Some Perspective On The Staggering Number Of New Gun Owners

To put this into some perspective, the estimated 7-million new gun owners in the United States just since January is more than five times the size of our active duty military, which stands at about 1.3-million service members. The number of new gun owners is about ten times larger than the number of law enforcement in the United States, and is about seven times the estimated number of all gang members in the United States.

In other words, seven million new gun owners is a pretty staggering figure, and one that could reshape not only the firearms market in the years ahead, but also has the potential to influence the gun control debate in the immediate future. As we’ve noted previously, many new gun owners don’t fit the conservative stereotype, and even liberal publications like NYMag are beginning to recognize the impact that gun owners on the Left can have in the gun control debate.

“You can’t say you’re for civil rights and have a civil right you’re absolutely interested in curtailing,” says Lara Smith, the spokesperson for the Liberal Gun Club, an organization founded in 2008 that provides gun-skills courses for as little as $10 a year and has 4,500 members. She says that Democratic lawmakers are totally ignorant when it comes to how guns actually work.