That’s a lot of new gun owners—and the breakdown is even cooler. It shatters the liberal myth about gun owners only being an exclusive club where only white men can participate. Again, the Left and their race-obsessed nonsense led to them having eggs on their face. It also showed yet again how liberals manufacture voter narratives where the data simply does not exist.
Gun sales soared in 2020, with over 23 million firearms being sold. It was a 60 percent increase from 2019 and nearly nine million Americans became new gun owners. Breaking this trend down further, it was estimated that around 20 percent of Americans who bought guns in 2020 were first-time owners, and half were women (via The Hill):
Approximately one-fifth of Americans who purchased guns last year were first-time buyers, according to new preliminary data from Northeastern University and the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.
The data also showed increases in the overall number of gun buyers and the total number of gun owners in the U.S.
Of the first-time buyers recorded in 2020, half were women, a fifth were Black and a fifth were Hispanic, according to The New York Times, which reported on the new data.
Last year's first-time buyers were less likely than usual to be male and white, the Times noted.
The newspaper did note, however, that first-time buyers accounted for approximately 20 percent of gun sales in 2019, signaling that the pandemic did not kick off the trend.
So, this trend started prior to the COVID pandemic? Okay. That’s fine. Women, Blacks, and Hispanics wanted to start packing before the lockdowns is not necessarily a bad thing either way. It shows the changing face of gun ownership in America. This is a constitutional right afforded to all Americans. Period. It’s not a white person thing. It never has been. In fact, the trend with women participating in gun ownership and shooting sports has been documented for years. It’s already changed the industry. Women have been lining up to buy guns and concealed carry permits for quite some time, and this demographic breakdown should give pause to those on the Left who are lusting to put forward confiscatory measures on firearms in America.
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The one downside to all these new gun owners is the stress placed on ammunition manufacturers. Stephen Gutowski of The Reload went in-depth into this emerging crisis. There are many contributing factors, but we’re seeing a situation where 9MM and .223 Remington might not be readily available for at least 18 months. The wait could be up to two-and-a-half years. The price of copper is through the roof and yes, Joe Biden is president. That impacts things immensely.
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