For those who follow Second Amendment issues closely, the fact that The New York Times published a relatively positive front-page article on Monday (Feb. 17) about the changing face of gun ownership came as a bit of a shock. The Gray Lady’s story asserted more people on the left are buying guns, and it strongly inferred the underlying cause is because Donald Trump is president.
The Times chose five subjects to amplify its premise: a transgender (male to female), a Latina woman, an Asian man, a Jewish male, and a black Latino male who had a political rebirth from progressive to conservative. The article claimed a “common thread” among these new gun owners: “[N]ew fears about political violence and hate crimes, and a diminished trust in law enforcement.”
The five people the NYT featured may have bought firearms for self-protection, but this is nothing new. The Times’ primary source is a Harvard study conducted between 2019 and 2021. These were the pandemic years when both Presidents Trump and Joe Biden served as commanders-in-chief. Different demographic groups weren’t lining up in droves because of Trump – they were purchasing guns because they were fearful and felt a need to protect themselves and their families.
The Gun Odyssey
Liberty Nation covered the “gun buying frenzy” at the time and found, “The highest overall firearm sales increase comes from Black men and women who show a 58.2 percent increase in purchases during the first six months of 2020 versus the same period last year,” according to The Firearm Industry Trade Association (NSSF).
If we were to follow The Times’s logic, we would have to assume blacks buying guns in record numbers in 2020 was because they feared President Trump. However, study after study reveals the reason the number of first-time buyers exploded between 2020 and 2024 was due to the pandemic. The NSSF estimated that 26.2 million firearms were sold to first-time buyers: […]
— Read More: www.libertynation.com
