You can read about how toxic masculinity fuels our American gun culture in many left-wing objections to gun ownership. But over the past two years, it seems women have broken through the glass ceiling of gun ownership.
The 2021 National Firearms Survey, courtesy of Harvard researcher Deborah Azrael and Northeastern University’s Matthew Miller, determined that roughly 3.5 million first-time gun owners since January 2019 are women, compared to 4 million men. Apparently, the rise in crimes such as homicides and assaults encouraged women to go out and purchase the best available tool for self-defense. Who would have thought?
It isn’t a huge surprise. According to the Pew Research Center, roughly 38% of gun owners were women as of 2017. And guns are the best tool for self-defense: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, guns are used in self-defense anywhere from 500,000 to 3 million times per year. Sometimes, pepper spray just isn’t going to cut it.
And, to top it off, the 2021 National Firearms Survey says that 28% of the women who became new gun owners are black. So, yes, a surge in violent crimes can send left-wing narratives on gun ownership crashing down across the demographic board.
The 3.5 million new gun owners would mean that roughly 1 in 4 women in the United States own guns. So, the only question is: How do we arm the other three?
