# Rifle ownership in the 1960s

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rifle-ownership-in-the-1960s/499679>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 13, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rifle-ownership-in-the-1960s/499679 "2009-06-13T18:45:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rifle-ownership-in-the-1960s/499679/1 "2009-06-13T18:45:45Z")

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Anyone have statistics on what percentage of U.S. households owned guns, specifically long guns, in the 1960s?

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**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rifle-ownership-in-the-1960s/499679/2 "2009-06-13T19:33:55Z")

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I don’t know that anybody would. Records weren’t kept back then. You could get weapons via mail order. There were thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, of bring-backs from World War II. The only weapons that were tracked were [NFA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Firearms_Act) weapons, and those only for tax purposes when transferred or purchased. It wasn’t until the [Gun Control Act of 1968](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_Control_Act_of_1968) that there were notable restrictions on ownership.

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rifle-ownership-in-the-1960s/499679/3 "2009-06-13T19:37:31Z")

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Don’t necessarily need government records. Most of the statistics we have on household ownership of guns are from private surveys.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rifle-ownership-in-the-1960s/499679/4 "2009-06-13T22:57:25Z")

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From a 1968 newspaper story, supposedly Lou Harris said a poll showed 51% of US households owned a gun. Sharp regional variations. 34% in East, 55% Midwest, 64% South, 53% West. No mention, in the article, of type of gun.

I’ll try to find more.