WSJ report: More liberals are now buying guns in the U.S.

By bellecarter // 2024-09-26

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The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently reported that a growing number of liberals are buying firearms in the United States, bucking the historical trend of Democrats eschewing owning guns. In fact, during the last presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris touted how she and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), are both gun owners. In a campaign event with Oprah Winfrey, Harris told the media mogul, "If somebody breaks into my house, they're getting shot." According to the WSJ, gun culture, which conservatives have long dominated, is experiencing "a marked charge" as "a burgeoning number of liberals" flock to gun stores to purchase firearms. Surveys note that the fastest-growing gun groups identify as ethnic minorities or political progressives. The news outlet cited lifelong Democrat and gun control supporter Michael Ciemnoczolowski, who recently bought his first firearm. Ciemnoczolowski, a liquor store clerk in Iowa City, Iowa, said he bought the weapon because he's worried about "street crime" and "armed right-wing extremists." According to the article, liberals have historically been gun owners but veered away from having them in the early 1990s when "increasingly divisive political battles over the role of firearms in American society led the Democratic Party to become an advocate for gun regulation. Republicans became the party of gun rights." Meanwhile, 29 percent of Democrats or those leaning Democrat said they had a gun at home in 2022, up from a four-decade low of 22 percent in 2010, according to a survey conducted by the University of Chicago's NORC research group. Moreover, the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions reported that more than half of Democratic voters who bought guns after 2020 were first-time owners. The WSJ piece also described how liberal gun owners are "much more diverse" than they were in the 1990s, when Democratic gun owners "were typically White men, including auto or steel union workers who grew up hunting." The outlet spoke to pro-gun liberal Tom Nguyen, a Los Angeles resident who founded a pro-gun group for liberals on Facebook in 2020. "People were hungering for a space that was not this hyper-aggressive, male-dominated, toxic gun world," Nguyen said, adding that he instructs 300 people a year on how to handle firearms. Former President Jimmy Carter's grandson Jason Carter, a former Georgia state senator and hunter who spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month, spoke to WSJ about finding a middle ground in America on the gun issue. "There are more people saying, 'Let's look for middle ground. Let's work to respect Second Amendment rights, but let's figure out ways to make us safer,'" he said.

Laura Loomer: "Hypocrite Harris" wants to take away people's guns, but wants to keep her own

Former Florida congressional candidate Laura Loomer accused Harris of being a hypocrite for admitting she has a gun while campaigning on stricter gun laws. She shared on X a clip of Harris' sit-down interview with Winfrey. The renowned talk show host endorsed Harris and hosted a two-hour "Unite for America" streaming session in Michigan featuring an in-depth interview with Harris. Questions about gun ownership came during a section of the livestream that addressed school shootings. In her social media post, Loomer claimed that Harris wants to "take away people's guns," but wants to keep her own." A lot of Loomer's followers commented and agreed with her accusation of hypocrisy and expressed doubt that Harris is a gun owner at all. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign told Newsweek of the vice president's gun control positions. "She'll ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require universal background checks and support red flag laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people," the source said. But critics pointed out that in 2023, President Joe Biden established the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which Harris oversees. She also supported the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Biden signed into law in 2022. The act expands background checks and creates new criminal penalties for gun trafficking and for purchasing a gun on behalf of someone banned from doing so. It also invested $1.4 billion in violence prevention and intervention programs. (Related: Kamala Harris calls for renewal of so-called "assault weapons" ban to hurriedly DISARM Americans before the election.) On the other hand, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has aligned himself with the National Rifle Association and is expected to have a more hands-off approach to gun restrictions if elected, claiming that gun laws do not actually work. Head over to SecondAmendment.news for stories related to the constitutional right to bear arms. Watch the video below where Fox's Rob Schmitt says that Kamala Harris "has never been viewed as politically viable." This video is from the TrendingNews channel on Brighteon.com.

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Laura Loomer: "Hypocrite Harris" wants to take away people's guns, but wants to keep her own

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