http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20040803-2359-nv-grayinggunslingers.html
Matt Bennett of Americans for Gun Safety/Handgun Control Inc. (whatever it is called this week) sounds a bit condescending to me.. and I am not sure I would call a realistic group of senior citizens that take responsibility for their own safety "gunslingers" but, that may just be me.....The Webmistress
ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 3, 2004
They call themselves the "Senior Militia," a group of about 20 gunslingers mostly in their 60s who meet twice weekly to shoot the breeze – and their guns.
They are vigilant about their standing date for target practice because they think that off the range they are the targets.
"Old people tell me they feel like sheep, because they're so helpless," said John McCormack, 80, unofficial president of the group.
McCormack and other members of the group are part of a growing population of Americans older than 65 who are the most likely of all age groups to own guns.
Until the 1990s, men ages 40 to 49 were the demographic group most likely to own guns, said Tim Smith, director of General Social Survey at the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago. Now gun ownership is most prevalent among senior citizens, Smith said.
In 1982, 30 percent of Americans older than 65 reported they owned guns, compared with 38 percent of Americans ages 40 to 49, according to a survey by the National Opinion Research Center.
That reversed by 2002, with 37 percent of Americans older than 65 owning guns and 24 percent of Americans ages 40 to 49 reporting ownership.
Smith said the shift was partly because Americans who reported having guns two decades ago moved into the older age group and because younger generations have lost interest in hunting.
Eighty percent of gun owners own rifles and shotguns, the most popular hunting guns, and 60 percent own handguns, Smith said. Almost half of gun owners possess both.
"The oldest adults were, at least at one time, the most avid of hunters," he said.
Now they fear they're the hunted, according to The Gun Store manager Dave Vining, who heads the store's concealed weapons instruction program.
"They're scared," Vining said. "They're afraid they won't be able to protect themselves against home invasions, muggings, robberies, carjackings."
It's not that older people are more likely to be crime victims.
Since January, 9 percent of robberies were committed against citizens older than 60 in Las Vegas, according to police. Three percent of assault and battery victims were older than 60.
People 65 and older make up 10 percent of the population of Clark County, according to the state demographer's office.
Las Vegas police Sgt. Tom Johnson, who handles gun registration and concealed firearms permits, said he thinks senior citizens buy guns to feel safer in crime-ridden areas.
Johnson said gun shops tend to exaggerate the number of senior citizens purchasing guns, but he said the department does not keep track of gun ownership according to age, sex or religion.
All the members of the Senior Militia have gone through the qualification and registration process that lets them carry their weapons concealed in public.
Vince Pillig, 58, one of the younger members of the group, said he has exposed his gun twice to teens who he thought were trying to rob him.
Once Pillig said he was home alone when he spotted some teenagers climbing over the wall of his back yard. Pillig went to his back screen door, exposed his gun and told them to leave.
Another time, Pillig said he flashed the butt of his gun at teenagers at his door who claimed to be selling magazine subscriptions. They could not provide identification, Pillig said, and they fled in a car with no license plate.
Local gun store owners said they have seen a significant age increase in their clientele in the past few years. Mike O'Donoghue, owner of Discount Firearms, said 40 percent of his customers are senior citizens.
"Whether they're conservatives or liberals, they're waking up to the reality that they're not as young as they used to be," O'Donoghue said. "They realize that the police can't be there all the time, everywhere."
Rick Gray, owner of Accuracy Gun Shop, said older generations are realizing they have to take safety in their own hands.
Gun ownership among senior citizens isn't risk free, said Matt Bennett, a spokesman for Americans for Gun Safety. The national organization says law-abiding adults have the right to own guns, but fears that some older adults are incapable of handling a gun responsibly.
Bennett said gun-related suicides among senior citizens are a major concern. In 2002, the most recent year available, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that 16,882 Americans committed suicide with a gun, 36 percent of whom were older than age 55.
"Anecdotal evidence shows that these types of suicides are men who have recently lost their spouses or suffer from a medical ailment," Bennett said. "If a family member falls into this category, it may be worth considering a discussion with them about their gun ownership."
Donald Carns, a sociologist at UNLV, agreed that senior citizens who own guns, especially those who live alone, can be potentially dangerous because they often don't have adequate "social support."
Carns said people who own guns may also attract more attention to themselves.
"I think we always think of a gun as something to keep people away, but it can also be attractive," he said.
In the end, Carns said, the personal protection that a gun provides can outweigh the risks, especially for low-income senior citizens in dangerous areas.
"I should imagine if I weren't married and was living alone, I'd probably want a piece," said Carns, who turns 67 next month. "It's something to have there."