> pounds are a more common unit if weight than tons?

Are they though?

There's two thousand of them for every ton, so yes! :-)

That's... pretty good. Cannot even object.

I did a quick google trends comparison and pound certainly has a lot more references than ton. Another way would be to use a text corpora...

Perhaps because there is a metric ton and a US ton.

I dunno if USA today worries about that tbh

although given the context the units should be specified in stones...