Among Hispanics, blacks, and Asian Americans, gun sales went up in 2020. With crime continuing to be a problem, those sales didn’t slow in 2021, and the political consequences could be felt for years.
According to retailer surveys conducted by the National Sports Shooting Foundation, there was a 58% increase in gun sales to black buyers from 2019 to 2020. There was a 49% increase in Hispanic buyers and a 43% increase in Asian buyers. Among 60% of retailers, those rates of increase remained the same from 2020 to 2021 as well. Amid the surge in crime, including anti-Asian hate crimes, and uncertainty about safety thanks to the movement to defund police, all three racial groups have seen an increase in people looking to protect themselves.
One side effect of this is the ongoing decay of the gun control movement. Last year, support for gun control fell to a seven-year low, thanks in part to the surge in crime. But it’s the long-term effect of the country gaining more than 7.5 million gun owners that stands out.
In the 2016 presidential election, there was no clearer indicator of preference than gun ownership. Voters in households with guns supported Donald Trump in every state except Vermont. Voters in households without guns backed Hillary Clinton in every state but West Virginia and Wyoming. Gun ownership saw a bigger partisan divide than race, religion, and union membership.
Republicans have already made gains among Hispanic and black voters in recent elections. New gun owners among those groups could help tip the scale even further. But even if new gun owners choose to be Democrats, the gun control movement is in for a rough time: Support for various gun control proposals, including banning “assault-style weapons,” drops among gun-owning Democrats.
Even if anti-police liberal movements fade to the background and Democratic-run cities decide to treat crime seriously once again, the millions of new gun owners across racial groups will change the course of gun control for the foreseeable future. Democrats are already accustomed to tiptoeing around the issue, but they may now be forced to push it further and further down the list of priorities.
