Gun Control & RKBA

Some estimates are around 55,000,000 some are as high as 100,000,000.

It's hard to come up with an accurate figure as we do not require all gun owners to be licensed.

Surveys are the main method used to come up with the estimates. The problem with a survey is that many gun owners will simply refuse to tell a survey taker who comes to their door or calls them on the phone that they own firearms. Gun owners when asked if they would admit gun ownership often say, "Hell no, it's none of their damn business."

Many gun owners fear revealing ownership as they suspect the information might end up on some master list and be used when and if the Feds start confiscating firearms. Of course the government could compose a fairly accurate list of firearm owners in an amazing short amount of time anytime it wanted to. A typical gun owner often uses a credit card at a gun store, buys gun magazines, orders from online gun supply stores, belongs to gun forums on the net, goes to gun shows etc, etc, if the government ever desired it could use data mining tactics commonly used by businesses today to compliment a list of gun owners. It's simply amazing what Amazon.com knows about my buying habits. Amazon can predict stuff I might like to buy and when I am on the internet, Amazon is always making suggestions to me.

Even if only 55,000,000 people own firearms in our nation that still is a significant voting block. The 2010 census data shows there are 37,685,848 Blacks or African Americans in our nation and obviously not all are of voting age while most gun owners are.

Ref: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762156.html