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(CNSNews.com) - Sixty-three percent of Americans questioned in a Gallup survey conducted in October and released this month said they believe having a gun in their house makes it a safer place to be.
“A record-high percentage in U.S. say guns makes homes safer,” said Gallup in its analysis of the survey. The organization has polled on this issue in five surveys going back to 1993 (although the question in the 1993 survey was somewhat different than in later surveys).
Gallup also reported on how eleven different demographic groups responded to the question. Among all of these except one—Democrats—a majority said this October that having a gun in the house makes it a safer place to be.
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From Oct. 12-15, Gallup asked a random sample of 1,017 adults in the United States this question: “Do you think having a gun in the house makes it a safer place to be or a more dangerous place to be?”
Overall, 63 percent said having a gun makes the house a safer place, while 30 percent said it makes it a more dangerous place, 6 percent said it depends, and 1 percent expressed no opinion.
Sixty-seven percent of men and 58 percent of women said having a gun in the house makes it a safer place. Sixty-five percent of whites and 56 percent of nonwhites said having a gun in the house makes it safer. Fifty-nine percent of people in the East, 62 percent in the Midwest, 68 percent in the South, and 59 percent in the West said having a gun in the house makes it safer.
Eighty-one percent of Republicans and 64 percent of Independents said having a gun in the house makes it safer.
But only 41 percent of Democrats said having a gun in the house makes it safer.
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Gallup has asked the identical question it asked this October about having a gun in the house in surveys conducted in 2006, 2004 and 2000. In a 1993 survey, Gallup asked a question with somewhat different wording. In that version, Gallup asked. “Which of the following comes closer to your view: having a gun in the house makes it a safer place to be because you can protect yourself from violent intruders or, having a gun in the house makes it a more dangerous place to be because you increase the risk from gun accidents and domestic violence?”
In 1993, 42 percent said having a gun in the house makes it safer; in 2000, 35 percent; in 2004, 42 percent; in 2006, 47 percent; and in 2014, 63 percent.
“The percentage of Americans who believe having a gun in the house makes it a safer place to be (63%) has nearly doubled since 2000, when about one in three agreed with this,” said Gallup’s analysis of the survey.
“A record-high percentage in U.S. say guns makes homes safer,” said Gallup.
Gallup, of course, did not exist and was not conducting surveys on this question when British troops marched on Lexington and Concord in April 1775.
Interestingly, a smaller percentage of people admit having a gun in their home (42 percent) than say that have a gun makes the home safer (63 percent).
In a survey conducted Oct. 13-18, 1993, 51 percent told Gallup they had a gun in their home, while 48 percent said they did not. Since then Gallup has asked "Do you have a gun in your home?" in 22 surveys, and in none of those surveys has a majority stated that they had a gun in their home?