Recent surveys by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago have illumined this remarkable fact: Democrats are buying firearms at record rates, nearly half of them purchasing one for the very first time.
Consequently, household possession of a firearm by Democrats is up by a third in just the last 10 years, from 22 percent of Democrat households having a firearm at home to 29 percent in 2022. And that was two years ago.
Poll Confirmation
In 2004, a third of all Democrat households declared there was a firearm present. Last November that percentage jumped by a quarter, to 41 percent, according to NBC News.
And that pushes the national average to more than 50 percent of all households having at least one firearm present, the highest percentage in the history of the NBC poll dating going back to 1999.
Even better: Half of those who don’t already own a firearm now concede that they might shortly be in the market for one.
Why? Self-defense
Katie Baney of the U.S. Concealed Carry Association called the revelation “the most striking shift [among] registered Democrats or those leading Democratic.” And the implications “could have profound and far-reaching implications for gun policy and Second Amendment debates,” she added.
Indeed. Consider that as new gun owners, they not only will have a greater appreciation for the freedom to own firearms, but also a greater appreciation of the threat posed by leaders of their own Democratic Party to take them away.
Democrats are not the only ones increasingly exercising their rights, either. Firearm ownership among black Americans increased by nearly 60 percent through the first six months of 2020, and, according to Pew Research, more than one in five women now declare themselves to be gun owners.
Tom Knighton, a Navy veteran and lifetime shooter, noted at Bearing Arms that “Gun owners don’t become gun voters overnight, of course.” But over time they will realize the threat to their newly exercised freedom, that their new firearms are just as much in danger of restriction and ultimate confiscation by Democrats as anyone else’s.
Helping along is the enormous increase in violent crime that attends the present Democratic administration. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), violent crime increased 30 percent last year, and since Biden’s inauguration it has leapt by 60 percent.
Said Baney:
As more left-leaning Americans become gun owners, they may develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for firearm rights, potentially bridging what has recently been a vast political divide.
All of this bodes well for the freedom to own firearms, and the increased understanding of the Second Amendment as a backstop to the First.
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