New Gun Owners Are Changing America’s Demographic Picture — And Fear Is Driving the Shift
More liberals, people of color, and LGBTQ Americans say they’re turning to firearms for personal protection.
For generations, the mental image of an American gun owner skewed toward one profile: white, rural, conservative, and overwhelmingly Republican.
But that picture is changing — quickly and significantly.
Across the country, gun trainers, clubs, researchers, and Second Amendment advocates report the same trend: more liberals, more people of color, and more LGBTQ Americans are buying firearms, often citing political fear and personal safety as their motivation.
And while gun debates in the U.S. are often predictable along party lines, the people stepping into gun stores today don’t fit the old stereotype.
A Maryland doctor describes a shift he never expected
Charles — a Black physician who grew up in 1970s Brooklyn — remembers a childhood where toy guns were banned outright.
“I remember vividly, summertime, when my friends would have water gun fights and I couldn't participate,” he said.
Today, decades later, he visits a Maryland shooting range weekly and practices with his Smith & Wesson .380. He says he bought the handgun after a series of Trump-era actions left him feeling personally vulnerable, particularly as a Black man.
“What I'm talking about is protecting myself from a situation where there may be some kind of civil unrest,” he said.
He also fears a scenario where “some of President Trump's supporters may feel emboldened someday to target minorities like him and his family.”
“I’m not saying that's what's going to happen,” Charles clarified. “What I'm saying is none of this is out of the question any longer.”
Like most who spoke with NPR, he asked that his last name be withheld out of fear of retribution.
Gun ownership expands — and so do the demographics behind it
Gun clubs across the country — from left-leaning groups to LGBTQ self-defense collectives — say they’ve seen dramatic surges since Trump’s reelection in 2024.
David Phillips of the Liberal Gun Club, which has chapters in more than 30 states, said membership jumped from 2,700 in November to 4,500 today. Requests for training, he added, 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 said.
Other groups are seeing the same pattern:
Pink Pistols, an LGBTQ gun-rights organization with the motto “Armed gays don’t get bashed,” says interest has surged.
Traditional pro-gun groups, including the National Association for Gun Rights, acknowledge the trend as well.
“It's definitely common knowledge at this point,” said Taylor Rhodes, the group’s communications director.
The White House rejects the premise
Asked about these rising fears among left-leaning gun owners, the White House dismissed NPR’s reporting.
“Instead of covering Americans exercising their Second Amendment Right and trying to disingenuously blame President Trump, NPR should highlight the dangerous language from elected Democrats that has driven leftists to commit actual violence against Republicans – including the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk,” said spokesperson Abigail Jackson.
She added that NPR’s lack of federal funding is “something we can all celebrate.”
Fears rise on both sides of the political spectrum
While the administration accuses Democrats of incitement, many liberals say they feel targeted by Trump’s own rhetoric — including referring to undocumented immigrants as “poisoning the blood of our country” and labeling political opponents “radical left thugs that live like vermin.”
Academics say fear-driven gun buying is nothing new.
But the demographic shift is.
A University of Chicago study found gun ownership among Democrats and Democrat-leaning Americans rose seven percentage points between 2010 and 2022.
Wake Forest University sociology professor David Yamane notes that 2020–2021 — marked by the George Floyd protests, the pandemic, and the January 6 attack — drove particularly sharp growth.
“We do know that in that year that new gun owners were disproportionately African American (and) disproportionately female,” Yamane said.
Google Trends reveals spikes in searches such as “How do I buy a gun?” around:
Trump’s 2024 election
His inauguration
The first immigration enforcement blitz
The Washington, D.C. military parade
New gun owners say the motivation is the same: self-protection
Nearly every person interviewed emphasized the same thing: this isn’t about militias, vigilantism, or political aggression.
“All the language that we use is absolutely not about rallying together to arm and go assault anyone,” said MJ, a member of a liberal self-defense group in the Midwest. “If anyone even talks like that, I or someone else would probably boot them out.”
Bill Sack of the Second Amendment Foundation says he welcomes more liberals embracing gun rights — but not the fear that brought them there.
“Is it a good thing that people are scared? No, of course not,” he said.
For Charles, the Maryland doctor, the calculus is simple.
“As a man, as a father, as a husband, how remiss and derelict would it be for me to not be prepared?” he said.
Every new gun owner interviewed stressed the same idea:
They hope they will never need a firearm.
But they would regret not having one if they did.
Cover image: stock photo | Article adapted from NPR.