VA Tech Shooting

[a994]

Trish, Kabuki, chefmike, and all the rest of you with loved ones in the area: I hope and pray that all of your loved ones are safe.

[peggygee]

MENU TITLE: Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms.

Series: NIJ Research in Brief
Published: May 1997
20 pages

http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/165476.txt

National Institute of Justice
Research in Brief



Key issues: With nearly 200 million guns in private
hands, firearms have an important impact on the
quality of life in America. What is the size and
composition of the Nation's private gun inventory?
What are the methods of, and reasons for, acquiring
firearms? How are firearms stored? How frequently
are guns used against criminal attackers?

Key findings: The survey data and analysis yielded
the following results:

o In 1994, 44 million Americans owned 192 million
firearms, 65 million of which were handguns.
Although there were enough guns to have provided
every U.S. adult with one, only 25 percent of
adults actually owned firearms; 74 percent of gun
owners possessed two or more.
o The proportion of American households that keep
firearms appears to be declining.

o Sixty-eight percent of handgun owners also
possessed at least one rifle or shotgun.

o Gun ownership was highest among middle-aged,
college- educated people of rural small-town
America. Whites were substantially more likely to
own guns than blacks, and blacks more likely than
Hispanics.

o The most common motivation for owning firearms
was recreation. Forty-six percent possessed a gun
primarily for protection against crime.

o There were 13.7 million firearm transactions in
1993-1994, including 6.5 million handguns. About 60
percent of gun acquisitions involved federally
licensed dealers.

o About 211,000 handguns and 382,000 long guns were
stolen in noncommercial thefts in 1994.

o Slightly more than half of all privately owned
firearms were stored unlocked; 16 percent of
firearms were stored unlocked and loaded.

o In 1994, about 14 million adults (approximately
one-third of gun owners) at least once carried a
firearm in their vehicles or on their person for
protection.

o Evidence suggests that this survey and others
like it overestimate the frequency with which
firearms were used by private citizens to defend
against criminal attack.

Target audience: Criminal justice and public health
researchers and practitioners. Legislators and
policymakers at all levels of government.

[Phat]

eh, I don't think banning guns is going to stop a crazy person from carrying out their will

[SarahG]

eh, I don't think banning guns is going to stop a crazy person from carrying out their will

Maybe if the whole student population was armed & trained to be decent with their firearms, this shooter wouldn't have lived long enough to kill 31 people...

[chefmike]

If you're interested, VA Tech news conference is starting momentarily on MSNBC...

[LTR_Seeker]

Yeah real sad just saw on report the gun man was looking for his gf

[Phat]

eh, I don't think banning guns is going to stop a crazy person from carrying out their will

Maybe if the whole student population was armed & trained to be decent with their firearms, this shooter wouldn't have lived long enough to kill 31 people...

let's say hypothetically there are no firearms in the US, they're completely illegal and near impossible to get a hold of. Will this really discourage a madman from murder and suicide? Who's to say he won't create explosives, or orchestrate some other plan to kill? The fact is this sick fuck is going to do what he wants regardless of the instrument used.

You can ban guns but you can't ban psychos.

[chefmike]

I hope that this is wrong, but I just got a report from my sister that the death toll is closer to 40 ... and why were the local K-12 schools locked down before Tech was?

Heads should roll...

[chefmike]

I was also told that the shooter is rumored to have been from Radford University...it's about a thirty minute drive from Tech...

[Azanti]

For evil to prosper all it takes is for good men to do nothing.