On Wednesday, the Violence Policy Center's (VPC) Josh Sugarmann triumphantly announced in the Huffington Post that gun ownership in the U.S. is declining, according to VPC's analysis of the General Social Survey:
The bottom line is that a clear majority of Americans have no place for guns in their lives. And recognizing the factors that have led to this continued decline--the aging of the current-gun owning population and a lack of interest in guns by youth, the end of military conscription, the decreasing popularity of hunting, land-use issues that limit hunting and other shooting activities, environmental and zoning issues that force shooting ranges to close and limit new range construction, and the increase in single-parent homes headed by women--it doesn't look like most Americans are going to be changing their minds anytime soon.
The Brady Campaign's Paul Helmke wasted little time, jumping in yesterday with a Huffington Post piece of his own:
At the NRA's national convention in Pittsburgh this week, look for the speakers, presidential hopefuls and ardent supporters to rally around the fairy tale that America is a gun-loving country. But don't believe it.
Gun ownership in the nation is at the lowest level ever recorded by the General Social Survey, according to an analysis issued Tuesday by the Violence Policy Center.
The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) joined the chorus via Twitter:
Personal gun ownership also at lowest level ever. Only 1 out of 5 Americans now own a gun.
We could talk about the fact that many people are reluctant to reveal details about their personal security arrangements to a stranger conducting a survey. Indeed, many gun owners are just the sort to have no interest in participating in such a survey (which, according to Wikipedia, "takes about 90 minutes to administer") in the first place. To someone who values his privacy, answering one and a half hours' worth of a stranger's personal questions has little appeal.
We could also point out the oddity of clamoring about the decline of the American gun culture at the very moment that more than 60,000 NRA members are pumping tens of millions of dollars into the Pittsburgh economy, at the association's annual convention, and while gun sales are picking up, despite a sluggish economy.
But never mind those points, because their importance pales in comparison to that of the real issue here. If gun owners are indeed a minority in the U.S., so what? Does being in the minority make one's rights less worthy of defending? Such a situation would hardly be consistent with the values that are supposed to be an essential part of what makes this nation great.
Perhaps, though, this kind of thinking explains CSGV's insistence on referring to "our democracy" with such regularity, rather than acknowledging that our nation is a republic. Promoting the notion that we live in a society where the majority rules, meaning that 51% can legitimately vote away the fundamental human rights of the other 49%, fits right into CSGV's agenda, especially when coupled with the VPC's latest theme, of gun owners as a minority.
Here's a hint, though: there are still enough of us to defend our rights, and forgetting that would be bad news for everyone involved--but worse news for those who forget than for those who are forced to remind them.
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