You are simply WRONG! This was a blatant attempt to disparage gun owners and ownership. When you ask the question, “Reason for owing a gun” and do NOT offer “self and family protection” and “sport shooting” you are misleading – here quite intentionally! Talk about tailoring the questions to meet an agenda. Wake up!

What guns? Mine were all lost in a boating accident a couple years ago. A real tragedy.

I’m sure that there are flaws in the study, since certain groups would deny ownership while possessing firearm(s). Some, perhaps, because of the deep distrust government has engendered. And the criminal element…why would they report accurately?

I think the number of firearms in the possession of citizens would be higher.

After all, there are a lot of blades of grass that need protecting. Sasdly, from not only enemies from the outside but also from enemies on the “inside”.

We do, however have a gun for every man, woman, and child, according firearms registration records.

Editor: Good find. It does seem, then, that Ms. Kalesan could have an anti-gun bias. But does that alter the validity of the ownership numbers? If anything, her affiliation with GVSF might motivate her to over-state the number of guns in society. Yet the complaints are that the study’s numbers for gun ownership are too LOW (assertedly because all gun owners don’t reveal that fact when asked). Here are her academic credentials:

Clinical Epidemiologist/Biostatistician
Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University
Education:
PhD in Health Sciences, University of Bern, ISPM, 2012
MPH, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2004
M.Sc, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India, 2002

Participants were asked to respond to EVERY ONE of these “Reason for owning a gun” “questions” (this is the COMPLETE list of those “questions”):

Q5_1 Reasons for owning a gun –‐ Exciting to hold loaded gun
Q5_2 Reasons for owning a gun –‐ People will look up to me
Q5_3 Reasons for owning a gun –‐ Feel powerful or protected on street
Q5_4 Reasons for owning a gun –‐ Feels powerful to hold loaded gun
Q5_5 Reasons for owning a gun –‐ Don’t owe the world anything
Q5_6 Reasons for owning a gun –‐ Fun to play around with real gun
Q5_7 Reasons for owning a gun –‐ Care about how actions affect others
Q5_8 Reasons for owning a gun –‐ Responsibility to make world a better place
Q5_9 Reasons for owning a gun –‐ None

To see a count of Yes and No responses to these “questions” and the survey demographics, go to http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/suppl/2015/06/08/injuryprev-2015-041586.DC1/injuryprev-2015-041586supp.pdf

Editor: Thanks for the link. You list some of the questions asked on the survey, questions designed to determined “feelings” about gun ownership. Those are not the questions used to determine whether a respondent has firearms, which are:

Q1_1 Gun ownership status – Owner, gifted
Q1_2 Gun ownership status – Owner, bought before 2000
Q1_3 Gun ownership status – Owner, bought after 2000
Q1_4 Gun ownership status – Owner, hunter
Q1_5 Gun ownership status – Owner, attended safety classes
Q1_6 Gun ownership status – Owner, advocate responsible ownership
Q1_7 Gun ownership status – Non-owner, might buy
Q1_8 Gun ownership status – Non-owner, will never buy

In addition, there are questions about family ownership:

Q2_1 Family gun ownership culture – No friends own guns
Q2_2 Family gun ownership culture – No family members own guns
Q2_3 Family gun ownership culture – Some friends own guns
Q2_4 Family gun ownership culture – Some family members own gun
Q2_5 Family gun ownership culture – Social circle thinks less of non-ownership
Q2_6 Family gun ownership culture – Family thinks less of non-ownership
Q2_7 Family gun ownership culture – Social life with family involves guns
Q2_8 Family gun ownership culture – Social life with friends involves guns
Q2_9 Family gun ownership culture – None

There are many other questions also.

— The survey has some odd aspects, that’s for sure. The survey-makers were obviously trying to quantify things that are hard to pin down, in an effort to understand why people purchase firearms.

I remember this one and also remember that I answered every question regarding gun ownership in the negative. Most of the stuff I get is surveying brands or products, but when a political one comes along, I always give the most conservative answers possible. Firstly because that’s what I think and second just to be annoying.