Obviously a substantial number of respondents in the second poll falsely denied that their households had guns. Either that or almost 19 million guns somehow disappeared.

And Another Thing
Changing the subject completely now, I was recently confronted by an e-mail from a newspaper reporter who asked: "I'm seeking people who have researched long-term trends in levels of gun-related crime, accidents, homicides, etc., in the United States; also research that might explain reasons for the long-term decline in gun violence or accidents despite long-term increases in gun ownership."

Here was my response: Virtually never do ordinary people, whether gun owners or not, commit serious violent crimes. Almost all violent crime, especially murder, is committed by people with long criminal records (who cannot legally own guns under our current laws). As to accidents, almost all gun "accidents" are committed by such people and/or people who are substance-dependent.

No one knows why violent crimes have declined so greatly over the last 15 years or why they accelerated so greatly in the 15 years after 1960. The gun lobbies, and some criminologists, say the decline in crime is at least partially explained by the fact that so many good people acquired guns that criminals are deterred from attacking them. There is impressive evidence to support that thesis.

A question remains. What explains two similar declines: one, fatal gun accidents declined from more than 2,500 per year in the late 1960s to fewer than 700 per year today; and two, during the 1990s gun suicides greatly declined. Both declines occurred during a period of vast increase in gun ownership, but how could such increases explain the declines?