Fewer households own guns, and more

Fewer households own guns

Despite reports of surging gun sales, the proportion of U.S. households in which a gun is present has fallen from about 50 percent in the 1970s to 34 percent last year, according to the General Social Survey. The decline in household gun ownership over that period has been most marked among those under 30, where it has dropped from 47 percent to 23 percent.

The New York Times

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

What the rich and poor spend on food

The poorest 25 percent of Americans spend 16.1 percent of their income on food, while the wealthiest 25 percent spend just 11.6 percent. The wealthiest, however, spend five times as much money as the poorest on dining out.

Bloomberg Businessweek

In France, nostalgia for horsemeat

The sale of horsemeat in France has jumped about 15 percent in recent weeks, as news about horse being found in frozen prepared meals rekindles interest among French men and women who ate horse in their childhoods. There are about 700 remaining horse butcher shops in France.

The Wall Street Journal

Common surgical mistakes

Up to 6,000 patients a year leave U.S. operating rooms with surgical sponges, forceps, and other surgical tools mistakenly left inside them. The error is usually not detected until the patient develops a life-threatening infection.

USA Today

Forced marriages for girls

Every day around the world, some 39,000 girls under the age of 18 are forced into marriage, with their families often selling them off for dowries—often, to much older men. Associated Press