A recent Gallup poll found that 63 percent of Americans believe that having a firearm in the home makes it a safer place, a metric that has almost doubled from 2000 when only one in three believed it.
Results of question on whether having a gun in the home makes it safer. (Gallup)
Along party lines, 81 percent of Republicans believed that having a firearm at home makes it a safer place compared to only 41 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Independents.
Meanwhile, 42 percent of Americans admitted to Gallup that there was a gun in their home, which is up five percent since the last time Gallup asked that question.
Results of question on whether one has a gun in the home. (Gallup)
Overall, the trends on household gun ownership have fluctuated, rising as high as 51 percent in 1993 and as low as 34 percent in 1999.
In it’s conclusion portion, Gallup asserts the following, “Regardless of Americans’ perceptions of crime and their need to protect themselves, violent crime rates fell significantly from 1993 to 2012. While it may be a contentious assertion, some attribute falling crime rates to increased gun sales.”
Indeed. An armed society is a polite society.