For decades, the image of gun ownership in America was white, rural and Republican, but that’s been changing, according to gun clubs, trainers, Second Amendment advocates and academic researchers.
They say more liberals, people of color and LGBTQ folks have been buying guns for years and particularly since Trump’s reelection in 2024. This story was based on more than 30 interviews. David Phillips is on the training team of the Liberal Gun Club, which has chapters in more than 30 states and provides a haven for liberals to train and learn about guns. He says club membership has grown from 2,700 in November to 4,500 today. Requests for training, he says, have quintupled.
“The concern is about the supporters of the right-wing who feel that they have been given permission to run roughshod at least, if not commit outright violence against people they don’t like,” Phillips says.
I grew up in a red family, in a red state. Everyone went to the gun range, including the women and children. It was encouraged, not gate-kept behind their strange gender rules.
There’s also nowhere to shoot in most red states, except ranges and private land. They sold it all. BLM land is almost non-existent and NSFS that doesn’t have wildlife conservation efforts (thus making much shooting illegal) is exceptionally rare to come by. So most of it has to be done at ranges. Gate keeping ranges would exclude people from shooting altogether.
I was making a comment about women and children being at ranges, not that people are gate-keeping ranges themselves. The comment I replied to was implying that red state folks have something against women learning to use guns.
It’s been extremely common through my whole life to see all ages and genders learning to shoot, especially in the red states, which is the opposite of what the comment was trying to say.
I understand the distinction, and see what you mean.