SK> What are LEA's? No, I know no such persons personally. Of course, I
Law Enforcement Agents. Generic term for the whole spectrum of duly 
authorized badge toters, from local to federal.....
 SK> guess I could count the security personel who are employed at our
 SK> school. But I wasn't counting mere acquaintances when I made that
 SK> remark. I meant people whom I really know and consider to be among my
 SK> circle of friends.
OK, that cuts down the number of prospects
 SK> It's just that, if over half the households in the U.S. have a gun, I
 SK> would think that even without my running such a survey and search, I
 SK> would have discovered through everyday conversation that I know someone
 SK> who owns a gun.
Not necessarily. To the average gun owner, it's just another tool. 
There are many people whom I count as friends, who know me pretty well. 
Hardly any of them know that I own a chainsaw or an automotive battery 
charger (or a firearm). It wouldn't necessarily come up unless you asked 
them, or unless they knew it was a common interest. 
 SK> I'm willing to concede that I'm wrong. I was just surprised by your
-> U.S. at 230 million, held by 65 million owners (based on info from
-> the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms - BATF).
 SK> But, how many of those owners reside in the same household? And how many
 SK> households are there?
That's a good question. The BATF stats are based on the 4473 form that is 
filled out when a firearm is purchased. The form doesn't ask anything about 
the individual's family members or household. I will observe that in my 
experience the average gun-owning household has most or all the firearms 
owned by one adult member. The children are minors and can not legally 
purchase firearms. Usually only one adult spouse is an avid shooter, even 
though both may know how. A significant number of homes are single parent 
families. In competitive shooting sports that I've participated in, there are 
a few instances of more then one family member engaging in competition; most 
of these are parent and son or daughter. In only a half dozen instances do 
both husband and wife compete on a regular basis. The two I recall most 
clearly were
- retired Air Force Colonel and his wife. They shot in different classes, but 
their agreement was that whoever placed lower in their individual class, had 
to cook dinner that day. Honors were about even, as I recall. ;-)
- husband and wife from one of the larger ranching/oil lease families 
hereabouts. Husband was ranked in the top 5%, nationally. Wife competed in my 
class (somewhere in the middle) and beat me out on a regular basis.
Of course, competition shooters make up a very small segment of the 
gun-owning public, so my comments are probably more anecdotal then 
representative.
--- Maximus 3.01
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