Gun Culture 2.0 is more diverse and inclusive than America’s historic gun culture because, unlike hunting, for example, security is a universal human concern. People will do what they can in response to feelings of uncertainty, insecurity or threat. Some will get a dog or buy a home security system; others will join Nextdoor or move to a gated community. And many perfectly normal people will respond by buying firearms.
This is precisely what happened in the 10 weeks leading up to Trump’s inauguration.
Although we do not yet have generalizable data, the buying conditions resemble those of 2020, when record gun sales were sparked by the COVID-19 outbreak, then fueled by protests for racial justice over the murder of George Floyd and sustained by a contentious presidential election campaign.
We know from this earlier gun buying spree that many who got swept up were new and diverse gun owners primarily concerned with self-defense. According to the 2021 National Firearms Survey fielded by researchers from Harvard and Northeastern Universities, 1.5 percent of all American adults (3.8 million people) became new gun owners in 2020. Compared to existing gun owners, they tended to be younger, more female, more Black and Hispanic, more urban, more likely to have children and less likely to have ever been married. They were also more likely to own only handguns, suggesting their defensive orientation.
Despite this historical and contemporary diversity, gun ownership in America is still often associated with a specific image: conservative, rural, white, heterosexual and cis male (think “Duck Dynasty”).
— David Yamane in Guns are not just for conservative white men
Makes perfect sense; “I want a gun to protect myself from the people who support the 2nd Amendment, but I give my political allegiance to those who want to disarm the American people.” No flaw in that logic.
Perhaps those that want a firearm and do not believe in the 2nd Amendment should be required to do a lot more than just fill out a 4473. Like a civics test for one.
If they were logical they wouldn’t be leftists. Every lefty delusion from economy to society eventually ends in collapse either quickly if unchecked or over a long period of concessions, compromises, number fudging and cronyism. Their superpower is always blaming somebody else so they can retain the high ground and try again.