A noticeable shift is underway on the American left. Progressives who once spoke confidently and consistently about the dangers posed by guns are now, increasingly, buying firearms themselves.
“If more guns made us safer, we’d be the safest country on Earth. It doesn’t work that way,” quipped then-rising star presidential contender Pete Buttigieg in 2020. Fast forward to 2025, where the Liberal Gun Club, a group that trains and educates liberals about guns in over 30 states, reported seeing over 60% membership growth in the year following Trump’s return to office. Gun shops and community defense groups report growing interest from people who until recently would have dismissed personal gun ownership as unnecessary or even reckless.
Many cite concerns with the openly authoritarian Trump administration, rising political violence and the sense that institutions meant to protect are either weakened or being repurposed against them. What was once framed as an outdated cultural obsession of the right is now being reconsidered, quietly but seriously, as a form of insurance.
The post Opinion: Liberals Are Buying Guns. It Won’t Make Us Safer appeared first on The Daily Beast
