There were times when my grandparents and parents did not have a lot to eat

When I was growing up we and my friends' families had what to eat but we did not have lots of "stuff."

What happened to allow regular folks to acquire multiple firearms?

__________________
Buy American
Vote Responsibly

Economic prosperity.

The World bought American Manufactured goods. America built the machine tools that rebuilt Europe and Japan. In the 1950s to 1970, in relative terms wages were good, no unemployment or lay-offs, construction was seasonal in the Snow Belt, inflation was low, taxes were low, and Labor Unions made reasonable demands for pay increases and job safety.

The conditions today (and for the last 15 years) are obvious.

__________________
S&WHF 366

People who bought homes in the 50's, 60's and 70's did pretty well

__________________
Buy American
Vote Responsibly

A post war economy, union wages, higher education... Manufacturing advancements, etc. The greatest country on earth.

__________________
Join the NRA today

There may be some truth to the answers so far, but its not exclusive. My mothers family never owned or wanted to own guns. Just no desire there. My fathers family was more outdoors centered. They owned a farm and needed a way to kill livestock and critters. In 1904 they bought a Springfield from the DCM. They used it for any number of tasks, including shooting hawks, fox and even the occasional cat that wanted a chicken dinner. Its real purpose was to kill a hog and a beef from time to time. It only cost $1.50 back then. The ammo was more expensive, but they discovered 410 shotgun shells worked just fine. Patterns were lousy, so Dad bought a cheap (and junk) single barrel shotgun.

But in 1925, to run his trap line, he bought a .32 regulation police from the local chief of police. He was 14 at the time, and yes, they'd bury both of them under the jail for it today. Things were different then, the top cop knew our family, and that dad trapped. He realized the need for a small, compact handgun.

As best I can tell, my family as represented by my father, went into the depression with 3 guns. They had them because they had a use for them. After the war, the desire for more kicked in gear. By the early 1950s, Dad had a couple of centerfire rifles. That may have been possible due to affluence. 50 years later, I probably had a few hundred hand guns. It was due to it being my hoppy, and having a good job. My wife's family was a gun family, too. They had multiple guns, but I don't know the history of them before the 1960s.

__________________
Dick Burg

There weren't very many people around when I was a kid that had more than just the basic hunting guns, sometimes an inherited piece and maybe a handgun tucked away for home protection. The number of gun collectors was small and the ones I encountered older or professional people who had extra money to spend (or took guns in trade for services such as a local veterinarian).

The combination of a growing economy (with more disposable income) and lots of inexpensive imports in the 50's and 60's were part of an expanding market for gun owners. I think the gun and hunting magazine industry (plus general media attention) in the 60's expanded interest in guns from the few real enthusiasts that had always been around to more people and that interest continued to grow even after the 68GCA cut off many of the imports. More people became interested and had the money to afford collecting or just having more then the basic couple of guns.

Growing demand and a decent economy built the gun market and kept it active. Now the internet has expanded interest among even more people. The downturn in the economy of the last decade has hurt this (seen a lot of shops go out of business) but not brought an end to it. The influence of the news media and possible government action actually seems to bring in more new gun owners and some of them are not going to stop with just one either.

At 2% economic growth over the past 10 years or so, that trend will start back downward.

What has allowed multiple gun ownership is the same phenomenon that allowed my son to go to college with a new flat-screen TV. When I moved out at 19, I owned a bed and a shipping crate I painted that I used for a coffee table.

Don't discount the (reckless) availability of credit.

__________________
Because of the metric system?

Revolving credit, duh.

Let's not forget:
THE SECOND AMENDMENT

Economic prosperity and individual propensity too.

Is that changing?

"Poll: Two-thirds of Americans would struggle to cover $1,000 crisis"
Poll: Two-thirds of Americans would struggle to cover $1,000 crisis

__________________
Scoundrel & Ne'er-Do-Well

"Even for the country’s wealthiest 20 percent — households making more than $100,000 a year — 38 percent say they would have at least some difficulty coming up with $1,000."

Maybe they've been busy spending their extra cash on collector grade S&Ws...

People make choices, choices have consequences . . .

__________________
Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Priorities...

__________________
I used to be disgusted..

IMO, that's most of the answer. Also, older folks, especially those who aren't putting kids through school, tend to have more discretionary income, particularly if they saved at one point or another.

Interesting question to ponder on a cool, rainy day here in Massachusetts.

My first reaction was that one's answer will likely be quite different depending on your age today. I'm as old as the hills and my dad and grandfathers are long dead and gone.

My dad owned a total of 10 guns... 6 long guns and 4 handguns. He bought two of the handguns while two were gifts from his father and an uncle. I believe 2 (or 3?) of his long guns were purchased while 3 (or 2?) of them were prizes won with "points" for selling stuff (that was very popular back in his time pre-GCA68). One long gun (his ratty shotgun) was an apparent gift from a hunting buddy.

You will note that he only bought (with hard-earned cash) 4 or 5 guns in his entire 90+ year life. All the others were gifted to him or won with those salesman's "points".

I have been known to buy 4 or 5 guns in a month. While that's not common for me, it sort of illustrates the magnitude of the difference in one generation.

What changed? First, I went to a 4-year college. Dad only went to a 2-year business school post-HS. So there was an income difference despite me losing most of that difference to the near-endless financial Hell of divorce.

But the bigger difference was in focus. Dad was a truly great shooter (as was his father before him). I was never great (to that level) as a shooter and so my interest evolved more into collecting and gunsmithing rather than competition shooting. That explains a whole lot of the numerical difference.

The rest of the difference has to do with the turbulent times we live in (vs. his "greatest generation") and changes in the firearms industry and the political landscape. Plus let's be honest here: Plastic guns have forever changed the industry in both very good and very bad ways. Some semi-decent plastic carry guns can be bought today for chump change.

Another change I see: Folks actually invest in guns today. I don't recall that being a big thing in my father's generation. But it's an entirely reasonable explanation that he just didn't have enough money left after essentials to invest in much of anything.

I believe that. I read something recently that most Americans today have a zero (or negative) net worth (assets minus liabilities). I believe that, from all the people I know who seemingly live off their credit cards.

When I was growing up, I had never even heard of a gun collector. Most everyone of my acquaintance (including my immediate family) had, at most, a cheap .22 rifle and/or some break-open single shot shotgun. My father had a friend who had a revolver, I think a .38 Special M&P, and a Winchester 97 shotgun. To me he was a real "Gun Guy."

There are several factors, some economic and some personal.

My dad was raised on a ranch where firearms are tools. He was also a product of the Great Depression and was always frugal (to a fault).

As such he felt a person needed a .22 rifle, a shotgun, and a centerfire rifle in a suitable caliber for big game (.270, .30-06, etc, but he wasn't opposed to going as small as a .243).

He saw anything more as overkill, with a few limited exceptions. He agreed with the need for my M1A when I shot service rifle competition and he saw the need for a handgun given my occupation. But for the most part he wasn't big on handguns or on anything outside of the essential 3 that he saw a justification for based on his upbringing. He also wasn't big of buying high end firearms if a less expensive firearm would do the job, and he bought used rather than buying new, ion part because he knew he could step up a bit in quality for the same self imposed budget.

My dad also wasn't poor - he earned a good living for the era as a carpenter and Millwright For example at the peak of his career in 1977 he earned $30,000, which had a buying power equal to 118,000 in 2016. Even with a wife and an ex-wife he wasn't hurting for cash.

My step dad was still on a ranch (where I was raised) and had a nearly identical view of firearms, with the same basic 3, plus a Harrington Richards revolver in .22 LR.

Me? Being raised on a ranch I never lost the "guns are tools" philosophy, but I liked them from an early age just on their own merits, as well as for their history, their design and engineering and the different capabilities different firearms and cartridges offered, as well as the various challenges of different types of shooting. But I never advertised my firearm liking leanings to much as none of my immediate family would have agreed with me on the issue and it wasn't worth arguing about.

I was in fact a lot more like my best friend's father who was the manger of the local bank, and who was an avid rifle, shotgun and handgun shooter. Same small town similar financial means, but a totally different attitude toward buying and collecting firearms.

----

As for economics, my Dad was a union supporter his entire life, but I remember him arguing with union leaders about what they were doing to the unions - bringing in less skilled workers and calling them journeymen before they had the necessary skills, then giving them equal priority in hiring. The union felt that was essential to prevent non union workers being widely available for hire, but Dad disagreed, feeling strongly that if you were charging an employer for journeymen labor they deserved that level of quality and failing to deliver on that would break the union. Dad was right and unions are now more or less dead this country as an effective bargaining unit.

Along with that, we've moved away from being a country that makes things and adds value to products and raw materials. We are instead an economy based on derivative income, designs by and run for people who make money off of money.

Consider the period from about 1947 to 1973. It was an era when we had a corporate tax rate as high as 90%, yet it was the most profitable period in US history, not just for the middle class who did the work, but also for businesses. The 90% tax bracket didn't mean businesses actually paid that - instead they reduced the taxable income by re-investing in the business to both improve production and quality but also to obtain and retain a more highly skilled workforce.

1973 and the oil crisis resulted in unions agreeing to short term pay cuts to help companies weather the crisis, and tax breaks were given to achieve the same end. But what came out the other end was an entirely different economy as companies instead sought to keep investors happy by posting profits and dividends each and every quarter - at the expense of the long term health of the national economy and work force.

The truth is that the workforce in your country also comprises the bulk of the customers for goods and services in your country, and when the pay the earn falls, so does their ability to buy good and services. And as pay decreases, so does the incentive to get training and or to train a highly skilled workforce, and when that declines so does the quality of the work force, and their ability to compete in a global market. The end result has been downward spiral in the buying power and the quality of the workforce.

I short, less money to buy firearms and other items, forcing people to make harder choices.

Probably the same thing that enables people to drive vehicles or own boats that cost more than a lot of houses.

__________________
Still Running Against the Wind

That's just incredible...

Nearly every house had a revolver. Any place of working size had at least a revolver, shotgun and a rifle. If it was bigger they probably had more. This is like even now I have at least 4 shovels in my garage and several different saws. As more people acquired some 'disposable' income in the boom after WWII and Korea, they started buying things for recreation that they didn't HAVE to have, power boats for recreation, golf club memberships, more than one TV, etc. This also enabled more gun enthusiasts to gain a collection of firearms or anything over time, whether small or large. Even people on modest incomes if that's what they really wanted. I believe this era in the U.S. is ending.

__________________
"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I just looked up the U. S. median household net worth (household unit wealth) from the U. S. Census Bureau data. The second quintile (i.e., 25-50% of family units) median for 2011 is only $7,263, almost exactly half of what it was for the same quintile in 2000, stated in 2011 dollars. And virtually all of that wealth is concentrated among family units in the 55-64 age bracket or older. For families 35 years and younger in the second quintile, the median family unit wealth is zero or negative. The first quintile median (lowest 0-25% of families) family unit wealth is -$6,023, and only family units in the 55 years and older brackets have a positive median net worth. That's fairly astonishing data. No idea what it is now, five years later.

My Dad would have been 100 this summer..... born in 1916 his formative years were known as The Great Depression and WWII......he became a Police Officer in 1939 and retired 39 years later as a Captain (the "Chief" was a Political appointee).... he was a member of FOP Post #1 Pittsburgh.........and shot in the Pittsburgh Police Pistol League

AFAIK his first gun was a 1939 Colt New Service in .357 Magnum...... reworked by King's Gun Works in Calf. When I ask him why he didn't get a Smith RM instead...... the answer was the Smith was $62 and the Colt after a trip to Calf was $55.

He added a Smith 4" M&P in 46 after returning from the S. Pacific and a Colt Detective Special sometime in the 50s...... he added an early Smith Model 41........ and that was the last gun he bought himself for 30 years........( he bought me a Remington 511-X in 63 for Christmas) those were the guns he "needed".......... he accumulated 10-20 more but they were guns given to him to " get out of the house" included 5 or 6 Colt pocket .25s.

In the late 80s (?) I got an early 640....... which he "admired" so I got him one and it was his carry gun till he passed........his first new gun in almost 30 years........

He had what he needed.....I've had the luxury of accumulating!!!!!

True,but it does keep em workin

Pop (1914) would have had a rifle issued to him from 1933 until 1947 when he emigrated.He bought a 30-06 in the late 40s or early 50s which he gave to me in the mid 70s,so he only owned one gun.If he knew what I owned now,he'd arch an eyebrow,think I was wasteful with my money and one of those screwy Americans who make no sense

What happened was the establishment of the middle class. Don't worry though, it's going away.

__________________
So many S&W's, so few funds!!

Priorities. Choices. Responsibility. NEVER paying the minimum payment, assuming you carry a balance.
Getting a 15 yr mortgage and paying addl. principle EVERY month. Without fail.
Everytime you use a credit card, go home and immediately write a check to the CC company. Put the accumulated checks in the envelope at the end of the month and send them. No balance.
It's not rocket science.
I've accumulated 3 dozen firearms in the last ten years. Untold thousands of rounds of ammo. I reload for rifle, shotgun and handgun.
I don't owe squat.

__________________
Fight socialism. Never stop.

I only buy one gun at a time. I see no reason to sell one I like.

A long series of wars made a lot of people familiar with guns. A lot of work made it economically feasible. 2A made it legal. Modern politics made it necessary.

The same thing that allows them to own a house, with A/C and central heat, or multiple cars, or money to go out to eat, or go to movies, or theater, or go on vacation. Life, by and large is good, a whole lot better than it ever was before WWII. Remember when you saw old pictures and nobody smiled? There was a good reason for that, life was hard for poor folks and most people were. A couple on the plains or prairie worked from dawn to dusk just to survive. Man would tend animals and work the garden or hunt, while the woman would spend most the day preparing meager meals and take care of the fire in the stove. A job that most men these days couldn't do, or wouldn't. They thought education for the children was secondary to them doing their chores for the family. Taking out the trash is not a chore, but back then they didn't have much trash, every thing was used. At meals you could eat what was there, or go hungry. Don't let anyone tell you these were the good ol' days, or such nonsense. Life was one pain after another. Now we can buy toys, not just for kids, for adults.

__________________
Wayne
Torn & Frayed

So much true. Another thing I read recently was that Americans were the poorest people on earth. But the explanation was easy. In Africa or south America, and even Asia a man or a family owns what they can see. A shovel, maybe a cow or goat. Some chickens, too. They own them free and clear. Here you own great riches, sort of. Sure, you have a house with a 30 year mortgage. A good chance you're under water on it. And you have a couple or 3 cars. You have 5 or 6 year loans, and you owe more than they can be sold for. Maybe not the oldest one, you paid it off and its a point of great pride for you. But then the bad things come into play. If you're young, you have student loans out there. And lets talk credit cards. You owe a bundle, and your wife and kids go shopping because they need a constant stream of new clothes and electronic toys. Some people run a balance that eats them alive, but they're used to it. The bottom line being they have a net worth of below zero.

Its what brought on the recession of the last 8 or so years. People spent every last cent they got. And they wanted and needed more. Some folks made well over $100,000 per year, but were penniless because every cent of it was spoken for. But one guy I worked with always had a new set of Ping golf clubs. He didn't carry cash, he didn't have any. But everything went on his credit cards. He couldn't use debit cards because he was nearly always overdrawn or near it. Marketing still drives the economy. The problem is, most of the sales are to people who can't afford what they buy. Most of us surmised it can't go on forever.

But I don't understand a lot of it. I live on a corner. Down the side street were several repo'd homes. Where did those folks go? We still see some people living under bridges, but not families. Did they somehow convince government types to give them housing? If it makes any of you feel better, I've sold or given away a whole bunch of guns. But I've tried to up grade, sometimes several steps up. One spectacular gun is better than a dozen field grade guns. Or at least it is to me.

__________________
Dick Burg

Saving up the money before the purchase. That "old fashioned" idea doesn't seem too popular now.
Steve W

I'm an addict. I like guns, cars, motorcycles, nice bicycles, audio stuff etc..........when I find something I think I need to adopt I wait until the time is right (if ever) and then pounce on it. I've been doing this for a long time. I currently have no debt and don't intend to have any.
My ex tried really hard to ruin me and almost succeeded but that's the past and now they are history and I'm back to my adoptions.
Proper planning helps a lot as does finding just the right guns to adopt. Most of mine while nice are not high grade expensive ones but there's not much that would be considered junk either.

__________________
Lynnie, Professional Pest

That doesn't mean that it's a bad idea. The only problems I've had with that philosophy is that when I save up for something, something else breaks and needs repair or replacing.

__________________
"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I agree. I grew up on a small farm in Michigan in the 50s & 60s and we didn't even know anyone that owned a new car.

The BIL of a friend of mine is a partner in a law firm in NYC.Makes a mil a year.Taxes take half.Mortgage and property taxes on his duplex take another large bite.Four kids in private school at 20k per kid per year,etc,etc
He's perpetually broke..
I was doing great until I married

My father, having lived through the great depression of the 1930s, was always a very frugal man, even though he was one of the few lucky ones who kept a good job throughout that period (he was a steel mill worker). He would never tolerate buying anything on credit or having debt of any kind (including a house and car), and to the end, never had a credit card nor owed a penny to anyone. His motto was "if you can't pay cash for something, you don't need it." A lot of his attitude rubbed off on me, and I have lived by much the same philosophy about debt. And it's not that hard to do. It helps greatly if you have a wife who is not a two-fisted professional spender, and I have one who, thankfully, is not. She grew up in a very poor family without a father (who died when she was a baby), supported by a mother who worked at menial jobs for most of her life, and well understood the necessity to not spend what you don't have for things you don't need. Unfortunately, that lifestyle is largely extinct among many families today, who have the attitude that thrift is to be avoided. In a way, it is probably good that there are so many of those who spend on credit for anything and everything they want, regardless of need, as it greatly stimulates the national economy.

After a lifetime of hard work, frugality and paying off mortgages in 15 years (I followed pops example) I ended up hosed anyway.Watching what's gone on for several decades around me,I've seen a lot of very shrewd marketing that's aimed at women.products and services that they must have for their family's security and most important of all, for their children and ,of course,to outdo each other.
Pop came here with nothing in his early thirties and built a small fortune putting every nickel into real estate.After he died,I watched my mother and sisters,rather than reinvesting, just burn through it.My wife did the same when my health started to fail.So many people,especially "princesses" haven't a clue about creating wealth

My father, a Korean War Vet, was a serious hunter, but looked at guns as tools - a good shotgun, .22 rifle, and a couple deer rifles were all he needed.

I got the gun bug early. As a kid, I trapped (mostly fox and coon) in the early 1970's, and made what was considered then to be some pretty decent money. A Nice prime coon brought $20 or so, and a red fox $40. A new quality rifle or shotgun was in the $120 range. New Winchester 94's were $95. I worked that line hard, and caught a lot of coon and fox.

I was always dragging my mom (dad was usually at work) to the local gun shops to pick up a new toy. Also did a lot of private buying from local folks I knew. By the time I was 16, I had a pretty nice collection.

I have worked from that collection, adding, selling, and trading. Got to experience a lot of different guns, and pretty much have, what for me, is the perfect firearm for each purpose I would need one.

One factor that allowed me to own so many firearms was "flipping". I have always made it a point to look for older guns like Winchesters, Colts, anything not currently made, at prices I know I can flip them for at a profit. Self funding, and gives me the opportunity to try a lot of stuff out I would not normally have purchased. You almost never come out ahead $$ wise buying new. I only buy new when it is a particular model that fits a particular need.

It is a lot harder these days, with everyone internet smart, to find these deals, but I still have good luck hitting the local yard sales. Still lots of folks who are not shooters who have dads or grandpas old pistol or rifle they want to get rid of. Got to be worth a couple hundred bucks, right?.....

Larry

"What allowed regular folks to acquire multiple guns"

In my case having room in the gun safe!

__________________
14 S&W Revs none with locks!

In the old olden days the U.S. Army did not let you go past this area unless you were part of a group with at least 25 men armed with rifles. And no, those new fangled repeaters and other guns what loaded from the wrong end did not count for bonus points.So if you wanted to wander around, and live, two revolvers and a rifle were a good idea.

My dad never even had a gun safe until I bought him one very late in life. My mom and dad were taking a rare two-week vacation trip west to see his sister and he was concerned for the first time ever with the possibility of becoming the victim of a home break-in. Now, of course, guns safes are virtually mandatory in my state.

I notice that a lot of answers here make reference to the Great Depression and either WWII or Korea. They also reference life on the farm or the enjoyment of hunting... with firearms more in the context of simple "tools" as opposed to anything else (e.g., competition, recreational target shooting/plinking, collectibles, investments, self/family-protection, etc.). I think these three factors (i.e., the "tools" thing, the up front and personal involvement in these wars and the post-Great Depression mentality of our parents and grandparents) are right on the money in terms of explaining the generational differences in how we view firearms today vs. how they were viewed by the two generations immediately preceding our own.

How I would love to have one of those old rifle cabinets. Glass fronts, amazing riflery up front and personal. Instead, I have two gun safes. It's not the good old days.

__________________
Fight socialism. Never stop.

I waited till I retired,being one of the regular folks to buy multiple guns.No more kids to take care of,the wife still works for her money.Work's fine for us.

__________________
Life is short,live it fully.

My old man was a depression child. Went to WW2, was tighter than the bark on a pig nut. He had a few guns, but just 2 he
bought. When I was a kid, old enough to have folding money
that I earned, had a go around several times with OM over the
number of guns I had bought. When he realized I was making a few bucks, he got off my back. But what I think of is stuff. Stuff
that has no value. In the summer drive by the yard sales. Kids
Toys you couldn't haul in a truck, and all matter of gadgets and
nic-nacs. Go into one of these Dollar stores. Do you realize those
items are made in China, shipped to US in ships, go through middle men and transported in trucks to the stores- then sold
for a dollar, at a profit? My mind can't get that straight. I know
one thing, if people did without a lot of toys, they could own
a few guns, which would increase in value.

In the 1950's, Pittsburgh, neighbors had no interest in guns.
Everyone had a shotgun,, some form of a deer rifle,, and a 22LR rifle.
We had a
Winchester Model 1897 shotgun, 12 gauge
Winchester Model 94, 32 Win Special
Sears bolt action 22LR rifle

ONLY the local jeweler had more than 3 guns

Priorities were different then,,, the guns were tools, to fill the freezer.

Money was spent on vacations, bar tabs, the "good life",,,,

Who would want more "hammers"??