Storm mentioned it a few times on the Triggered podcast. A lot of residents of blue state are starting to see why we have a Second Amendment. They want protection. With the COVID lockdowns, and anytime there’s a national emergency, people act differently. Yet, leaving that aside, it’s a constitutional right. That’s all you need to know. There is no why do you need this, that, or the other when it comes to gun ownership. It’s your right. Period.
The lockdowns have created legions of new gun owners and some are not happy at all about the stringent regulations, especially in California, which has some of the toughest laws on the books. Stephen Gutowski of the Washington Free Beacon interviewed a couple of these new gun owners in the COVID-era. For one man, Scott Kane, he spent almost his whole life not wanting a gun until the lockdowns happened.
Kane and his family are Asian-American, and he feared harassment might show up at their door. He wanted protection. He’s a California resident and he soon figured out the insanity ingrained in the Golden State’s gun laws. He told Gutowski that he’s thinking about running for office because they’re so bad. On top of that, several other people, who are gun owners, told the Free Beacon that while they had supported stricter laws, they’re now seeing that maybe those views might have been severely misplaced (via Free Beacon):
Scott Kane went 38 years without ever touching a gun. That streak would have continued had it not been for the coronavirus. In March, fearful of the harassment his wife and child experienced over their Asian ancestry, Kane found himself in a California gun shop. His March 11 purchase of a 9mm would have been the end of the story, were it not for a political standoff over shutdown orders and background checks. Now Kane, a former supporter of gun-control measures and AR-15 bans, is frustrated by the arduous process that has denied his family a sense of security. The pandemic has made the soft-spoken software engineer an unlikely Second Amendment supporter.
"This has taken me, a law-abiding citizen with nary an unpaid parking ticket to my name, over a month," he told the Washington Free Beacon. "Meanwhile Joe Bad Guy has probably purchased several fully automatic AK-47s out of the back of an El Camino in a shady part of town with zero background checks."
[…]
I'm seriously thinking of running for office or something," Kane said. "This state's gun laws are insane."
Kane is not alone. An influx of new gun owners has the potential to permanently alter the politics surrounding guns in the United States. If industry estimates are correct, millions of Americans across the country have become first-time gun buyers since March. If the experience changes their minds about the ongoing debate over gun control it could tip the balance of political power toward pro-gun activists and politicians.
It is not that the new buyers were unaware of the politics of gun control. Several new gun owners who spoke to the Free Beacon—some of whom requested anonymity citing safety concerns—generally leaned toward enhanced restrictions, their positions informed mostly by major news stories. But as they have become more personally invested in the debate, they find themselves more skeptical of gun control. Brian, a 40-year-old Floridian, used his savings to buy a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield in March after being laid off—the experience changed his entire approach to Second Amendment issues.
"In the past, I wasn't against owning a gun. However, I did think that we had suffered enough as a country from school shootings, and something needed to be done. I was for stricter gun laws—no ARs, close the gun-show loophole, better mental health regulations, etc.," he said. "I would now oppose stricter gun laws."
[…]
Kane fired the first shots with his Springfield XD 9mm on May 15.
"Now I'm 100 percent converted," he said.
He's already begun recruiting others.
It’s a story as American as apple pie, folks. Whether it be for personal protection and overall protection from an overreaching government, this is why we have a right to firearms. Remember, this really isn’t a debate. It’s codified in law. The debate is over. And as we see Minneapolis descend into chaos, the reasoning for our right to own guns becomes all the more stronger.
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