The percent of American households owning guns is at a near-40 year low in the latest CBS News poll
released this month. [....] According to Gallup, gun ownership has fallen by
about 10 percentage points since its peak in 1993. The General Social Survey shows
a 20-point drop since the mid-1970s.
But gun purchases, as measured by FBI firearm background checks,
are at historic highs. And data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shows that gun manufacturers are churning out
record numbers of guns. Many gun rights advocates
argue that these figures mean that the overall number of gun owners is growing: If more guns are being sold, more people must be owning guns.
But the declining rates of gun ownership across three major national surveys suggest a different explanation: that most of the rise in gun purchases is driven by existing gun owners stocking up, rather than by people buying their first gun. A Washington Post analysis last year found that the average American gun owner
now owns approximately eight firearms, double the number in the 1990s.