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.
So, do guns make people happy or are happy people more likely to purchase guns? Some possibilities:
- Gun ownership provides people with a greater sense of self-reliance, confidence and happiness.
- Gun ownership increases peoples peace of mind and sense of self-defense.
- More self-reliant people are more likely to feel comfortable purchasing and owning a gun.
- The difference is explained by an omitted "rural" variable. People who live in more simple, rural settings are more likely to have a reason to own a gun and rural settings are correlated with happiness.
- There are two types of gun owners. Those who purchase guns for hunting and recreation and a smaller group who purchase guns for self-defense. Those who have a gun for self-defense may, on average, be angry and bitter, but the happiness of the larger group of hobby gun owners dominates.
Any others? My guess is (4) and (5) explain most of the difference with a small dose of (3). I'm very skeptical that gun ownership would have a causal effect on happiness or even perceived safety. But, regardless of the explanation you prefer, Arthur Brooks' final statement holds:
What we do know, however, is that contrary to the implication of Mr. Obama's comments, for many Americans, happiness often does indeed involve a warm gun.
4 comments:
The major reason for owning a gun is to protect those you love. Those who have someone they love, someone they would risk death for, someone they would kill for, are likely to be happier.
Those who know that they can defend that which they love, are likely to be happier.
An important indicator was that gun owners spent about 15% less of their time than nonowners feeling "outraged at something somebody had done."
Obviously this is a big contributor to happiness. If they spent 15% less of their time feeling outraged, they presumably spent something like 15% less of their time feeling powerless and afraid.
James,
I do not agree that "the major reason for owning a gun is to protect those you love." My gut feeling says most guns are owned for hunting and sport, not carried or stored for self defense. If you don't believe this, count the guns you and your friends own. Are most of them owned primarily for self defense or for recreation?
KLR,is number 5 based on people you've met or statistics you've read? I don't agree with the pejorative portion of the speculation, based on the gun owners I associate with. I can only assume that, on average, the self-defense gun owners you've met have been angry individuals, or that you've read statistics supporting this observation. However, I live close to "Happy Valley," so my sample might be tainted. You live in a city with an above average per capita murder rate, so maybe your sample is biased also.
I agree with your assessment that that owning a gun does not cause happiness (except the short term happiness that comes with any purchase, first use, and maybe show and tell). I think 3 with a good chunk of 4 accounts for the difference in happiness levels.
Of course, keep in mind that I am probably hard wired to believe number 4...
JD,
In (5), I am merely asserting that self-defense owners *may* be systematically different than recreational gun owners. And by aggregating the two groups you wash out the relationship between happiness and guns for the purpose of self defense. I am not making a strong claim about what that relationship is, just offering an alternative explanation. I agree with you that most guns are not primarily for self defense and so it is impossible to infer anything from the data on the type of gun ownership that most of the debate is centered around.
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