zzshart, you willingly delude yourself with the anti-American, leftist lies from libtard propaganda networks like the WaPo, the New York Slimes, FAKE NEWS CNN, MSNBC, and the ever ridiculous Huffington Puffington Post. Then, you very intentionally shut your eyes and plug up your ears like a two-year-old. Your "3% of the population" assertion is a ludicrous lie on its face and you know it - because ANYONE with an IQ above 60 would realize that FACT immediately. The undeniable truth is that about half of all American households have firearms. Read below and educate yourself, zzshart ... and quit willfully being a deluded and self-deluded embarrassment to yourself.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/09/08/gun-ownership-is-up-in-america-so-why-isnt-media-telling-about-it.html
Two weeks ago, the PEW Research Center released a survey showing that gun ownership by households is up to 44% - a 7-percentage point increase in the past two years. Another 5% of households won't reveal whether they own a gun. Yet, not a single mainstream American media headline has announced the increase.
In fact, the media goes out of its way to find polls claiming that Americans are turning away from guns. In their War on Guns they want to give the impression that gun owners are a small, fringe group. Maybe they are hoping that this will have an impact on policy. As General Social Survey director Tom Smith told me, a large drop in gun ownership would "make it easier for politicians to do the right thing {i.e., the libtard thing} on guns." ...
The Washington Post falsely assured readers, "The downward trend in gun ownership remains consistent across the national polls." Bizarrely, if the Washington Post and CNN had relied on their own polls, their headlines would claim that gun ownership has remained constant over the years. But neither organization has run such headlines. ...
According to Gallup, household gun ownership has ranged from 51 percent in 1994 to just 34 percent in 1999. In 2014, household gun ownership was at 42 percent - comparable to the 43-45 percent figures during the 1970s.
There was absolutely no news coverage of a 2011 Gallup poll headlined, "Self-Reported Gun Ownership in U.S. Is Highest Since 1993."
The ABC News/Washington Post poll shows an even more stable pattern, with household gun ownership rates of 44-46 percent in 1999. In 2013, the ownership rate was 43 percent.
A CNN poll from January showed 40% of Americans living in a household that owns a gun. Nine percent of respondents were unwilling to state an opinion, implying that the true ownership rate is greater than 40%.
Furthermore, polling is not the only indicator of gun ownership. The number of concealed handgun permits has soared from about 2.7 million in 1999 to over 14.5 million in 2016. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) shows that the number of gun purchases has exploded, almost doubling from 2008 to 2015.
In Illinois, a Firearm Owner Identification (FOID) card is required. The number of people with those cards dramatically increased from slightly over 1 million in 2010 to 1.8 million in 2015.
There are some other strong reasons for believing that polls underestimate the number of gun owners. A recent Zogby Analytics survey posed the question, "If a national pollster asked you if you owned a firearm, would you determine to tell him or her the truth or would you feel it was none of their business?" Thirty-five percent of current gun owners said that it was none of the pollsters' business. This answer is especially common among those who claim not to be gun owners. ...
But this isn't the only limitation of gun ownership polls. Take the fact that, compared to married women, married men are much more likely to admit to having a gun in the home. Either the men are hiding guns from their wives or women are more reluctant to tell pollsters that they own a gun. If the latter, the GSS survey results should be about 4 percentage points higher.
The media's selective use of polls may provide gun control advocates with talking points and let them try isolating gun owners. But hard numbers clearly show a huge increase in gun sales and in the percentage of Americans who carry guns.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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