Rate of Gun Ownership Down

Gallup an others show the evidence is the other way around. Also anyone who can clearly see the background check Is the highest it has ever been and has gone up every month. Also waiting time or guns to be built is over a year, clear evidence points to this being a BS report.

www.gallup.com

PRINCETON, NJ -- Forty-seven percent of American adults currently report that they have a gun in their home or elsewhere on their property. This is up from 41% a year ago and is the highest Gallup has recorded since 1993, albeit marginally above the 44% and 45% highs seen during that period.

The new result comes from Gallup's Oct. 6-9 Crime poll, which also finds public support for personal gun rights at a high-water mark. Given this, the latest increase in self-reported gun ownership could reflect a change in Americans' comfort with publicly stating that they have a gun as much as it reflects a real uptick in gun ownership.

Republicans (including independents who lean Republican) are more likely than Democrats (including Democratic leaners) to say they have a gun in their household: 55% to 40%. While sizable, this partisan gap is narrower than that seen in recent years, as Democrats' self-reported gun ownership spiked to 40% this year.

Bottom Line

A clear societal change took place regarding gun ownership in the early 1990s, when the percentage of Americans saying there was a gun in their home or on their property dropped from the low to mid-50s into the low to mid-40s and remained at that level for the next 15 years. Whether this reflected a true decline in gun ownership or a cultural shift in Americans' willingness to say they had guns is unclear. However, the new data suggest that attitudes may again be changing. At 47%, reported gun ownership is the highest it has been in nearly two decades -- a finding that may be related to Americans' dampened support for gun-control laws. However, to ensure that this year's increase reflects a meaningful rebound in reported gun ownership, it will be important to see whether the uptick continues in future polling.

Washington (CNN) - The FBI performed nearly 2.8 million background checks on people wanting to buy guns in December, a record month that capped a record year.

The numbers from the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System on Wednesday did not show how many firearms buyers actually took home from federally licensed gun stores. Some purchasers may have bought more than one weapon.

Data also showed the FBI generally is asked to run more checks in November and December, the holiday shopping months.

The FBI performed more than 2.78 million checks in the final month of the year. That followed a record November. For 2012, the agency ran more than 19.5 million background checks, another record that represented a year-over-year increase of more than three million.

Under federal law, sales staff at stores licensed by the government to sell firearms are required to call the FBI or another approved agency to make sure the buyer does not have a criminal record or a history of serious mental illness, which would legally prohibit the sale.

www.cnn.com

Washington (CNN) - As President Obama continues to push for new gun control measures, new FBI data shows that January was the second-highest month on record for gun background checks.

FBI figures posted Tuesday show there were 2,495,400 background checks done through the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System, known as NICS. The number was more than 1 million higher than any previous January.

The data does not indicate exactly how many weapons might have been purchased, as some customers buy more than one gun at a time.

December was the top record-setting month, with 2,783,765 background checks.

The FBI makes the data available on its website without comment. The figures typically show high numbers of background checks during the holiday shopping months of November and December, and the background check numbers usually decline in January. There also is often a spike in checks after a dramatic incident of gun violence.

The NICS system was launched in November 1998 after being mandated by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993.