By: José Niño

Rasmussen released a survey last week revealing that 57 percent of Republicans and 39 percent of Democrats have a gun in their homes. The same report discovered that 37 percent of Americans who described themselves as “politically unaffiliated” have a firearm in their place of residence.

Put together, 43 percent of American adults indicated that someone living with them is a gun owner. Further, 1/5 of those who said they lived with a gun owner noted they or the gun owner in their household bought a firearm after mass protests broke out in the summer of 2020.

Americans, as we’ve reported repeatedly, have been buying firearms in record numbers in the last six months – largely due to socio-economic instability caused by the Wuhan virus lockdowns and the rioting that followed the death of George Floyd and other police shootings.

The same survey found that 54 percent of American adults who live in a household with guns say they feel safer with the presence of a firearm in the home. For the individuals who obtained a firearm since violent protests kicked off in May, 90 percent of them signaled that they felt safer doing so.

One of the more interesting findings in this report was the level of minority attraction towards buying guns after riots started spreading across the country. Rasmussen found that, “White gun-owning households are less likely than black and other minority ones to have added a gun since late May.”

In addition, the Rasmussen report found that minorities were more likely than whites to acquire a gun after the police protests began, and American adults under 40 were more likely to acquire a firearm than were “their elders.”

Several figures in the Second Amendment community have noticed an upswing in minorities purchasing firearms in the last six months. Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works, picked up on this trend. In an interview with Gunpowder Magazine, he noted, “More people of color are realizing that in order to level that playing field, they need to arm and educate themselves.”

Despite backlogs in gun permit applications in several jurisdictions across the country and the anti-gun nature of certain states, Americans are going the extra mile to acquire firearms. Arguably, one of the most fascinating developments of the 2020 election cycle is that Americans’ behavior at their local gun stores indicates that gun control advocates will have a hard time realizing their vison for civilian disarmament. And this holds true for even the bluest of states.

Moreover, first-time gun buyers offer a glimmer of hope for Second Amendment activists who are interested in expanding their base of support. These gun owners may prove to be a “hidden” Republican vote that could be tapped into during the 2020 election cycle.

Instead of turning to the bland recruitment strategies that are characteristic of your typical establishment conservative organizations, gun owners would be better off making inroads with this new segment of first-time gun owners. As long as the right to bear arms is nominally intact, there will always be Americans who are willing to exercise their right to self-defense. That has to make the anti-gun crowd livid.

José Niño is a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas. Sign up for his mailing list here. Contact him via Facebook, Twitter, or email him at [email protected]. Get his e-book, The 10 Myths of Gun Control, here.