Jill Lepore, Battleground America: One nation, under the gun. The New Yorker, 23 April 2012. “There are nearly three hundred million privately owned firearms in the United States: a hundred and six million handguns, a hundred and five million rifles, and eighty-three million shotguns…. The United States is the country with the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world. (The second highest is Yemen, where the rate is nevertheless only half that of the U.S.) No civilian population is more powerfully armed. Most Americans do not, however, own guns, because three-quarters of people with guns own two or more. According to the General Social Survey, conducted by the National Policy Opinion Center at the University of Chicago, the prevalence of gun ownership has declined steadily in the past few decades. In 1973, there were guns in roughly one in two households in the United States; in 2010, one in three. In 1980, nearly one in three Americans owned a gun; in 2010, that figure had dropped to one in five.”
April 23, 2012
Battleground America: One nation, under the gun
April 23, 2012 Filed Under: Law, Politics Tagged With: "gun-show loophole", black panther party for self-defense, chief justice warren burger, district of columbia v. heller (2008 supreme court decision), federal firearms act (1938), firearms owners protection act (1986), general social survey (conducted by the national policy opinion center at the university of chicago), george zimmerman, gun control act (1968), mcdonald v. chicago (2010 supreme court decision), national firearms act (1934), national rifle association (n.r.a.), second amendment, stand your ground law, trayvon martin, u.s. v. miller (1939 supreme court decision)