Way To Go!: We Spew The Most Bullets AND Have The Most Guns!!

So What The Hell Is The NRA Crabbing About?

We've already posted about the surge in gun sales because right-wingers think that Barack Obama is going to shut down all the gunshops in the country. The NRA was ecstatic about Sarah Palin's being a lifetime member. They are currently fuming that there is a gun-related question on the Obama administration's employment questionaire. They have frightened anyone with a sense of self-protection that liberalism would eradicate the Second Amendment.

Statistics (ah, those little numbers that prove so many things right or wrong) show, however, that the U.S. public is the most armed in the world!

From USA Today:

The top five: US at 89 small arms per 100 people, Yemen at 55 , Switzerland at 46 , Finland at 45 and Serbia at 38 .

And the ones who scream "NO GUN CONTROL!!" the loudest may have the most guns:

Almost half (48%) of all individual gun owners, corresponding to 13% of the US adult population, reported owning >4 firearms. Household ownership followed a similar pattern, with 41% of firearm-owning households reporting ownership of >4 firearms (table 2). The 20% of gun owners who owned the most guns possessed about 65% of the nation’s guns.

Oh, get this: for the reason of owning guns, 46% self-defense, 25% for sport shooting or collecting. (Riiight!) There are "gun collectors" then there are "stockpilers" who own enough guns for a small army. And the results of the 2004 survey (the most extensive) do not count semi-automatic rifles or guns like AK-47s. Most of those are out on the street and owned by drug dealers and gang members. Most gun surveys lament the transparency of our system that allows hoarding all sorts of guns legally or illegally. The actual total of guns owned (legally) by individuals is estimated to be in between 238 million and 276 million. Since this is based on an a 4-year old survey, we can safely assume that there is more than one gun person in the United States.

So the question: with all of those guns out there, who's more vulnerable - liberals or the NRA?

Just a thought.