The Wall Street Journal reported this week that more liberals are buying guns, calling it a “surprising” trend among a voter base that typically supports gun regulation.
In a story published Thursday, the outlet looked at new data on gun ownership and spoke with experts and several Democratic gun owners to understand the context of the trend.
“American gun culture has long been dominated by conservative, white, male voters. But now, in a striking shift, liberals are buying firearms in sharp succession, according to surveys and a burgeoning gun group that attracts minorities and progressives.” The Wall Street Journal reported..
Harris changes key position on border and illegal immigration, promising 'pragmatic' approach on campaign trail
A recent Wall Street Journal report said Democrats are the “most surprising” new group of gun owners in America. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The article began with the example of Michael Siemnozolowski, a lifelong Democrat and gun control advocate, who recently purchased his first gun.
Siemnozorowski, a liquor store clerk in Iowa City, Iowa, told the paper he bought the gun because he was worried about “street crime and armed right-wing extremists,” and expressed concern that U.S. politics could get worse.
“Domestic politics are becoming increasingly heated,” he told media.
The Wall Street Journal noted that while Democrats have historically been gun owners, the trend away from gun ownership began in the early 1990s, when “political divisions over the role of guns in American society intensified and Democrats became advocates of gun control. The Republican Party became the party of gun rights.”
The article cited statistics showing gun ownership among Democrats is on the rise from historic lows, and noted that they are now “rediscovering guns.”
“In 2022, 29% of Democrats or Democratic-leaning people say they own a gun in their home, up from 22% in 2010, which was a 40-year low,” the report said, citing a survey conducted by NORC Research Group at the University of Chicago.
According to separate data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Solutions to Gun Violence, among Democrats who have purchased a gun since 2020, “more than half were doing so for the first time,” the article states.
“These are people who five years ago would never have considered buying a gun,” Jennifer Hubbard, a professor of anthropology at Lewis and Clark College, told The Wall Street Journal.
The rise in gun ownership among liberals may also be why Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, now describes herself as a gun owner, despite saying in 2019 that she supports mandatory gun buyback programs.
Voters denounce Harris' 'racism' and 'fearmongering' during debate
Vice President Kamala Harris joked about being a gun owner during a campaign event with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday night. (YouTube screenshot)
During a recent presidential debate, she touted the fact that both she and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), are gun owners.
And at a campaign event with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday, Harris told the media mogul that “if someone broke into my house, they would be shot.”
The article also states that this liberal gun owner base is “much more diverse” than it was in the 1990s, saying, “Forty years ago, Democratic gun owners were typically white, male, and often union auto and steelworker types who grew up hunting.”
“According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry group, gun dealers see the largest increase in gun purchases among Black Americans compared to any other racial group in 2023,” the report said, noting that half of all new liberal gun owners between 2019 and 2021 were women.
The media outlet spoke with Tom Nguyen, a Los Angeles resident and liberal who supports gun control, who founded a liberal pro-gun control group on Facebook in 2020 because many liberals were concerned about the year's chaos surrounding the pandemic and the presidential election.
“People were craving a place that wasn't this hyper-aggressive, male-dominated, toxic gun world,” Nguyen said, adding that he trains 300 people a year in gun safety.
Alejandra Mendez, a gay woman taking Nguyen's class, told The Wall Street Journal that she has received criticism from fellow liberals for owning four guns. “I don't understand the phrase 'protect your rights,' but not the rights of others,” Mendez said, arguing that just as they have the right to freedom of speech, she has the right to own a gun.
Click here to get the FOX News app
The Journal also quoted former Georgia senator and hunter Jason Carter, grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month about finding national compromise on gun issues.
“More and more people are saying, 'Let's find a middle ground. Let's try to respect Second Amendment rights but also figure out how to make ourselves safer,'” he told The Wall Street Journal.
