Gun owners are happy people

The Wall Street Journal reports that gun-clingers are not, in fact, bitter.

According to the 2006 General Social Survey, which has tracked gun ownership since 1973, 34% of American homes have guns in them. This statistic is sure to surprise many people in cities like San Francisco...

Who are all these gun owners? Are they the uneducated poor, left behind? It turns out they have the same level of formal education as nongun owners, on average. Furthermore, they earn 32% more per year than nonowners. Americans with guns are neither a small nor downtrodden group.

Nor are they "bitter." In 2006, 36% of gun owners said they were "very happy," while 9% were "not too happy." Meanwhile, only 30% of people without guns were very happy, and 16% were not too happy.

In 1996, gun owners spent about 15% less of their time than nonowners feeling "outraged at something somebody had done." It's easy enough in certain precincts to caricature armed Americans as an angry and miserable fringe group. But it just isn't true. The data say that the people in the approximately 40 million American households with guns are generally happier than those people in households that don't have guns.

The gun-owning happiness gap exists on both sides of the political aisle. Gun-owning Republicans are more likely than nonowning Republicans to be very happy (46% to 37%). Democrats with guns are slightly likelier than Democrats without guns to be very happy as well (32% to 29%). Similarly, holding income constant, one still finds that gun owners are happiest.

In 2002, they were more likely to give money to charity than people without guns (83% to 75%). This charity gap doesn't reflect their somewhat higher incomes. Gun owners were also more likely to give in other ways, such as donating blood. Are gun owners unsentimental? In 2004, they were more likely than those without guns to strongly agree that they would "endure all things" for the one they loved (45% to 37%).

...for many Americans, happiness often does indeed involve a warm gun.

I love that last line.

Will we be allowed to drill?

You may have heard that the House just passed a silly bill taxing American Oil companies for their record profits with the pretense of easing the financial burden on the consumer and researching alternative energy. (never mind that the TAX on a gallon of gas is about 20-30 times the profit margin at any stage in the manufacturing and supply process)

Its funny.

No new drilling allowed in Alaska, no more nuclear power plants built, no hydroelectric plants... all because of the eco-hippies on the left, but now that oil is rising in cost, they are suddenly feeling sorry for the less fortunate Americans.

Then I read This Article on the incredible reserves which are being surveyed in the Dakota / Montana region. Reserves that could potentially drastically reduce, if not end US dependence on foreign oil.

Will the region be slapped with ecological protection laws? or will we be allowed to utilize our national resources?