Gun ownership rate by town in MA

Nor is it particularly meaningful.

Middlefield population: 385. Savoy: 645. “There are more gun owners in Brookline than people in Middlefield and Savoy combined.” Who cares?

Number of licenses by %.
Boston: 12,302
Amherst: 634
Brookline: 801
Cambridge: 1,307.
% are meaningful. 12K in Boston is literally nothing. Politicians wipe their a** with that.

If that 12K became 100K, now you are talking.

When a politician thinks "will I get f*cked if I vote for this" - it is clear that anyone elected by people from Boston is pretty safe when it comes to 2A.
 
Come on, how many MG licenses do we have in MA?

200? (Guessing)
Only off by an order of magnitude ;)

But you're right - compared to 500K LTCs, 2K MGs is a pretty small effect.

Per the July '22 document
Firearms Identification Card23,867
Firearms Identification Card Restricted Chemical Propellant Only58
License to Perform Services as a Gunsmith317
License to Sell Ammunition506
License to Sell/Rent/Lease Firearms, Rifles, Shotguns or Machine Guns426
Resident Class A Large Capacity License to Carry Firearms501,252
Resident License to Possess a Machine Gun1,991
 
.
Only off by an order of magnitude ;)

But you're right - compared to 500K LTCs, 2K MGs is a pretty small effect.

Per the July '22 document
Firearms Identification Card23,867
Firearms Identification Card Restricted Chemical Propellant Only58
License to Perform Services as a Gunsmith317
License to Sell Ammunition506
License to Sell/Rent/Lease Firearms, Rifles, Shotguns or Machine Guns426
Resident Class A Large Capacity License to Carry Firearms501,252
Resident License to Possess a Machine Gun1,991
Damn, and I only know 5 of those. I need to make 1986 new friends.
 
.

Damn, and I only know 5 of those. I need to make 1986 new friends.
You and me, both.

I just checked and Littleton sees even more effect: they counted 1296 licenses, but 214 of those are FFLs and 9 are MGs. That's a >16% error.

LITTLETONFirearms Identification Card81
LITTLETONLicense to Perform Services as a Gunsmith70
LITTLETONLicense to Sell Ammunition70
LITTLETONLicense to Sell/Rent/Lease Firearms, Rifles, Shotguns or Machine Guns74
LITTLETONResident Class A Large Capacity License to Carry Firearms992
LITTLETONResident License to Possess a Machine Gun9
 
A lot of suburban towns are around 10% ownership rate. So I’d estimate 1-2% actually EDC. :/

Can’t count the fudds or the people who keep guns for home defense but don’t carry, plus there’s people who have an LTC but have never bought a gun.
 
A lot of suburban towns are around 10% ownership rate. So I’d estimate 1-2% actually EDC. :/

Can’t count the fudds or the people who keep guns for home defense but don’t carry, plus there’s people who have an LTC but have never bought a gun.
Lott reported back in 2015 that "5.2% of total adult population has a permit", recent studies range as high as 12%. I doubt MA is that far below the average, particularly in the western part of the state, semi-rural areas more closely resembling New Hampshire than Boston.

In NH, before the 2017 constitutional carry law, best estimates were about 10% of eligible adult residents were keeping carry licenses active -- higher in rural areas, lower in the cities and college towns. Given that NH resident P&R offers no other significant utility, it's reasonable to assume they "used" the license regularly.
 
Number is meaningless. There are a lot of unlicensed gun owners in MA. More than licensed by orders of magnitude. And I'm not talking the hood rats. I'm talking normal folks that own a few guns and either can't or don't feel the need to get a license, or don't know they need one.
 
Number is meaningless. There are a lot of unlicensed gun owners in MA. More than licensed by orders of magnitude. And I'm not talking the hood rats. I'm talking normal folks that own a few guns and either can't or don't feel the need to get a license, or don't know they need one.
Don't forget the pre-98 FID cardholders who believed the "lifetime" wording and were never notified otherwise.
 
The statistics professor who taught the course I took in college said this in his opening remarks in the first lecture. “Using Statistics is the easiest way to lie.” That was in 1978, I still pay heed to that advice.
There is also the famous observation that there are three types of lies; Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
 
@roge- it's in the "Raw" data sheet, which is itself drawn from an older version of this document:
Found here:
 
The statistics professor who taught the course I took in college said this in his opening remarks in the first lecture. “Using Statistics is the easiest way to lie.” That was in 1978, I still pay heed to that advice.
I prefer: "Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital".
 
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