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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 …

…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."