Gun owners are happier

[Chairboy]

From: http://mobile2.wsj.com/device/html_article.php?id=77&CALL_URL=http://online.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB120856454897828049.html%3Fmod%3Dopinion_main_commentaries

According to the 2006 General Social Survey, which has tracked gun ownership since 1973, 34% of American homes have guns in them. This statistic is sure to surprise many people in cities like San Francisco – as it did me when I first encountered it. (Growing up in Seattle, I knew nobody who owned a gun.)

Who are all these gun owners? Are they the uneducated poor, left behind? It turns out they have the same level of formal education as nongun owners, on average. Furthermore, they earn 32% more per year than nonowners. Americans with guns are neither a small nor downtrodden group.

Nor are they "bitter." In 2006, 36% of gun owners said they were "very happy," while 9% were "not too happy." Meanwhile, only 30% of people without guns were very happy, and 16% were not too happy.

In 1996, gun owners spent about 15% less of their time than nonowners feeling "outraged at something somebody had done." It's easy enough in certain precincts to caricature armed Americans as an angry and miserable fringe group. But it just isn't true. The data say that the people in the approximately 40 million American households with guns are generally happier than those people in households that don't have guns.

The gun-owning happiness gap exists on both sides of the political aisle. Gun-owning Republicans are more likely than nonowning Republicans to be very happy (46% to 37%). Democrats with guns are slightly likelier than Democrats without guns to be very happy as well (32% to 29%). Similarly, holding income constant, one still finds that gun owners are happiest.

Darn skippy.  It's fair to say that the guns probably aren't what make us happy, but I'd wager they reflect an element of personality that folks who feel in control of their lives exhibit.  Anyhow, a good write up, and a handy rebuttal to folks pushing the agenda that gun owners are inherently bitter, unhappy people.

[Jackal1]

34% sounds a good bit low to me. <shrug>

[Hornet33]

I know I enjoy a nice range day after a stressfull week at work. Nothing like putting steel on target to make you feel better about the world in general.

[lazs2]

I would say that the number of homes with guns in them is far higher.   Many many people will not even admit that they have one when polled.

I can believe that we are happier.   Those with the courage to take responsibility for their own defense and that of others are always happier.    Those who do not know in their heart that they are shirking and taking a chance with theirs and their families lives..  no amount of telling yourself that you pay the police to do that work or that you have alarms or a cell phone or whatever will work.   You simply realize that you have made yourself and those who depend on you... helpless.. that you have not done what you could.

that is why the non gun owners, for the most part.. are so vehement in their condemnation of gun owners.  they themselves refuse to step up to the plate so they wish to make it so that they have no choice.   so that there is no examples of their irresponsibilty out there.. why do you think they always say that the gun is worse than no gun at all?   or...  that you would never get a chance to use it?  or that it injures more loved ones than it protects?  all these things are soothing lies they tell themselves or read and accept without looking into because they want to believe.

They don't want to hear about someone saving himself or his family with a firearm and they don't want to know that firearms are used a million or more times a year to stop crime.

You always are happier when you step up to the plate and shed your fears and take responsibility.

lazs

[Jackal1]

Growing up in Seattle, I knew nobody who owned a gun.)

Huh???
If this is the way it is..........remind me to stay the hell out of Seattle.
I was just trying to think of someone I knew personally who didn`t own a gun around my area. I can`t.
We had one woman who`s husband passed away and his guns went to relatives. When we realized she was unprotected and her house and garage was broken into.......we fixed it.

[Ripsnort]

I enjoy knowing that if/when that nuclear weapon(s) hit us, and the world turns into chaos, that I have the ability to NOT be a sheep, but rather a sheep herder. 

[Chairboy]

Regarding the 'I knew no one who owned a gun in Seattle' comment, I think the author has made a classic mistake.  Just because people don't advertise doesn't mean they don't own one.

I sometimes think that many non-owners have an image in their head that folks who have firearms walk around with them on a holster or on a rack in the back window of their Yosemite-Sam Mudflap'd pickup trucks.  That's not...  entirely accurate.

[lazs2]

I know at least a dozen homes with guns in them that the people would not answer yes to a poll on if they had guns in the home.  there is also no record of them having one.. and it is perfectly legal in most cases.

lazs

[Chairboy]

I can think of every reason NOT to get 'on the rolls' as a gun owner.  Disarming the populace is step one on the checklist, and just because you don't think things will get bad doesn't mean you go out of your way to place your family at risk if they do.  I don't think I'll get in car accidents, but I wear a seatbelt.  I don't think my engine will quit while flying, but I'm always finding potential landing spots.  I don't think my house will catch fire, but I have smoke alarms and an escape plan.

You hope for the best, but plan for the worst.  Anything else is irresponsible.

[Ripsnort]

She's not a girl who misses much
Do do do do do do do do, oh yeah
She's well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand
Like a lizard on a window pane
The man in the crowd with the multicoloured mirrors
On his hobnail boots
Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy
Working overtime
A soap impression of his wife which he ate
And donated to the National Trust

Down
I need a fix cos I'm going down
Down to the bits that I left uptown
I need a fix cos I'm going down

Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun

Happiness is a warm gun (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Happiness is a warm gun, mama (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)When I hold you in my arms (Oo-oo oh yeah)
And I feel my finger on your trigger (Oo-oo oh yeah)
I know no one can do me no harm (Oo-oo oh yeah)
Because happiness is a warm gun, mama (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Happiness is a warm gun, yes it is (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Happiness is a warm, yes it is, gun (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Well, don't you know happiness is a warm gun, mama? (Happiness is a warm gun, yeah)

[iWalrus]

Huh???
If this is the way it is..........remind me to stay the hell out of Seattle.
I was just trying to think of someone I knew personally who didn`t own a gun around my area. I can`t.
We had one woman who`s husband passed away and his guns went to relatives. When we realized she was unprotected and her house and garage was broken into.......we fixed it.

I spent 14 years in the Seattle area, and I knew plenty of (legal) gun owners. Some of my best hunting trips were taken with my friends from that area. Target shooting, hunting, and guns in general make me happy.

[Shuffler]

I sometimes whistle when I walk.

[RATTFINK]

I sometimes whistle when I walk.

I do it when I work

[Ripsnort]

I can think of every reason NOT to get 'on the rolls' as a gun owner.  Disarming the populace is step one on the checklist, and just because you don't think things will get bad doesn't mean you go out of your way to place your family at risk if they do.  I don't think I'll get in car accidents, but I wear a seatbelt.  I don't think my engine will quit while flying, but I'm always finding potential landing spots.  I don't think my house will catch fire, but I have smoke alarms and an escape plan.

You hope for the best, but plan for the worst.  Anything else is irresponsible.

Well said.   This goes for everything, including being prepared for a natural disaster. Just because I have a enough food, water and supplies for a family of 4 to survive 3 weeks, plenty of ammo and guns, a "plan" with the wife should be we separated during an occurence of a disaster, and a survivialist hand book doesn't mean I'm a nut-case survivalist...or does it...

[iWalrus]

I do it when I work

Why don't we do it in the road?