University of Chicago Institute of Politics Senior Fellow and notable chief strategist for former President Barack Obama David Axelrod had the opportunity to speak with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently. During their one-and-a-half-hour conversation, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez — a staunch proponent of strict gun control — made a great point about lawful gun ownership that she probably didn’t realize she was making.
Axelrod asked her about litmus tests from special interest groups on elected officials and he referenced a conversation he had with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders years prior about gun control. The senator told Axelrod he would not vote the same way on gun control he does now if he instead represented his hometown of Brooklyn, N.Y., in Congress.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, in a long statement answering the question, agreed. “It’s true, the way guns show up in rural Vermont is very different than in Brownsville, Brooklyn,” Rep. Ocasio-Cortez stated. “You should vote differently in those communities,” she said.
The remarks sparked immediate backlash in online discussions as some commenters argued she was making racist remarks. However — as the firearm industry believes — the Second Amendment is for every law-abiding American, no matter what your background, race or religion. And while the point of her remarks was about the calculus Members of Congress must consider when casting votes on public policy, the example she brought up about firearms and gun ownership are noteworthy.
As it turns out, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez — likely without realizing it — wasn’t making the point she thought she was making.
Quite the Contrast
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has spent the past seven years supporting all manner of federal gun control proposals to come through Washington, D.C., including a failed attempt to impose a federal ban on modern sporting rifles that would restrict the rights of law-abiding Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights. She’s even criticized the lawful and highly regulated firearm industry, which provides Americans the ability and means of exercising their constitutional rights, suggesting the industry is “all about blood money.”
There are too many examples to list, but to her point to Axelrod — those are the votes her district expected, even if the results of those gun control policies don’t actually result in safer communities.
In fact, while speaking in Chicago with Axelrod, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s comments seem to nuke all the gun control arguments she’s ever made. Her words make the point about the inefficacy of passing stricter and stricter gun control laws much better than any gun rights organization ever could.
Vermont, a state that receives a score of only 43 out of 100 from billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety for how “strong” its gun control laws are, also has one of the highest per capita rankings of gun ownership in the country. At 50.5 firearms owned per 100 people, Vermont ranks 15th out of 50 states in gun ownership per capita. The culture and history of firearm ownership in The Green Mountain State is centuries long and is still robust today across all ages and even across political party lines. Vermonters hunt, target shoot and keep firearms for self-defense. And yet, homicides committed with those firearms are uncommon there.
According to the Vermont Attorney General’s website, Vermont experienced 25 total homicide deaths in 2024, only 15 of which involved a firearm. In addition, like most everywhere else in the country, the majority of Vermont’s deaths involving a firearm were the result of suicide.
Meanwhile in New York
In Vermont’s close neighbor — more appropriately, farther south in Brooklyn — gun ownership and gun control laws couldn’t be any more different.
Unsurprisingly, Everytown ranks New York number four in the country for “strength of gun laws,” though Gov. Kathy Hochul loves to brag the state is number one, rivaling California. The strict gun control-loving officials in Albany, as well as a string of governors going back 20 years, have restricted Second Amendment rights and gun ownership so much, it’s near the bottom of the barrel in terms of respect for gun ownership.
The same rankings that place Vermont at 15 put New York at number 46, meaning for every 100 New Yorkers, only 19.2 of them own a firearm. How does that translate to public safety? According to New York City police data, there were 688 shooting incidents in New York City alone in 2025. Incredibly, that made it “the safest year on record,” according to police. That’s in the state’s largest city, which also has stricter gun control laws than in counties and cities located in other parts of the state.
Why Does it Matter?
As AOC unknowingly implies, it’s the person holding the gun — not the gun. We won’t even get into race or ethnicity or religion at all, because that’s the point. Firearms don’t shoot on their own. A firearm’s trigger is pulled by someone. Whatever their color or religion may be.
When criminals — who are already comfortable breaking the law — are often allowed out of jail, time and time again as they are in Manhattan and New York City, they’ll most likely commit crimes. Again and again. They will steal firearms. They will illegally sell them. They will illegally and dangerously use them.
The firearms are the same. Vermont has semiautomatic handguns, as does New York City. Vermont doesn’t restrict the sale of modern sporting rifles, the semiautomatic centerfire rifles that are the most commonly owned rifle in America. New York bans their sale. But the metal and the polymer is all the same no matter where you go. And in Vermont those firearms are much more prevalent and common, according to the data.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez made an excellent point in her answer in Chicago. It just wasn’t the point she intended to make. If she truly cared about safer communities and Brooklyn neighborhoods, maybe her voting record should be much different.