Results Are In: We’re Awesome

Over the last week we’ve been conducting a little survey of our loyal readers, asking you a few questions about yourselves and what you read on the site. We wanted to get a better idea of what kind of people read the site and what they’re interested in seeing, so we can give them more of what they want. The happier our readers, the more readers we get and the more cool toys for the writers. It’s a win-win situation! So, let’s get to the results…

Just FYI for when you’re reading over this stuff, all of these numbers and statistics are +/- 5%. There is a little bit of wiggle room in the numbers, but we’re 95% confident in their accuracy as it pertains to the complete population of our readers.

First things first, how the hell did you all get here? It’s not like Google started embedding our website as a default link in Chrome, so you have to have heard about or stumbled on our site from somewhere.

The prevailing single source of all you readers seems to be websites related to something other than firearms. Which is kinda interesting, since all we do are firearms. Just over 50% of you did come here from a gun related source (or search), though, so that is somewhat logical.

A somewhat more important question: how many of you own guns? We do get a good number of readers from countries (and states) where ownership is problematic for law abiding citizens (or subjects). So what proportion of you actually own a firearm, and what kind is it?

What is especially interesting is that a higher proportion of our readers own pistols than any other firearm, which jives with the explosion in pistol sales that we’ve been reporting about lately. These numbers are totals for each category meaning that most of those who responded own at least two kinds of firearms, with 8 machine gun owners, 6 black powder enthusiasts, and 2 lovely people who own one of every fun item you can buy.

Another thing we talk about a lot is self defense and concealed carry. After reading all of RF’s words of wisdom, how many of you actually carry a firearm on a regular basis?

Over 50% of those who responded say they carry a concealed firearm on a regular basis, but a good 40% do not. Of that 40% that don’t carry a gun, it’s half and half of those who choose not to and those who legally cannot. There was one very interesting response, one brave soul who claims to carry a concealed firearm even though they are legally forbidden from doing so (brave for responding, not necessarily brave for doing so).

How about politics? Are all gun nuts necessarily Republicans?

As expected “conservatives” are a rather large slice, though not all conservatives are Republican. Liberals are in there right along with our Jedi brethren, but it seems like most people fall somewhere in the middle. There were a lot of comments to the effect of “I’m right of center but the Republicans are goddamned NUTS!”

All very interesting and sure to influence the content of the articles, but what do you think about how we’re doing? You guys seem to stick around so we must be doing something right, putting our finger on exactly what is somewhat more elusive.

In terms of our coverage of live events (SHOT, NRA, NDIA, ETC) in the firearms industry, the consensus seems to be that we’re on the money. We’re going to the important things, getting you guys the news you care about, but not drowning you in coverage. Avoiding drowning is important, or at least so the medics tell me.

What kinds of articles do you guys like to read? That was the next thing on our minds.

Gun reviews, by FAR AND AWAY, are the most popular. Trust me, they’re also the most fun for us writers to do. In the free form comments section there were quite literally PAGES of glowing reviews of our gun reviews, praising our objectivity and depth when it comes to the guns. News and opinion are right up there as well and I expect that it’s more about the awesome discussions that come after the article than the article itself. Politics is a little less popular, but the analysis articles and gear reviews seem to be pretty low down on the totem pole.

Speaking of being low on the totem pole, Political articles seem to be drawing the most ire from the readership. The prevailing opinion seems to be that the politics needs to be toned down instead of removed completely, to become more objective and less “preachy.” Most of the people who responded said that they wouldn’t want any of the categories removed, but that some should take a backseat to the gun reviews. Opinion pieces follow not too shortly behind for much the same reasons, and gun reviews round out the bottom three.

That’s just about it. We hear you loud and clear. You want objective, factual reporting on firearms and the firearms industry mixed with just a touch of snark. You crave gun reviews like a vampire Dick Cheney craves human blood. And we plan to give it to you long and hard, every day. Or something like that.

Oh, one more pie chart for your consumption.

Damn it feels good to be a gangster…