sunday, after a day being out walking all day, she just wanted something WAYY lowkey…so we ended up at this place called Bar Louie…sportsbar/pub/sit down restaurant deal. On Monday night…she also decided on Hard Rock…cheap eats..close to our hotel..

    I told her after all the trouble went through to get recommendations for her azz…and she decided on random choices…smh. But it was her birthday after all, so I didn’t want to “REALLY” complain

  38. 38.

    mike in dc

    8-140, “averaging 17” . I’m guessing about 1% of the population own 30+ guns apiece, 0.5% 50+ guns, and about 0.1% own in excess of 100 guns apiece.

  39. 39.

    rikyrah

    @patrick II:
    I have no proof,but I believe that the original edict came down after Dolt45 saw that the chef who broke off a deal with him was in Puerto Rico feeding thousands of people daily from his own pocket. I think that he thought that the SNAP funds would wind up in this chef’s pockets, and it probably is.. considering that he is helping to organize feeding thousands of people daily.

  43. 43.

    Josie

    So, it’s my birthday today. What a great day to celebrate, right? So many wonderful things going on. But there is one good thing. My 2 year old grand daughter is going to have a new baby brother or sister next year, so life goes on. Also, I am becoming addicted to my one hour morning walk, which is a great way to start the day.
    ETA: And I continue to work on my book.

  44. 44.

    Roger Moore

    @Warren Terra:

    I’ve seen numbers a bit different from those in the post – I’ve seen it claimed that 1/3 of Americans own guns, not 22%

    My guess is this is 1/3 of households own guns, but 22% of individual adults do because many households have only one adult who owns guns. That said, I was going to make the same comparison between guns and alcohol, but guns are even more extreme in that respect than alcohol. There are a fair number of people who drink occasionally (less than one drink a week) but aren’t complete teetotalers. I guess that’s the difference between a consumable like alcohol and a capital item like a gun; it’s much easier to be an occasional drinker than an occasional gun owner.

  46. 46.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    I was watching the news this evening, and there was something on about Mark Zuckerberg, and all of a sudden it struck me that I’m really sick of Mark Zuckerberg. I don’t know why, but I am. He irritates me. I like Facebook, and I use it every day, as a way to keep up with my friends, and as a way spout off about what’s going on in the U.S., but I’m just sick of seeing and hearing Zuckerberg. Does anybody else have this problem?

  49. 49.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Josie: Happy birthday! My kittehs insist on their walks every day, so I am getting out regularly too and liking it. This morning I went to “Breakfast with O’Keeffe” at the eponymous museum, so the kittehs didn’t get their walks and are now galloping through the house.

  53. 53.

    Ohio Mom

    I was at the library today and in the new books section there were two books of photos from the Women’s March. They were titled something like “Why We Marched” and “Why I Marched,” and I thumbed through both of them.

    There were photos from around the world, and everything is there: there are signs about protecting the ACA, global climate change, Putin…the list goes on. The whole world knew everything from before the beginning.

    And yet we continued to be newly surprised every day on how horrible this administration is, how much damage is being done. Because it is too much to comprehend.

    It was a little sad to see all the hopeful energy of last January but it is also good to see it documented.

  56. 56.

    Amaranthine RBG

    @Major Major Major Major:

    No they’re legal. There are even ATF guidance letters saying so.

    They’re dumb because they make firing wildly inaccurate and running that many rounds through a semi-auto that isn’t designed for the heat/stress is a recipe for failure.

  58. 58.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    On a random depressing note, I’ve just seen the first inklings of nutso-ass-batshit-crazy conspiracy theories about what happened in Nevada. People are beginning to say that the gunshots weren’t coming from the 32nd floor and that there were two people shooting, and have video!!!!! to prove [sic] it, no less! I can’t wait to hear about how there’s no proof that any of the people who died ever existed, and the people who were “wounded” all faked it for money. ’Cause, you know, reasons, or sumpin’…

  62. 62.

    germy

    @Amaranthine RBG:

    they make firing wildly inaccurate

    Not a problem for someone firing randomly into a terrified crowd.

    running that many rounds through a semi-auto that isn’t designed for the heat/stress is a recipe for failure.

    Not a problem for someone planning to blow their own brains out a few minutes after firing randomly into a terrified crowd.

  63. 63.

    Ohio Mom

    @Josie: Happy Birthday!

    You are right, life goes on. Sometimes I marvel over the difference between all the news and my own personal life. If you just followed me around, my everyday life looks the same as it did a year ago, when I was under the delusion Hillary would be our next president.

    But the world outside my little suburban existence is radically different. I suspect it won’t be long until the effects trickle down to my corner of the world however.

  64. 64.

    Josie

    @Major Major Major Major: Thanks. My only other addiction is my red wine in the evening. Medicinal purposes only, you understand.
    @Mnemosyne: Thanks. I hope you really are not sick and feel better tomorrow. You reminded me that I need to get a flu shot this week.
    @Cheryl Rofer: I hope you keep up the walking. It has done me a world of good – both physically and emotionally.

  65. 65.

    patrick II

    @rikyrah:

    It would not surprise me at all that the vindictive s.o.b. we have as president could be that petty. But it often works, when people like the governor of p.r. is so obsequious because if he isn’t Trump would have no trouble starving a million p.r.’s to get even.

  68. 68.

    Mnemosyne

    @MomSense:

    INORITE!!!

    There’s a reason the hero of my next novel (who appears in the current one as the hero’s half-brother) bears more than a passing resemblance to Mr. Diggs.

  70. 70.

    germy

    @Baud:

    Now that Trump has won, everyone thinks they can be president.

    After Obama won twice, republicans thought anyone could be president. Weren’t there like two hundred of them in the last republican primary?

  72. 72.

    efgoldman

    @debbie:

    he said he had customers who owned thousands of guns. He said they were collectors, but those were guns they were collecting.

    I have no trouble at all with people who collect firearms, usually antiques, as examples of very fine craftsmanship. It’s not so different from other expensive collector hobbies, like classic/antique autos, or musical instruments.
    For the most part, these aren’t RWNJ gun humper ammosexuals. For the most part, if they fire the weapons at all, it’s at supervised ranges.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    Hah! I knew it. Russia worked the primary too:

    At a panel event at the Heritage Foundation, former Ted Cruz presidential campaign spokesman Ron Nehring said that during the primaries he got a very different response when he criticized Donald Trump than any other candidate. The pattern he noted was about what you’d expect: When he was critical of Donald Trump he was inundated with hostile responses on Twitter and from accounts which followed a particular pattern.

    They didn’t just want to “create chaos” or “hate Hillary Clinton”- they wanted Donald Trump.

  74. 74.

    Amaranthine RBG

    @Baud:

    As an informal and unrequested consultant for Baud 2020, I’d advise you to not make such disparaging comments about unqualified noobs running for public office.

  75. 75.

    patrick II

    ep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), who was shot and badly wounded over the summer, complained the media did not often report the good news about guns.

    The Louisiana Republican, who returned to Congress last week after the June shooting, (on a softball field) said the Las Vegas massacre had “fortified” his support for largely unfettered gun rights, reported Fox News.

    Shooting to wound evidently didn’t work. I don’t think I am ready to be sliding into second base looking at an armed second baseman.

  76. 76.

    Baud

    @Amaranthine RBG: Meh. I learned from the last election that the easiest way to win is to tar your opponents unjustly.

    But I need to get the NYT on board. Maybe I should stop calling them garbage.

  77. 77.

    Jeffro

    @germy: after Obama won they almost felt a perverse need to nominate their worst possible person

    Anyway, on a side note about guns… if Republicans are going to be such “strict originalists” about the constitution, well it guarantees the right to keep and bear arms, plural… but that means they could legally be restricted to no more than two firearms per person. Two = “arms”, plural

  78. 78.

    Josie

    @Ohio Mom: I have been worrying about when I will see things change in my little corner of the world. i worry about my youngest son, who is a starving musician and depending on Obamacare for health insurance. I worry about some of my neighbors that I suspect are undocumented. I live on a teacher retirement income and worry about whether all this mess will effect the retirement fund. But all that worry will accomplish absolutely nothing. All we can do is keep on keeping on.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    So, why? Because he’s weak, because he’s a moron, because they can manipulate him?

    I mean, it’s pretty fucking weird that the Secretary of State feels he has to say the President “loves America”- that shouldn’t be in question.

  81. 81.

    Amaranthine RBG

    @efgoldman:

    Hmmm… collectors of any strip always seem a bit off to me for some reason, whether it be guns, Hummel figurines, cars, etc.

    I guess it’s just because I’m just a minimalist that I can’t comprehend how someone could want dozens or even hundreds of similar things …

  82. 82.

    Shana

    @rikyrah: I suspect you’re right. Jose Andres has been doing god’s work (deliberately uncapitalized) down there. Good on him, with added bonus of showing up Trump.

  84. 84.

    NotMax

    Never gonna happen, but – a thought experiment.

    Gun licenses. (Unfamiliar with guns in general, so excuse any fuzzy descriptors.)

    Cost for a license for the first gun of each type (hand gun, long gun, antique, other) unchanged. So ownership of one of each category is untouched.
    Cost for a license for the second gun of any type is double the cost of the first.
    Cost for a license for a third gun of any type is trebled.
    And so on.

    Discounted rates for collectors if they certify the gun has been rendered/is inoperable while in their possession.

  85. 85.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    I first noticed that attitude when Sonia Sotomayor was nominated to the Supreme Court. There seemed to be a genuine feeling that any random white dude off the street would do a better job as a Supreme Court justice than a widely-respected federal judge who had gone to (IIRC) Harvard Law.

    I have to say, it surprised me at the time, but it doesn’t surprise me any more. They genuinely think that Trump is doing a better job than Obama did, and they’re pissed that we refuse to admit it.

  87. 87.

    Kay

    They’re never going to tell us, are they? We’ll never know why the Russian government wanted Donald Trump to be President instead of Ted Cruz or John Kasich or Hillary Clinton. We’ll just have to “move on”, forever in the dark about this completely bizarre event we all lived thru.

    It’s unacceptable, it really is. We’re like the last to know.

  88. 88.

    Corner Stone

    @patrick II: One of many reasons I have not been able to generate any sympathy for his situation. I hate these fucking people. The only thing I can think of is that he’s such an asshole he is probably not an organ donor.

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kay:

    I think it’s because the Russians realized that Trump would have zero qualms about destroying our federal government. The more traditional candidates might have flinched at completely hollowing out the State Department, but not Trump.

  90. 90.

    Roger Moore

    @Amaranthine RBG:

    They’re dumb because they make firing wildly inaccurate and running that many rounds through a semi-auto that isn’t designed for the heat/stress is a recipe for failure.

    But they’re great if you’re an idiot who wants to feel like a manly man by being able to fire off a full magazine in one go and you don’t actually give a damn about stuff like accuracy or longevity. Or if you’re a would-be mass murderer who wants to get the highest body count possible.

  92. 92.

    Corner Stone

    @Kay: We might be a little further down the road of understanding if someone had told us what they knew in 2015.
    As it is, we’re still in the starting gates.

  94. 94.

    PJ

    @rikyrah: My understanding is that the meals that Jose Andres is helping to distribute are being given away – there is no need for food stamps or any other form of payment.

    ETA: So far Andres’ organization, World Central Kitchen, has distributed over 100,000 meals in Puerto Rico from kitchens in eight areas of PR, and they plan to distribute 20,000 meals a day for the next three weeks. For those interested, they are accepting donations here: https://www.worldcentralkitchen.org/donate/

  95. 95.

    gene108

    There are somethings I have been thinking for a few months.

    As most people do not own guns, if a leader can arise to push the “disheartened majority” into action, the backlash against the gun lobby will be fierce. At some level people are already sick of this shit. They just need the energy directed, like it has been for opposing Obamacare repeal.

    Second, gun nuts have pushed about as hard as they can in promotion of their product, with open carry laws, conceal carry laws no longer requiring a permit, and an end to gun free zones. Unless they mandate everyone owns a gun, there is not a lot left for them to push to keep pumping up the gun industry.

    They are at a point, where they are trying to grab as much money as they can from gun humpers before the backlash wave hits.

  96. 96.

    Corner Stone

    Trump has destroyed the *idea* of the Presidency. It’s not ever going to be the same.

  98. 98.

    Mnemosyne

    @Shana:

    This is why mensch is such a useful word. Andres is a real mensch.

    And I’m sure I’m not the only person to notice that he’s an immigrant and a naturalized citizen who’s doing a better job than the natural-born citizens in Congress and the presidency. Immigrants — they get the job done!

  99. 99.

    Ohio Mom

    @Josie: Even when I was making phone calls every day to save the ACA, motivated in large part by the idea that my disabled kid’s Medicaid would be taken away, I was still doing the same things I always do: the laundry, the grocery shopping, the chauffeuring, an ocassional lunch with a friend, and so on.

    I guess before the decline of your country, chop wood and carry water, during the decline of your country, chop wood and carry water.

  100. 100.

    geg6

    So religious, forced birther wingnut PA Rep. Dr, Tim Murphy decided it was the better part of valor to retire at the end of this congress. To spend time with his family apparently. Which seems a little weird after they saw the texts from his mistress admonishing him for pro-life bullshit after he asked her to abort during a pregnancy scare during their affair. LOL, I always despised that creepy fucker.

  101. 101.

    Katep

    @Mnemosyne: Heartsick is the exact wording i used today with a friend. I have been catching up on the Vietnam series on PBS this week. As a Kent State grad of that era, it was like a gut punch. Then Vegas, another senseless slaughter. I am in a state of sadness that I can’t pull myself out of. And this so not my norm. It is all just too much and I have no faith that humanity will win out in the end.

  102. 102.

    kindness

    I didn’t look at the study but the WaPo piece said the 3% that own half America’s guns own on average 17 guns. I think that’s low for the top 3%. I would think that the hoarders (because that is what they essentially are) own 50 guns each easy or more.

  106. 106.

    gene108

    @Jeffro:

    the right to keep and bear arms,

    I want to amend the 2nd amendment to remove “and” there, so you will then have the right to keep bear arms.

    Changes things a bit.

  107. 107.

    jl

    @germy: Good comments by Michelle Obama. But, like I said in earlier thread, it’s odd that people say things that, to me at least, are completely obvious, and it’s a big deal now. Before the election of 2016, I don’t think there was much argument about whether Trumpster was toxic dingbat,. or at least had become one in the last decade.

  109. 109.

    Mnemosyne

    I need to go make myself some dinner, but here’s my modest proposal about guns:

    Adults over the age of 18 may legally own one apiece of a handgun, rifle, and shotgun.

    No magazines (or clips!) that hold more than 10 cartridges. If you need more than than to kill a deer, you are a very bad shot and you need target practice, not more bullets in the gun.

    A high tax on ammunition — let’s start with 30 percent — with the money specifically earmarked for healthcare for gun victims.

    If you claim to be a collector, you must allow your collection to be inspected and show that your “collector” guns are incapable of being fired. This inspection will repeat every year, and have to be re-certified every year.

    If you don’t report that your gun was lost or stolen, you pay a fine. If it’s used in a crime, you get points on your driver’s license.

  110. 110.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Like efgoldman, I’m genuinely fine with historical collectors – a good collector preserves, catalogs and ads to historical knowledge. He takes care of and stores his weapons in an appropriate fashion.

    This is a positive thing.

    The vast majority of the obsessives aren’t that – they’re collecting “badass looking” plastic stock shit. Most don’t have DD214s, and those that do have a surprising number of general discharges.

  111. 111.

    Origuy

    JJ MacNab, as usual, is on top of the Bundy connection:

    Speece, the employee at the Mesquite gun store that sold the weapon to Paddock, is Cliven Bundy's bodyguard.— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) October 4, 2017

  112. 112.

    MisterForkbeard

    @germy: Pretty much. These mods have exactly two purposes:

    1) A fun/silly thing to do!

    2) Firing into a crowd of people, in a case where you don’t care about long-term consequences to your weapons.

    Right-wing America thinks #1 outweighs #2.

  114. 114.

    cmorenc

    @Mnemosyne:

    In Hamilmaniac news, how does Daveed Diggs manage to look cool and sexy while singing the rubber ducky song and wearing a ridiculously oversized bow tie? How?!?!

    Just like Will Smith in “Men in Black”: “I make this look good“.

  118. 118.

    Ruckus

    @sylvania:

    All those background checks and purchases must be tracked somewhere somehow.

    I don’t think they are. There is no limit to how many you can own, so what would be the logical reason to record them? I’m not against it mind you but really I don’t believe there is a central government database for non automatic weapons purchases and I’d bet there may actually be a law not allowing that in the first place. The CDC is not allowed to track shootings to see if there is some healthcare related need, such as a massive weapons cache someone has.

  120. 120.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Ruckus: They aren’t tracked. The feds are actually legally forbidden to keep that or other identifying information about gun owners, if I remember right.

  121. 121.

    Duane

    @jl: The gun gropers aiways distract with terminology.Let me offer two new definitions to clarify any confusion.
    Clip/magizine=death container. Silencer/suppressor=penis extension.
    I hope that helps.

  123. 123.

    Ruckus

    @MisterForkbeard:
    That’s what I thought but am too lazy after the day I had at work to look. It makes sense from the NRA perspective if all you are going to get for your paymasters is fewer people to own more guns, then you don’t want anyone to know who they are or what guns they own. The premise being of course that if the government has a list, they would be able to confiscate them much easier.

  125. 125.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Corner Stone: not as light as you think! It wasn’t about me and Hamilton; it was about my daughter and Hamilton and a sort of boyfriend whose loafers are apparently feather light.

  129. 129.

    Matt McIrvin

    @gene108: I think gun-control advocates have just been driven to total despair at this point. Voters in general have learned that gun control will never win and being a strong advocate gets you so much shit from the other side that it’s not worth the bother.

    Barack Obama said it years ago. As with abortion, there are a substantial number of people on the anti-gun-control side who are fanatical single-issue voters, whereas most gun-control advocates aren’t single-issue voters; there are other important things they care about. A candidate in a purple district who is good on every other liberal cause can be anti-gun-control and we’ll accept it as a political sacrifice they have to make. The other side never accepts that; any apostasy is punished severely.

  130. 130.

    Chris T.

    Again, the solution is obvious: mandatory personal nukes.

    A nuclear-armed society is a polite society. Dead, radioactive, and oh so incredibly polite!

  132. 132.

    Chris T.

    @NotMax: This one might actually be possible (as opposed to my attempts to use judo moves on the gun-nuts: “everyone should have personal cannons … and nukes”), but instead of arithmetic progression, use geometric: $100, $200, $400, $800, and so on. By the time you’re up to 10 guns the last license was $102,400 and the next is $204,800.

  133. 133.

    NotMax

    @Chris T.

    Or that N. Korea has perfected ultra-ultra-ultra-long range rifles and had a squad of snipers all facing southeast on a beach.

  134. 134.

    Czanne

    @debbie: that’s not collecting. It’s hoarding. In the “this is an externalized manifestation of anxiety and compulsive behavior” sense of the word. It’s just more literal.

    @Mnemosyne: One mod: ammunition bought and used at the practice range is minimally taxed, but may not be taken off-site. (we want the detritus contained, not fouling land and water; we want people who insist on using them to do so safely and with appropriate practice.) Ammunition purchased for removal comes with a very high (start at 300%) tax, and the tax increases per increment purchased. No internet sales.

  136. 136.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mnemosyne:

    I first noticed that attitude when Sonia Sotomayor was nominated to the Supreme Court. There seemed to be a genuine feeling that any random white dude off the street would do a better job as a Supreme Court justice than a widely-respected federal judge who had gone to (IIRC) Harvard Law.

    I remember the whispering campaign about Sotomayor–the comments in places like TPM would have these people pop up saying they knew some unspecified well-placed legal person who was familiar with Sotomayor and thought that, frankly, she wasn’t very smart. I occasionally wondered who was behind that exactly.

  137. 137.

    BruceFromOhio

    3% own the other 50%

    After OKC, we as a country decided to track who buys lots of fertilizer. When we figured out you could use decongestants as ingredients for crystal meth, we decided to track who buys lots of psuedoephedrine.

    You can still buy fertilizer and psuedoephedrine. You only pop if you are buying a lot of it.

  142. 142.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Mike J: If guns would simply turn around and shoot the owner, that would be comparable.

    Alas, it requires the owner shooting themselves to close the loop. Alcohol and tobacco do not have that limitation.

  143. 143.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steve in the ATL: Finally the truth comes out. Oddly, i have always been a bit pro-Hamilton. Then this strange popular wave happened. It is a bit like when the Preppy Handbook happened.

  144. 144.

    Gian

    my 8 year old daugher is in a children’s theater group. K-8
    she went to a memorial today for a 20 year old graduate of that group.
    the young lady volunteered for the theater group, my daughter remembers her for making her feel brave to go on stage, and pretty eyelashes, and always being nice.
    it was her first trip to vegas, she was shot in the arm, and her boyfriend caught her, then shot in the chest.
    she just started working as a nurse.

    yet Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones and Hannity draw breath.

  145. 145.

    Matt McIrvin

    @BruceFromOhio: But they do close that loop remarkably often, so it’s not too much of a stretch.

    (Stark racial differences, though: for some reason, suicide disproportionately is a problem of white people–the only other group that does it that much is Native Americans, and they’re only even.)

  146. 146.

    Amir Khalid

    @NotMax:
    May I suggest a small alteration to your proposal?

    Cost for a license for the first gun of each type (hand gun, long gun, antique, other) unchanged. So ownership of one of each category is untouched.
    Cost for a license for the second gun of any type is double the cost of the first.
    Cost for a license for a third gun of any type is trebled double the cost of the second.
    And so on.

  148. 148.

    indianbadger

    It would be nice to know what percentage of the 19% who own the 50%, own like 1 or 2 guns. One Handgun and One Rifle (or some such combination). I am guessing many, many Hunters have like 2-3 guns max.

  149. 149.

    LanceThruster

    I own historical curios. They are technically military grade weapons but are many decades out of date. If someone commits a crime with a bolt action Mosin-Nagant 91/30 (Vasely Seitsev’s sniper rifle), will that go on the chopping block?

    I’m all for sensible gun control (subjective I know), but the 2nd Amendment is not about the right to hunt.

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