More left-wing people are buying firearms, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
The outlet called the trend “surprising,” given that most firearm owners are described as being “conservative, White men.”
“Now, in a marked change, a burgeoning number of liberals are buying firearms, according to surveys and fast-growing gun groups drawing minorities and progressives,” the WSJ said.
The WSJ explained that beginning in the 1990s, “gun ownership among Democrats dropped significantly” due to “divisive political battles.”
“Twenty-nine percent of Democrats or those leaning Democrat said they had a gun at home in 2022, up from a four-decade low of 22% in 2010,” the report says, discussing survey results from NORC at the University of Chicago. “In 2022, 55% of Republicans had a gun in their home, up 3 percentage points since 2010, the survey of about 3,500 adults found.”
Another survey conducted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions found that more than half of the Democrat respondents who purchased a firearm since 2020 were first-time gun owners.
Anthropology professor at Lewis & Clark College, Jennifer Hubbert, told the outlet that the survey results represent a “group of people who five years ago would never have considered buying a gun.”