The decline in handgun sales since the mid-1990s has been attributed to many factors, from tougher gun-control laws to an increased feeling of safety as crime dropped throughout the decade. But to some, the roots go deeper, suggesting a subtle shift in attitudes, as America becomes ever more suburban - and more likely to connect guns to shooting sprees than to weekend duck hunts. Laura Kennedy has seen the shift at her Bay Area …showed first 75 words of 891 total…

…showed last 75 words of 891 total…prevalence of concealed weapons to lower crime rates. It is this combination of factors - from negative perceptions and a dropping crime rate to an aging, diverse population - that points, some say, to something more fundamental than cycles of boom and bust. "We might actually be reaching that point," says Philip Cook, a gun expert at Duke University in Durham, N.C., "where the number of people who own guns is actually going down."