In a survey conducted soon after the Orlando terrorist murders, CBS News says only 36 percent of respondents reported living in gun-owning households, the lowest figure reported by CBS since 1978 and nearly 10 percentage points down just from 2012.
While anti-gun media and lobbying groups point to this factoid as “evidence” that gun ownership is plummeting, it more likely means that Americans are simply keeping their Second Amendment rights closer to the vest. After all, with the FBI reporting over 150 million gun-purchaser NICS checks since 2000—and over 50 million just since 2012—the notion that Americans by the tens of millions are giving up their guns defies belief.
Even if CBS didn’t ask some loaded question to skew their results, Americans may simply not care to admit to a stranger on the phone that they own a gun, any more than they would report keeping quantities of cash or jewelry in the home. Can you blame them?
