Correcting the Economist

I was pleased to see a letter from Assoc. Professor Claus Langfred of George Mason published in this week's edition of the Economist. He was responding to this article in an earlier edition talking about the quantity of guns going up but the number of owners going down. Langfred correctly points out that the gun ownership data is reliant upon the accuracy of survey data asking people if they have guns in the home. Given the hostility of the government towards gun owners, its unsurprising that this accuracy level is highly suspect.