“Experts” confounded by an increase in gun ownership in California. It’s almost as if telling people they can’t have an item designed for self-defense makes them want it more.
The California data measured against the national surveys show that while a smaller percentage of Californians own guns than the national average, the increase in ownership rates among Californians is far more pronounced than the nationwide trend.
It is unclear exactly why California has seen a large increase in gun ownership over the past decade but David Yamane, a professor of sociology at Wake Forest University who studies gun culture, told the Washington Free Beacon that while some of the increase is likely “artifactual,” it’s also likely the data undercounts gun ownership.
“The restrictive nature of gun laws and political culture of California, especially in the most populated areas, makes a low estimate realistic, but 8% is well below survey-based estimates of around 15% that I have seen,” he said. “And I would take any survey-based estimate as a minimum so the gun ownership rate is probably even higher then (sic) these government numbers say. So, this makes the situation confounding because you have a dramatic increase in the known gun ownership rate and yet even at the end of that increase at probably still under estimates actual gun ownership in California.”
– Stephen Gutowski and Charles Fain Lehman in Report: California Saw Huge Increase in Gun Ownership Over Last Decade Despite Strict Gun Laws