The The Safer Streets Gun Owner Survey runs throughout the month of April. Early results are beginning to level off and come to a halt. Anyone who wishes to take the survey can access it here. Firefox browser seems to work best.

The survey was sent to determine whether there was any correspondence between gun owners who also know CPR. As for myself, I have always seen a clear correlation of the immediacy, latitude, moral purpose and public interest between the armed citizen and citizen CPR. The idea is all about being in the absence of first responders.

Over the years, I began to see more correlations until I saw a very clear identity of values and purpose between the two. For the most part, they are identical twelve ways.

If there was any answer for the welcome and normalcy of the ubiquitous armed citizen in the U.S., it was going to have to show a history of worth. If gun owners know CPR as part of their outlook and values system, this would be a powerful thing to establish. Another one would be how well right-to-carry states have fared since affirming the armed citizen.

The second question was why. If they understood the identity of values as I understood them, what, exactly, was it we were in agreement on? The question was open-ended and the response was in their own words. I’ll go into the open-ended answers later.

The survey was comprised of sixteen questions, some of which (like Question #2) were peripheral to the core interrogatory. Question Number One asked if the respondent is a gun owner. 98.6% of those who took the survey are gun owners.

Here is the core question. Having established that 98.6% of those responding are gun owners, Question #3 was: Do you know CPR [Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation] and First-aid?

78.5% of the respondents answered Yes, they know CPR. 21.3% said that they did not.

Ah, but I provided respondents the opportunity to reply with their own comments. 32% elected to furnish details, which is a mix of the Yes and No respondents. Mostly, those who commented and had answered Yes, they know CPR wrote that they had taken the primary training in the past or remarked that they’re currently certified or not certified One of the things among the remarks is that many are professional medical people. 9% are. Among the respondents who are gun owners are those who said they are nurse or nursing student, EMT, a Firefighter EMT, a Paramedic, Police Officers and others. Among the open-ended responses among the non-medical respondents were “I feel it is part of good citizenship,” and another posted “Everyone should.” Other remarks were just as encouraging on the morality of learning both how to handle a gun and how to deliver CPR or First-aid. One of the things I enjoyed discovering was the idea of good citizenship among the open-ended responses. One of my perspectives is that gun owners are strict adherents to due process. The question was how do I prove it?

Of those who answered No, they have not taken CPR, a funny sort of apology was evident. Some of the responses were that they knew they should but haven’t, while others wrote something like they will complete CPR training.

59% of the respondents are non-medical people and 9% are medical professionals.

My main purpose in conducting this survey was to establish whether others viewed a similarity of importance as I had. My conclusion is that they have and they do. My reason for articulating the CPR Corollary is to bring this concept to the laymen. To us, it is evident, but to the laymen who feel that they grapple with a controversy in the armed citizen, here is another facet which takes the controversy out of the issue. The controversy has been whether gun owners can be trusted to be armed. I am of the mind that they can be trusted because they already are possessed of good judgment and a value for life. This value for life may seem somehow incongruous with being armed, but when the layman begins to see how the two save more lives than thought, you wonder how one could arrive at anything different.

I’ll be sifting through the other results throughout April. A new survey will be out soon exploring some very critical issues seeking gun owner perspectives. As you might imagine, these are rather well known to gun owners, but perhaps new to the layman.

You never know who may be hearing the liberty message for the very first time. They key to being armed, the reason we are armed, can be reduced to an equitable concept: it is a matter of freedom as a matter of survival, because you are the only person you can really count on in the first moments of an emergency.

78.5% of the gun owners surveyed know CPR. Nice.

Next, the balance of the survey results. Do gun owners view CPR as part of a larger preparedness? And Guns on Campus.

John Longenecker is author of Even Safer Streets 2011 – The Second Amendment as a Mainstream Value available at Amazon.