{"id":16172,"date":"2013-05-09T00:01:56","date_gmt":"2013-05-09T05:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/why-own-a-gun-protection-is-now-top-reason\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:31:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:31:47","slug":"why-own-a-gun-protection-is-now-top-reason","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/05\/09\/why-own-a-gun-protection-is-now-top-reason\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Own a Gun? Protection Is Now Top Reason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The vast majority of gun owners say that having a gun makes them feel safer. And far more today than in 1999 cite protection \u2013 rather than hunting or other activities \u2013 as the main reason they own guns.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Pew Research Center survey conducted in February found that nearly half of gun owners (48%) volunteer that the main reason they own a gun is for protection; just 32% say they have a gun primarily for hunting and even fewer cite other reasons, such as target shooting. That&#8217;s 22 percentage points higher than 1999 when 26% cited protection as the biggest factor and 49% said they owned a gun mostly for hunting.<\/p>\n\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2013\/03\/12\/why-own-a-gun-protection-is-now-top-reason\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2013\/03\/3-12-13-1.png\" width=\"297\" height=\"296\"><\/a><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About a quarter of Americans (24%) say they personally own a gun, rifle or pistol; another 13% say another person in their household has a gun. A large percentage of gun owners (79%) say having a gun makes them feel safer. At the same time, nearly as many (78%) say that owning a gun is something they enjoy.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most Americans (57%) say they do not have a gun in their household. Most of the non-gun owners (58%) say that they would be uncomfortable having a gun in 3-12-13 #3their homes; 40% say they would be comfortable having a gun. <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2013\/03\/12\/why-own-a-gun-protection-is-now-top-reason\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The number of gun owners who say that protection is their top reason for having one has risen 22 percentage points since 1999.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"apple_news_api_pending":"1713063988","relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[],"bylines":[748],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-16172","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","bylines-sara-kehaulani-goo","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":199,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/05\/09\/why-own-a-gun-protection-is-now-top-reason\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Why Own a Gun? 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