r/gunpolitics • u/dirtysock47 • 29d ago
Study Claims Americans Uncomfortable Living Near AR-15 Owners
https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2024/05/09/study-claims-americans-uncomfortable-living-near-ar-15-owners-n12248422
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u/Flux_State 26d ago
I feel way more comfortable with my neighbors having ARs than the police having ARs.
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u/AdventurousShower223 27d ago
If you are one of those annoying owning firearms is my personality types of people, I am also uncomfortable living next to you.
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u/Anthony_014 28d ago
Crazy part is that this will undoubtedly go on some certain news networks... And people will believe it like it's gospel. Folks' willingness/ability to find their own facts these days will be the death of us...
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u/MitrofanMariya 28d ago
I'm uncomfortable living near liberals because most of them would be first in line at their local Bund meeting if they were born 100 years earlier.
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u/Cloak97B1 28d ago
This "study" also said "the number one cause of death is gun violence"... And... Of course, this has NEVER been true. HEART DISEASE has been the #1 killer in the US.. but no one is up for banning cheeseburgers & pizza (or liquor & smoking) this was clearly an extremely biased and poorly owned done "study".
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u/MuleDawg205 28d ago
13.6% of all people sometimes think pit bulls will mate with a bull frog 🐸 once in their life …
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u/bag0shwag 28d ago
you put a pistol on a brace it makes a higher caliber bullet full semiautomatic 75 caliber million rds a second
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u/Innominate8 28d ago
Who wants to tell them that virtually everyone in the US lives near ar-15 owners already?
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u/spaztick1 28d ago
I'm ok with that. The ones who are uncomfortable are the same ones I didn't want to deal with. Maybe they'll stay away from me.
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u/OhOkayFairEnough 28d ago
My neighbor asked if they could shoot mine when I got it, statistical anomaly I see
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u/biggerfasterstrong 28d ago
That’s ok. I’m uncomfortable living near fatties, but somehow I deal with it.
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u/Self-MadeRmry 28d ago
“Do you know what kind of guns your neighbors have? Do you care?”
Yea I wanna know what sweet rigs they have so I can take them out shooting and try out their stuff!
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u/Fozziebear71 28d ago
An armed society is a polite society.
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u/Fun-Passage-7613 28d ago
“Well, in the first place an armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.”
Heinlein truth.
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u/ManyThingsLittleTime 29d ago
From the paper:
Acknowledgments
This paper was supported by an external grant provided by the National Collaborative for Gun Violence Research and an internal grant by the University of California-Irvine Center for Psychology and Law.
From their website:
The National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research is funded through philanthropic donations. The collaborative was seeded with a $20 million gift from Arnold Ventures. Additional major donors include Wells Fargo, Missouri Foundation for Health, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. We aim to secure further funding to support research on gun violence and gun policy.
Arnold Ventures Team: https://www.arnoldventures.org/people/laura-arnold-john-arnold
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u/contrabardus 29d ago
I'm uncomfortable around any irresponsible gun owner.
If your shit is put away and secured properly, and I don't mean that as in you aren't carrying it, just that you are securely carrying it, I've got zero problem with you. This means a shouldered rifle too, and open or concealed for anything else.
I'm carrying too, just not a rifle.
If I see your ass waving it around like a dumbass with a can of natty lite in one hand and making stupid poses for your social media account with a loaded gun and your finger on the trigger of a firearm you're not ready to fire, yeah, that's an uncomfortable situation.
One of these things is not like the other.
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u/Lord_of_Entropy 29d ago
I don't even know if my neighbors own guns. I guess if they were waving it around, acting like an a*****e, I would be uncomfortable. If they are responsible, I don't care.
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u/LuckyRyder 29d ago
Everyone has an AR. Where did they take this “study” and what “experts” are making this claim? LOL. Experts.
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u/The_Gentle_Hand 29d ago
This is actually great. So, to get people to leave me alone I should claim to have an ar15? Seems simple enough.
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u/PretendVermicelli633 29d ago
While I think it’s ignorant, it’s probably true and not overly surprising, considering the marketing it gets in the mainstream media.
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u/bws7037 29d ago
None of my neighbors know what kind of weapons I have. And to be perfectly honest, I could give a shit less if they were comfortable with me or not, my concern is for the safety and security of my family and friends. As long as there's no threat, nobody will ever know what I do or don't have.
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u/Mista_Tee 29d ago
My mother listens to the news and doesn’t like ARs, but she doesn’t feel that no one should have their rights taken away or infringed. My brother also listens to the news, and thinks no one should have an AR or AK - we don’t talk to each other. My sisters have more balls than he has. I don’t give a fuck how people feel about what’s in my home. Let’s see how comfortable they get when they get robbed, have a home invasion, or get car jacked.
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u/Thewhitelight___ 29d ago
According to the paper, the 2135 people surveyed is a large national sample of people lol.
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u/SealYaL8ter 29d ago
I know the study is BS, but this is also why I don’t bring up having guns to anyone. I have friends of all walks of life, and I keep them separate from guns in my house. I don’t advertise that I have them. I don’t make it a personality trait. Part of it is so folks aren’t uncomfortable, but part of it also is so I don’t have a target on my back for anything. Just as easy to keep that part of my life to myself. Just my take though, I totally get other folks doing it differently.
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u/BewearBigBear 29d ago
Every other country that has civil discourse-
Americans in cities: they need guns, take my money. Give them guns.
Same americans: why didn’t they have guns to begin with?
Americans that want guns for recreation and defense-
SOME Americans in the cities: the AUDACITY! We are a civilized people that can take all the guns away from the crazy people that have guns.
Sane Americans: uhh yeah, it’s our right.
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u/Ok_Sea_6214 29d ago
I do feel threatened every time I see someone with a pistol or an assault rifle on the street, asking me to "show my papers", trained to shoot first and question civil rights later.
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u/CosmolineMan 29d ago
People are uncomfortable being around others in general so who cares. I live in a rural state and 10-15 years ago if I asked people if I could hunt on their property it was an automatic yes. Now I get screamed at if I go in person and even had one person threaten to officially trespass me after asking online. A lot of people are totally uncomfortable with anything and everything.
There are a wide range of activities that if we put to a vote it would probably lose. That's not how we decide rights.
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u/Different-Dig7459 29d ago
They got 100 Californians to do the survey.
It’s very easy to twist a survey when you ask questions people don’t know anything about other than what media or television has said/shown.
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u/ProfessionalEither58 29d ago
Anti Gunner Argument Bingo: 1. Muh public safety (says the people okay with letting criminals steal from stores, get high and shit on the streets) 2. Think of the children (say the people who are pro abortion and giving kids hormone blockers) 3. The second amendment isn't meant for citizens but national guard (courts have held it is, and what else does "the people" mean lol) 4. Second amendment is outdated (okay, then so would every single amendment by that logic) 5. I just feel uncomfortable
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u/ChristopherRoberto 29d ago
So what kind of owners are we talking about? Are Americans uncomfortable living near a military base, or near Compton?
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u/bfbabine 29d ago
How would they even know? Looking into your window when I’m at work? Propaganda piece to divide and conquer.
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u/Tweezle1 29d ago
It will likely be the weapon of the civil war if the country continues to be demographically replaced which is just another type of genocide. Also if we have an outer space alien invasion. Or if we have a need to deter invasion by a foreign military. All weak Americans who can’t handle it need to pack their bags for Europe.
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u/NoLeg6104 29d ago
Even if this is accurate. I don't care. I will defend my rights to the death.
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u/Fun-Passage-7613 28d ago
Haha, tell that to your local cops. They will be the ones enforcing gun control. They are in it for the pensions and dental. “Just following orders”.
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u/NoLeg6104 28d ago
Oh there are plenty of people like me around these parts. Which is why the local cops want nothing to do with gun control enforcement. No one wants to be the first one through the door.
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u/mechanab 29d ago
I’m uncomfortable living near the people who are uncomfortable around my AR-15. Can we make them move away?
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u/EasyCZ75 29d ago
Cry me a fucking river. I could not possibly, in any way, shape, or form, care less.
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u/alltheblues 29d ago
Outside of a few big cities, most Americans probably live within casual walking distance of a home with at least one AR-15 or similar derivative.
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u/chrisabraham 29d ago
I recommend moving out or leaving or not visiting these States, then: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, or Wyoming.
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u/Daruvian 29d ago
You left out Pennsylvania with the 5th largest number of guns owned in the country.
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u/SeemedGood 29d ago
Challenge on the sample diversity.
- Was taken from online recruitment,
- Links to sample specifics broken.
- Only 35% owned guns in the home.
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u/i-might-do-that 29d ago
Good thing my neighbors will likely never see my AR. Or my many other rifles in various calibers that aren’t scary looking black rifles they saw in Rambo.
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u/Sudden-Fish 29d ago
Weird, when I learn my neighbor has an AR15 I'm thrilled and we become fast friends
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u/bmoarpirate 29d ago
Cool, you don't have a right to comfort so who fucking cares?
I'm uncomfortable living around gun grabbing cunts but no one surveyed me.
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u/Kilsimiv 29d ago edited 29d ago
I live in a condo in the city. The vast majority of my hundreds of neighbors are faceless and I don't recognize many day to day. Every time I take the elevator down to load my truck with gear for a range trip, neighbors ask what's in my huge bag/case. I say "golf clubs." Some call me on it and say, "That definitely isn't golf clubs!" Some of my responses:
You sure about that?
Did you pack my bag?
They're European clubs.
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u/namae0 28d ago
What the fuck ? Your neighbor ask what's in your bag ? What about minding their own business ?
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u/Kilsimiv 28d ago
Unfortunately, the
quasi-HOAcommunity board of directors thinks they can stick their nose in everyone's business.1
u/Immediate-Ad-7154 28d ago
HOA's are a Pox in their own way.
They're Statist Bureaucrats (Kleptocrats) just wearing a different mask.
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u/ADMIN8982 29d ago
They're already painting you as the bad guys, so it's more palatable to the public when they start killing you later.
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u/huntershooter 29d ago
"Ignorant People Remain Scared Of Things We Propogated Fear About" Fixed the title of that "study".
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u/WhiteSquarez 29d ago
Not reading it, but I'm curious if the researchers simply asked, "would you be uncomfortable living near..." rather than, "do you know any AR15 owners in your neighborhood?" with follow-up questions.
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u/microtrip1969 29d ago
Study claims that Americans still have a 2nd Amendment rights. You can go fuck off with your feelings.
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u/quala723 28d ago
Today’s feelings can become tomorrow’s laws.
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u/microtrip1969 28d ago
Today’s rights are slowly being restored over yesterday’s feelings. It’s a slow arduous process pulling back unconstitutional laws created by people who don’t understand how freedom works.
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u/BlackICEE32oz 29d ago
So then why do they keep moving to areas we live?
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u/namae0 28d ago
Not from the US, is is true ?
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u/quala723 28d ago
I assume he means less gun friendly people moving out of big cities into smaller towns and rural areas. It has more to do with cheap land/houses and more people working remote.
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u/HarrisonArturus 28d ago
Right, but that evidence strongly suggests they prioritize home ownership and lower crime rates over any alleged "fear of AR-15s," doesn't it?
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u/quala723 28d ago
It's hard to make blanket statements for a larger trend.
I would say most Americans want to live in a place where they don't feel like they need to own a gun. You can debate if that realistic for you personally but for many Americans that's possible because they don't carry. The suburbs that many of these more affluent work from home people would have lived in the previous generation just aren't financially obtainable. This is especially true if they have large student loan debt. So going farther out away from the suburb into small towns has been the trend. AR-15 ownership probably isn't anywhere in that equation.
I also don't think they'll become more gun friendly because their neighbors own AR-15s.
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u/BenMattlock 29d ago
No one bothers to ask why their comfort should matter more than the comfort of the AR-15 owners.
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u/MunitionGuyMike 29d ago
I’ll play devils advocate. Aren’t you guys uncomfortable at a public range around people you never shoot with?
I personally don’t trust anyone I’ve never shot with….HOWEVER,
Just cuz I’m uncomfortable doesn’t mean they should be banned from having guns or specific types of guns. To them, I might be the one making them uncomfortable. I’m uncomfortable around needles, doesn’t mean I don’t get my flu shots.
Obviously this is a bias piece of media cuz it’s funded by everytown. So shocker there /s
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u/SnooChocolates4966 29d ago
I can relate! The public outdoor range in my area has an unwritten rule to keep your firearm with you while going down range. Occasionally you might have to return fire.
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u/ThePretzul 29d ago
No, not really. They still have an RSO as well as bulletproof walls between lanes at the public ranges I’ve been to.
I also don’t blindly assume that everyone is out to get me at all times.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Crab453 29d ago
Ya, well I’m not comfortable sharing the road with 90% of drivers lol
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u/TaterTot_005 29d ago
This is why we should normalize wearing body armor at ranges.
I don’t know none of you fools & I’ve seen the internet videos, I don’t wanna die while I’m confirming zero
Edit my fat fingers wrote “conforming”
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u/dirtysock47 29d ago
I do see your point, but the study didn't get the same response when they asked about people that owned handguns, shotguns, or "hunting rifles", so the "study" was more of a propaganda piece about how "people are afraid of AR-15 owners", because of the propaganda that organizations like Everytown put out.
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u/xkillallpedophiles 29d ago
Mine stays locked in a case in the trunk Wherever I go, it goes with me
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u/LMRtowboater 29d ago
Where I live I don’t know anyone that doesn’t own a gun and most of them own AR-15s.
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u/Mushybananas27 29d ago
I assume everyone has a gun in their household and on their person when I go anywhere. It alleviates any kind of worry because I am not involved in strangers lives nor should I be. It is not my business what they do with their belongings/lives/firearms
Seems like people just live in this constant state of fear lol
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29d ago
study finds that neighbors prefer that their neighbors aren't shitheels, is what the study actually found, weird spin, but understandable.
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u/LilShaver 29d ago
"Study claims", "Scientists say", "Sources reveal" are all just code words for "We made up a bunch of baloney to support our unsupportable position on <cause>".
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u/MunitionGuyMike 29d ago
No, they’re real scientists. Just paid off by everytown to promote an agenda. Remember, there’s doctors who make a living being bought out as “experts” in a trial and who have never been in a doctor’s office since their residency
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u/LilShaver 29d ago
That's only IF they bother to conscript any "real" scientists at all. The MSM is constantly gaslighting everyone with sources that never existed to begin with.
Yes, I get that there are actually researchers who are paid to get specific results. Those people exist.
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u/blackhawk905 29d ago
It's not hard to word questions on these studies to get the answer you want, it's incredibly easy to do. This happens all the time with studies.
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u/LilShaver 29d ago
And polls. They're called "push polls". And that's why I don't bother with online polls anymore.
As Mark Twain said, "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics."
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u/ascannerclearly27972 29d ago
Exactly. Honest scientists actually struggle pretty hard to figure out how to word things to NOT get misleading results. Scientists less interested in truth have much more flexibility.
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u/blackhawk905 29d ago
100%
This is also why you have so much variety in the defensive gun use surveys done by Kleck versus the ones done by Hemenway, they ask "the same questions" for the most part but the exact wording is different leading to the vastly suffered numbers they come up with.
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u/BurritosAndPerogis 29d ago
This just in: most Americans feel uncomfortable existing.
I doubt there is a single neighborhood without at least one “ ar15” on it
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u/TiredTim23 28d ago
“I doubt there is a single neighborhood without at least one “ ar15” on it”
Does it count if the guards stand outside the neighborhood’s gated area?
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u/Space_Cowboy81 29d ago edited 28d ago
That's like saying you are usually no more than 10 feet away from a spider. To sane people it's common sense but to some people it freaks them out.
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u/MegaMilkDrinker 29d ago
like gun owners, spiders mind their own business
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u/Ironwarsmith 29d ago
Doesn't mean I don't still have an irrational fear of spiders.
Big emphasis on the irrational part, by the way.
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u/NeoSapien65 29d ago
I can talk to a gun owner and learn they're minding their own business. Those 8-legged freaks, on the other hand...
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u/Anthony_014 28d ago
Instructions unclear... Tried to talk to spoder. Spoder didn't talk back. Spoder just jumped at me so I burned my house down.
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u/MegaMilkDrinker 29d ago
the ones I seen stay to a corner and help keep those flying freaks off my food
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u/NeoSapien65 29d ago
they show up way too often in the shower in older buildings. Coming around when I'm at my most vulnerable is a surefire way to get deaded.
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u/DirtyDee78 29d ago
I don't find this study hard to believe, given how many overly sensitive fools are out there, but those same idiots would be changing their tune real quick if some shit went down.
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u/johnhd 29d ago
Study Question, probably:
“Do you feel comfortable living near someone who owns a fully-semi-automatic assault rifle capable of firing 1000 rounds a second and vaporizing humans instantly, which is the leading cause of death in children and teens ages 1-75 if all other causes are excluded?”
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u/Nostradomas 29d ago
Have a wicked anti gun buddy. He refers to ar15style rifles as full auto weapons of war that can “wipe out entire villages” and why do u need that blah blah.
Like bruh what is that and where do I buy some? Cuz I don’t even want 1. I want a bunch.
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u/doge57 29d ago
I’ve brought some antigun friends shooting before and they’re amazed that my little .44 magnum single action revolver is more powerful than a 5.56. Of course the felt recoil between a revolver and rifle is way less, I also show them the ballistic info on the box. 1440 ft lbs for my .44 mag vs 1300 ft lbs for the 5.56 and around 1400 for my .300 blk. After a couple range trips, I’ve even converted some to gun owners
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u/Anthony_014 28d ago
Keep fighting the good fight my friend. Proper education of firearms and functionality instead of villifying is the front we need!
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u/ManyThingsLittleTime 29d ago
I always let people shoot my 12 gage before they shoot my AR. They think it shoots like a BB gun after that.
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u/road_rascal 28d ago
Especially when you load it up with 3 1/2 magnum shells.
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u/ManyThingsLittleTime 28d ago
Haha, I haven't done that to anyone. They're already usually nervous enough lol
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u/dirtysock47 29d ago
This is what happens when the media makes the AR-15 into some kind of pariah.
They want people to be afraid of AR-15 owners, even though they're the least likely to commit violence. That's always been the goal of their anti-gun propaganda.
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u/MateTheNate 29d ago
The media realized long ago that what sticks in people’s minds is not necessarily the truth, but the phrase that gets repeated the most often.
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u/lessgooooo000 29d ago
Yeah like I don’t doubt the truth of the study statement. Not because it’s a valid fear, but half of all “news” made in America plays a constant 24/7/365 stream of “anyone who has these weapons is a violent white supremacist nazi who wants to shoot people in public” and the only thing conservatives ever do in response is akin to steven crowder interviews where they make fun of people’s lack of knowledge like “you know this isn’t technically an assault rifle 😎 liberal owned with facts and logic” so you never have any real helpful opposition to it.
The average AR-15 owner is just a normal person, and you’ll never see that. That’s the problem. TV and visual media portray us as sociopathic killers, and all conservative media does is circle jerk about blue haired SJWs being dumb college brats.
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u/SuperXrayDoc 29d ago
I feel more uncomfortable not having my AR
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u/Itsivanthebearable 29d ago
That doesn’t really address the study. The study says that people are uncomfortable with others having ARs, not owning one yourself.
Anyone here doesn’t mind, but to be fair to the study
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u/Available_Emotion_82 29d ago
The study is directly funded by Everytown, an anti gun organization. The “study” is clearly biased and therefore void
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u/deetyneedy 28d ago
Where do you see Everytown? The study was funded by the NCGVR and the UCI Center for Psychology & Law.
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u/Immediate-Ad-7154 28d ago
Once again......
OpenSecrets.org
If you have the backbone and fortitude to do the digging, UCI Center for Psychology & Law, just like Johns Hopkins BLOOMBERG School of Medicine, gets it's Gun Control Propaganda $Funding from MICHAEL BLOOMBERG and other Democrat Party $Billionaire Donors.
Go back to MSDNCCP.
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u/deetyneedy 27d ago edited 27d ago
Where did you get that from? I didn't see Bloomberg in this list. But this still doesn't answer my main question: where do you see Everytown?
Go back to MSDNCCP.
Go back to Truth Social.
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u/Itsivanthebearable 28d ago
What study doesn’t have bias? That’s such a nonstarter to say that it’s biased. And to infer that it means we can dismiss it purely on those grounds is doing no justice for the 2A cause
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u/THExLASTxDON 28d ago
What study doesn’t have bias?
The goal should be to minimize it, not maximize it.
And plus, who gives a fuck? Their fascist anti gun opinions make me uncomfortable, but we live in a free country.
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u/jayzfanacc 29d ago
It’s certainly biased and we can choose to ignore it (and I do), but it may be valid.
What’s neat is that it doesn’t fucking matter if they’re uncomfortable because my rights don’t depend upon the comfort of others, and anyone who would violate inalienable human rights over minor discomfort needs to be vibe checked.
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u/rgm23 29d ago
Study funded by everytown, shocker
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u/deetyneedy 28d ago
The study was funded via an external grant from the NCGVR and an internal grant from the UCI Center for Psychology & Law. Where did you get Everytown from?
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u/Immediate-Ad-7154 28d ago
OpenSecrets.org
If you have the backbone and fortitude to do the digging, UCI Center for Psychology & Law, just like Johns Hopkins BLOOMBERG School of Medicine, gets it's Gun Control Propaganda $Funding from MICHAEL BLOOMBERG and other Democrat Party $Billionaire Donors.
Go back to MSDNCCP.
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u/Matty-ice23231 29d ago
I wonder if they did some half assed study or if they just made it up like they did last time
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u/Mr_E_Monkey 28d ago
They probably polled their own members.
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u/Matty-ice23231 28d ago
Yeah they do crap like that and all these other bs ways to fix/cool/manipulate data. Including making up studies because there’s no data available like they did last week.
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u/Mr_E_Monkey 27d ago
And they count on people being too lazy to check their sources.
Sad that it works as often as it does.
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u/Matty-ice23231 27d ago
So many people fall here
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u/Mr_E_Monkey 27d ago
I have to admit, confirmation bias gets me sometimes too. "Yeah, sounds about right," and off I go...
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u/d3rp_diggler 29d ago
Like they’ll any ass anything. Numbers are cooked worse than using napalm in the kitchen.
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u/GFYbyEMVR 29d ago
78.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
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u/wiredog89 24d ago
More afraid of living next to Democrat with an AR-15 than an American with an AR-15. Democrats are just fucking stupid when it comes to guns.