Growing concerns about personal safety and political unrest appear to be leading more liberals to buy firearms, according to a report Thursday.
In 2022, gun ownership among Democrats or those leaning Democratic rose to 29%. The Wall Street JournalThis is a significant increase from 22 percent in 2010.
Despite the surge, many liberal gun owners remain uneasy about associating with traditional firearms groups like the NRA because guns are taboo in their political positions. Some new liberal gun owners say they won't even tell their friends, let alone relatives.
“We need shelters and places to retreat,” said Randy Myang, who runs the 5,000-member group Liberal Gun Owners. Tom Nguyen, founder of LA Progressive Shooters, said he has created a space for progressives to learn about guns outside of “the hyper-aggressive, male-dominated, toxic gun world.”
Michael Siemnozolowski, a lifelong Democrat from Iowa City, bought his first gun in 2024. He cited growing concerns about street crime and potential violence from armed “right-wing extremists” as the reason for his decision.
“Domestic politics are becoming more and more heated,” he told The Wall Street Journal.
Historically, conservative men have been the face of gun culture: In 2020, 55% of Republicans owned a gun in their home, according to a NORC poll.
Eleven percent of Americans have purchased a gun since 2020, according to a 2023 study by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Gun Violence Solutions.
More than half of Democratic buyers were first-time home buyers.
Unexpected: American liberals are the most surprising new gun owners https://t.co/WJo6aGV3Cg
— Helen Lowry (@HRaleighspeaks) September 20, 2024
Jewish gun owners cite concerns about hate crimes and violence from pro-Palestinian groups as a reason for owning a gun, while black voters are more concerned about crime in general and a lack of trust in the police, Jennifer Hubbard, an anthropology professor at Lewis and Clark College who studies liberal gun owners, told The Wall Street Journal.
Black Americans were 58 percent more likely to buy a gun in 2020 than in 2019, the study found. National Shooting Sports Foundation According to a survey by the National Security Forces Foundation (NSSF), nearly half of new gun buyers between 2019 and 2021 were women. According to From a study in the Journal of Macromarketing. (RELATED: Kamala Harris says intruder at home “has been shot at”)
According to the Wall Street Journal, liberal Democrats, many of whom live in rural areas, were not averse to gun ownership, but gun ownership among the left began to decline in the early 1990s. The issue of gun control became more polarizing, with Democrats calling for stricter gun regulations.
Alejandra Mendez, 32, told the Journal that she started taking gun classes in 2019. Though she was initially apprehensive about going to a shooting range, she now owns several guns. She said she fears crime in general and anti-gay violence.
She pointed out the hypocrisy of progressives who say they support rights such as freedom of speech while attacking other rights, such as the right to keep and bear arms.
“I don't understand the phrase, 'protect your own rights,' but not the rights of others,” she told The Wall Street Journal.
