Ownership, carrying, use and stated motives are different variables. Evidence about one cannot be substituted for a measurement of another without an additional relationship being established.
Possession and activity
Ownership identifies a relationship to an object. Carrying identifies its availability on a person or in a particular place. Use identifies an action within an observation period. Motive identifies a reason someone gives for possession or behavior.
A Canadian payment study can therefore record cash holdings separately from cash transactions. The Bank of Canada’s 2024 summary put cash at about 20 percent of point-of-sale purchases, using a questionnaire and a three-day payment diary. That transaction share does not say that cash occupied 20 percent of wallets or was carried on 20 percent of days.
Reports and outcomes
Pew’s June 2023 survey found that 72 percent of U.S. gun owners named protection as a major reason for ownership, while 81 percent said ownership made them feel safer. Those responses concern reasons and feelings. Neither percentage measures daily carrying or an observed change in safety.
The population also matters: a percentage among gun owners is not automatically a percentage among all adults.
Observation periods
A pocket photograph records one selected presentation. A diary records events during specified days. A survey response records an answer to a particular question. Each format makes different behavior visible and leaves other behavior unmeasured.
Take an owner who carries cash throughout a three-day diary but makes no cash payment. Ownership, carrying and non-use are simultaneously true. There is no contradiction to resolve.
A valid comparison keeps the variable, population, country and observation period explicit. Similar-looking percentages do not become comparable merely because they all concern personal equipment or possessions.