Since I arrived in California a week ago, I’ve had two conversations with journalists writing about LGBTQ people getting into guns, especially since Trump was elected again.
I know this is happening anecdotally, personally and from those on the organizational front lines.
But I was unable to point these reporters to anyone who has solid quantitative data on this. And not just on a recent Trump election surge.
What about data from The Great Gun Buying Spree of 2020? We know that a dominant story there was new and non-traditional gun owners. But we get only anecdotal and qualitative stories about that.
What about data from after the Pulse nightclub shooting? Again, only anecdotal (e.g., a Rolling Stone story) and qualitative stories about that.
Jonathan Rauch wrote his Salon essay on “Pink Pistols” in 2000. 25 years later, very few scholars have spent much time trying to understand LGBTQ gun owners. So many studies of gun owners are hetero-cis normative.
Did no one surveying new, non-traditional gun owners since the Great Gun Buying Spree of 2020 ask about gender identity or sexual orientation? If they did, I missed it. Please send references!
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