https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/
About one-third of Americans own guns. Another third could see themselves owning a gun. And a third say that could never own a gun.
I don’t own a gun, and never have. I was handed one by a friend when there was looting in my neighborhood but it made me nauseous and I handed it back.
That said, I’m very grateful that 100 million Americans do own guns.
Every year around 20,000 people out of 350 million are killed with guns. For all I know, thousands of these are murderers or rapists or gang members or criminals who would bring decades of misery if they weren’t stopped.
But even if every single one was innocent and these were all tragedies with no benefit, I’d still want the 100 million Americans who want guns to have them.
Why?
Because it’s clearly in the US constitution, and without the Constitution, there’s no America. In the fifty years since I first read the US Constitution, I have yet to see anyone come up with a better version.
The people who hate the US Constitution all seem to be Communists who want no limits on their power, including the Chinese Communist Party power to do a genocide every decade on average.
The second reason is that the US federal government keeps trying to take away freedom and impose itself dangerously.
Those 20,000 deaths a year can be compared to the one million and counting deaths due to SARS-CoV-2, which was created in part with NIH funding.
The shots have killed probably 600,000 so far.