Will Brand New Gun Democrat Owners Vote to Be Disarmed?

Recent riots and looting have left many citizens feeling vulnerable. The rhetoric about defunding police departments is also unnerving. As a result, there is a significant number of new gun owners in the country.

High-profile people on the center-left like Dave Rubin and Tim Pool have openly shared they are new gun owners. They are certainly not alone. According to Small Arms Analytics and Forecasting, over 2 million firearms were purchased in June. According to Stephen Gutowski, the total firearms purchases since the beginning of the pandemic in March sit at 8.3 million.

Gutowski also interviewed retailers for firearms and ammunition, and demand is not decreasing. Some retailers are having a difficult time keeping items in stock.

Gun and ammunition retailers are having trouble keeping up with the demand as Americans flood stores.

“Obama was the best gun sales in the country they claimed,” Brandon Wexler, owner of Wex Gunworks in Delray Beach, Fla., told the Washington Free Beacon. “No, Covid19 is.”

He said sales picked up in March and have continued strong since then, with new spikes appearing over the last month.

Of course, last month saw nationwide riots, looting, and sustained periods of unrest. In some areas, it was so bad that the 911 system was backlogged, and officers could not respond quickly or at all to emergencies. It is not surprising handguns are driving sales:

Jurgen Brauer, chief economist for Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting, noted in a statement that the demand for handguns was again the main driver of gun sales in the country—a reversal from just a few years ago which he believes may signal a shift in gun buying as mainly motivated by a desire for self-defense.

Longtime responsible legal gun owners need to encourage new gun owners to get training and practice. However, this trend is interesting in the context of a presidential election in November.

Joe Biden has an extensive plan to limit firearms purchases, reduce the choices Americans can make for protecting their home and family, and ensure the government knows who has what firearms. If Democrats win the Senate and eliminate the filibuster, these measures will pass without objection. And they threaten the 2nd Amendment rights of every gun owner, including those who are new to the family.

The nominee’s state policy is also very supportive of so-called “red-flag” laws. These laws deny gun owners due process by removing their firearms and requiring them to prove they deserve to have them back.

Incentivize state “extreme risk” laws. Extreme risk laws, also called “red flag” laws, enable family members or law enforcement officials to temporarily remove an individual’s access to firearms when that individual is in crisis and poses a danger to themselves or others. Biden will incentivize the adoption of these laws by giving states funds to implement them. And, he’ll direct the U.S. Department of Justice to issue best practices and offer technical assistance to states interested in enacting an extreme risk law.

So, not only do experienced gun owners need to encourage new gun owners to train, but we must also teach them how the laws and regulations Joe Biden proposes will affect their ability to defend themselves. Even worse, he has pledged to have Beto “hell yeah” O’Rourke help him implement them:

Joe Biden promises Beto O'Rourke, who pushed for gun confiscation for legal gun owners, will “be the one who leads" his gun control effort pic.twitter.com/qjgft8wFkt

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 3, 2020

There is another good reason to make sure we educate new gun owners. In a recent interview, Dave Rubin asked Niall Ferguson what he thought about the upcoming election. His observations are interesting. He relies on revealed rather than stated preferences to make his assessment of recent polls. Specifically, he takes note of new gun owners. The entire interview is fascinating, but his election predictions are cued up here: