According to https://www.statista.com/statistics/249740/percentage-of-hou... , 42% of households have guns, so while it’s close, the median household does not have a gun. And, again, firearms are far more common in rural areas than in urban areas, so I believe the statement is true.
+ Those background checks are used for lots of things other than firearm purchases
+ Firearms can be transferred legally in some cases without background checks
+ Plenty of firearms existed before the background check system and are still owned and functioning
+ Many firearms are purchased, left to rust or otherwise break, and never repaired.
+ Firearms are occasionally turned in to the police or surrendered (usually when a family member passes and their relatives don't know what to do with the firearms).
The other source of information is directly asking people, but that runs into a bunch of problems too, mostly that people will lie.
I also don't think there's any kind of remotely common pattern that lets us correct this bad data from self reporting. Liberal gun owners are likely to lie about owning a firearm since they don't want their family to know, and conservative firearm owners are less likely to trust the person they're reporting to. Many firearm owners are taught to never ever talk about being a firearm owner to avoid being a target for burglary.
My point is, we simply don't know at all. Any gross figure is extremely suspect.
Still, bad numbers are all we’ve got. I’m sure most Americans have seen guns, or know gun owners, but I’m also sure most Americans — especially most urban Americans — don’t actually own guns themselves. If they did, people wouldn’t routinely confuse “semiautomatic” and “machine gun” or “submachine gun.”
My father owned a rifle for a time when I was young, but sold it probably 30 years ago. One member of my wife's family has what would be considered a hobby farm and recently bought a rifle for shooting pests. Outside of that, I'm not aware of another gun owner amongst friends and acquaintances.
I grew up in Port Lincoln, then moved to Adelaide, and now Launceston. Also, I have family in Queensland.
In my experience it isn’t unusual at all for someone to own a gun, or guns, in Australia.
My father had guns, my sisters family have multiple guns for pig hunting. Half the guys I work with have a veritable smorgasbord of firearms, I’m talking 10+ firearms, for hunting and just general enthusiasm. People I’ve worked with in IT in Adelaide own handguns for target shooting.
I guess it depends who you hang out with. Even some of the “hippies” I’ve known along the way own guns for pest control and dealing with injured livestock.
I guess the average city dweller in Australia probably doesn’t own firearms, but if you spend enough time in the towns and smaller cities... plenty of guns.
We do seem to mange not to shoot each other up very often. Im more worries about being punched in the back of the head.