Potential president ial run meaning he may challenge hillary clinton. We want to begin with a con tkpwaeugs with gun and gun ownership. A new study looks at how Many Americans own a gun and a third have at least one gun. We have divided our phone lines differently for the first 40 minutes. We want to hear only from gun owners and heres our question, why do you own guns . 2,027,488,000. And 2027488001. Skwroeufrpb us on facebook and send us an email at journal . Org. Hes been looking into some of these numbers. Thank you for being with us. Hi, steve. Thanks for having me. Host a surprising number. One in three americans own guns. Where did you come up with this figure and what was your Research Like . We conducted a national represent tative survey of all u. S. Adults. 18 18 anyone from the age of 18 and we asked them good gun ownership so they answered that they own at least one gun. You got to keep in mind that this is a question for each person, not the household survey. So they said yes to gun ownership that they own at least one gun then they were classified or categorized as a gun owner. Host what about their attitudes towards guns . We did ask them about how they perceived first of all, we asked them whether the gun was given as a gift and when the gun was bought. Did they buy the gun before 2000 or after 2000, and also how they use a gun. Whether they use it for hunting and also we asked them whether they attended safety classes and whether they think of themselves as responsible gun owners. So we found that 16 of the gun owners thought themselves to be responsible gun owners. Host as an Adjunct Health profuser you asked the question whether or not doctors view guns as a Public Health issue. Can you elaborate on that point. Well, you know that question was not included in our survey though but thats a very important question which is highly debated of course. The responses vary across the state and country depending on which state theyre in. Because some of the states did not allow them to ask begunershipbeguner ownership. It varied between states. So, we found that in alaska, 62 of the Adult Population owned at least one gun which was closely followed by arkansas where it was 58 and in north dakota it was 48 . So even though we reported national gun ownership of 29. 1 there are states where gun ownership where its minimal. Delaware is 5. 2 and rhode island is 5. 8 . We dont see a hom phopblg news number across the country. Host study showing that one in three americans own guns. We want to have a conversation with you about why you own guns. If youre just tuning in the 2,027,488,000. For Eastern Central time 8,001 in the pacific and Mountain Time zones. You talk about the attitude that gun owners have towards their firearms. Can touch on that point too. We also wanted to elaborate a little bit about whether they have taken a safety class, what they use their guns for. So basically those who reported that they use their gun for hunting among all the gun owners were just 6 . 6 said theyll be using the guns for hunting. Whereas safety classes were attended by only 10 of all owners and only 16 reported that they were they consider themselves to be responsible gun owners. You would think that all the rhetoric begun safety and all that would result in hydraulicer numbers who would be who would have attended safety classes and who consider themselves to be responsible gun owners. But that was not the case. Host professor, what surprised you the most in researching this topic . Well, first of all, the association between social gun culture and the gun ownership. We expect that to be the strength of the study. Statement even after, still it came out to be highly significant. So we didnt expect the strength to be that big, but we sort of expected that to be significant, but it was still very striking that social gun culture which is of course we know its pervasive in our society its important and now we know that it is going to be a very important factor, possibly the reason why most of the gun laws have been not that much of a success. Thank you very much for sharing your research and analysis. By the way its also Available Online at columbia. Edu. James is first from kentucky and again the question why do you gun guns. Good morning. Caller well why do i own them now . I just own them ive got several rifles and couple of handguns and i just use my handgun now when i go into the woods just for protection of coyotes or things, and i own my rifles i bought them for i used to deer hunt many years back and i used it for that. And ijust originally bought them just the fun of shooting, having fun shooting. Do you worry about your own safety . Is that another reason or just for hunting . Yeah, yeah. I keep my pistols home. I dont take them with me anywhere when i travel or nothing. But i do keep them for safety too in case somebody was to try to come in my home, yes. Have you had any threats on that front . No. Never. Thanks very much for the call. This is a tweet from fred who says, why do i own a gun . Because its my duty as a citizen to protect myself and household and that extends to my community. Mike is next joining us from maryland. Good morning. Welcome to the program. Caller good morning, thank you. I dont own a gun for concerns of safeti. I bought my first gun about two years ago and the only reason why, i didnt grow up in any gun culture or anything like that. The only reason why i bought a gun was because we are overrun with deer in this part of the country and it has become such a menace they are destroying just about everything in our development and we come home and we have 20 to 30 deer in our yard and were living in a suburban area. People are getting hurt. I have one Neighbor Lady who drove and hit a car. When she had it repaired on the way back to the auto dealership she hit another deer. It just crazy in this part of the country. Are you killing the deer . Yes, thats what iy i got a gun. Ive never been a hunter before but i am now. Hello . Can you hear me . Hakem report morning. Caller you have a question. The question were asking you, why do you own a gun . Caller because i choose to. Ive owned a gun since i was a preteen ager. Im also a korean veteran. Couple of my guns are museum pieces. Ones made in stainless steel a piece of art, a mechanical piece of art. Its a beautiful thing. I rarely use them but if i do i go to the range and just shoot for pleasure. Okay, couple of headlines from washington, d. C. The development yesterday is the president announcing new embassies in havana and washington, d. C. , that time has come. A cuban flag will wave from its new embassy and American Flag will fly in havana. From the l. A. Times the water situation continues to be a big story out west and the water cuts meet the states goal for the month of may. The star ledger has the story about the Justice Department investigating whether or not airlines have been colludeing to keep airfares higher. And monumental shift would not be an easy task in texas as theyre full of tributes to the confederacy. John is next. Good morning from new york city. Again, were hearing from gun owners only. Good morning john. Good morning. Thanks so much thank you. Actually the gun factories the money that they have they have to get and i think this is i think that we need a strong third parties to be in place. We need stronger debates on guns. Everything in this country gun is only good for republicans and democrats, no third parties. I think this is not so right of the thanks so much. Host history was made for the first time in 40 years. Cameras allow inside the white house for those on the tour. First lady announcing it on instagram and some of the first photographs available on a number of social media sites. It becomes an instagram hit. Front page and in this photograph in the shadow of the portrait of president john f. Kennedy. Outside the white house new measures taking shape. This is part of the temporary measure to avoid those who are trying to get inside the white house illegally. And new security effort by the administration and secret service, a long Term Solution is still in the works. Back to your calls on gun ownership in america. Bob from plymouth, indiana. Good morning. Caller good morning. I own a gun to protect my flock of sheep from dogs. Unfortunately its mainly peoples pet dogs that dont keep them restrained. Host how many guns do you have bob . Caller i have five. Host what type . Caller to be honest a couple of those are historical guns from world war ii that i dont even really shoot. The main gun that i use is a 22 thats all you need and then i have a couple shotguns for hunting. But host how specifically do you use the gun . Caller only thing i use the gun for are in the past was on a dog that were eating my sheep. If you ever seen a sheep eaten by a dog they start on the behind quarters and they dont kill it and i lost 15 sheep once from one dog incident. So its devastating to a flock of sheep. People dont even realize just dogs just chasing sheep will cause them toand its not a major problem but ive had five incidences over the years where peoples dogs have damaged my income. Host well go to henry from prairieville, louisiana. Good morning. Caller good morning. Good morning. Host youre on the hair. Go ahead, please. Caller oh okay. I own guns mainly because they were passed down through my family and we just enjoy having them and shooting them at targets. Dont do a lot of target practice anymore, but recently i feel like i need a gun i say recently within the last 4 or 5 years i feel more and more like i need a gun in my house for safety for my family. I had two incidence where one time i didnt see the person, but the house was broken into and someone was in the house. It became a reality even though i didnt feel like i wanted to have to use the gun, i felt like i was glad i had the gun because i had small children and my wife in the house and i felt like if it got to that point i would use the gun to protect my family. Host have you ever othersed it though to protect your family . Caller i just had it. I never did fire the gun to protect my family, but i wouldnt want a situation to occur in my house where someone broke into my house and had a gun and i didnt. To not be able to protect my family and just wonder what might happen to them if i didnt have the ability to protect my family. Host do you have a sense your gun rights are secure or do you think washington is trying to take some of them away . Caller i feel insecure about everything right now in america. I do not feel safe with the way things are going. I dont feel safe at all. I would like to know that washingtons concerned about americans being safe above all and i dont feel that way at all. Host henry, thank you for the call. At marketwatch. Com there is a survey look at where guns are most prevalent beginning with tennessee and the list of the top ten states. Number one is alaska. This is the headline. Check it out at marketwatch. Com. And listen to bob joining us from lincoln park, michigan. Caller good morning. The thing about having guns theres many reasons to have a gun. But the main reason is what the constitution and the founders intended which is to protect the people from the government itself. And thats the main reason to have a gun, especially these days the way the liberals are going trying to take the guns away. Host bob thanks for the call. Next is theron joining us. Good morning. Caller good morning. Currently own four guns. The first one was when i was 12. I used to do some hunting then. But never much into hunting. I didnt own a gun for me. In the 90s i became more politically aware and in libertarian politics. When i moved to georgia our house had been broken into when we lived in virginia. When we moved to georgia we had it broken into by a neighbor. So i owned two pistols and then a shotgun extra rifle. Ive never shot the shotgun. It sits in a closet unloaded. I got a rifle i keep downstairs unloaded and then the two pistols i keep primarily in my car. Since i have a carry permit i sometimes carry them with me depending on not what im doing and where im going. Its mostly protection because the police cant be anywhere and mostly for my protection and the protection of my fellow citizens she find myself in a situation. I guess the last thing ill say host have you ever felt that threat . Caller no, i havent. Ive never been in that situation. Host do you feel safer now that you own a gun . Caller i just feel good that i can protect myself my family and maybe if i had to find myself with a circumstance i could protect my fellow citizens if the cops werent there. Theres a lot of people in washington, d. C. , the only people who can legally own guns think i shouldnt and thats the other reason i own one. Host thank you for sharing story. There is a state by state breakdown because its up at the states for most of the Gun Legislation and a look at gun restrictions frank is next from miles, michigan. Caller i own a gun for deer hunting. Ive been hupting since i was a young boy and im in my sixties now. Can you imagine if we didnt have guns in this country what a boring place it would be. It would really hurt our economy if people really think about with all the ammunition, guns and all the other stuff that sells for hunting. Because im an avid hunting and so are my sons. All my kids own guns and i have concealed weapons permit and do i carry a gun with me a lot of the times living in the country you need to have one because you dont see very many police out in the rural areas. Host where is miles, michigan by the way . Caller its in the Southwest Corner of the state close to the indiana state line. Notre dame. Host do a lot of your neighbors have guns . Caller all my neighbors do because everybody is avid hunters. A lot of deer hunters and turkey hunters. Thats mostly what i use it for. Again, a study 13 americans own at least one gun and we are dividing our phone lines this morning just for those gun owners themselves. Heres where youre most likely to own a gun later this morning well turn our attention to donald trump macys the late toast dump trump. It has no tolerance for discrimination based on his comments of mexicans coming to the u. S. Calling many of them rapists. This is from a gun because the takers have one. Jim is next. Good morning and welcome to the program. Youre on the air, good morning. Caller hi, this is jim. Host go ahead please. Well move on. Unfortunately we had a bad connection. Lets go to dean in pennsylvania. Good morning dean. Caller good morning sir. Host how are you, today . Caller im good. How are you . Hakem , thank. Caller the Second Amendment says i can own a gun. Has anyone ever read the Second Amendment . It says the country and the preservation of the country is necessary due to the malitia and it shall not be infringed. It doesnt say a thing in there about duck hunting. Teddy roosevelt went to san wapb hill that with you a Militia Group that he raised and led. That was not part of the regular army and theyve been important in the history of this country for years and thats one of the things the banning of guns in the Clinton Administration with their war on the Militia Groups it was all questionable. Its perfectly okay to own a gun and i would estimate the gun ownership is about 50 or one in two not one in three. I think thats way low. Its legal and i can. Were a free county whether anyone likes it or not. Host do you think that freedom is being more restrictive. Caller i think theyre doing everything they could to restrict it host one of the iruse are background checks. And anyone with mental issues should not have a gun. Caller thats fine. Every mass shooting weve had in the connecticut schools and the aurora theatres out in colorado those are in gun free zones. The people that did that may have did not deranged but not stupid. The guy in dallas that attacked the police station, he lasted ten minutes and he killed no one. The deranged people go to gun free zones. And i dont see how anybody doing a background check if you were a ph. D. Type psychiatrist how are you going to determine if someone is crazy from one interview that takes ten minutes . Hakem thanks for the call. You may remember the name lynn russell. Shes the former anchor on Cnn Headline News to stop in albuquerque, new mexico. She was shot three times late tuesday night during an attempted robbery at and al ba kirk can i motel. They survived the Armed Robbery attempt when her husband shot and killed the intruder. Lynn russell saying that she and her husband were robbed at a motel six just outside of albuquerque. They decided to go to a motel to rest. They had gone to the car to get something when a man put a gun to her head and demanded her valuables. Her husband came out and fired the shots that killed the intruder. Story Available Online. Channel seven in albuquerque, new mexico. Next is margie joining us from texas. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host how are you today . Caller im a senior citizen. Im fine. My husband and i have a gun. He keeps it in the bed. We live in a small mobile home. Were retired and we had an attempted breakin. They broke the front window at 4 oclock in the morning. And we have a little dog. There was glass everywhere in the kitchen and the dog start barking and they ran off. And i called the police and they said what they do is kick in the window. If nobody comes they go around and kick in your door. We were certainly glad to have it. I didnt sleep well for two years after that. But let me say, that a gun not only for protection but im very elderly and in world war ii my father who was a great hunter and fisher kept meat for us by hunting deer, quail, dove so forth. Meat was rationed. You couldnt get so much. Host when did the intrusion take place in your house . How long ago . Caller its been about two and a half years ago. And we live 200 miles from the Mexican Border near corpus christi, texas. And there are great problems with dope coming across the border. And they are always watching for that and some of these people who are on dope get desperate and they do anything to get money to keep up their habit. That is true. Im not saying im a republican but there are problems. Very difficult problems in this part of the country because because of the traffic over the border. And we also travel with a done in our r. V. We have given up traveling now. But we have had one and we got stopped for a taillight being out in louisiana