Twin Cities gun sales have seen their largest year-over-year leap since the pandemic, with some cities experiencing double or even triple the demand compared to the same time last year, a Minnesota Star Tribune analysis of city and county data found.
The data, as well as interviews with gun store owners and gun safety instructors, indicate the increase is largely being driven by first-time buyers.
The spike in gun sales came during the height of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota, which culminated last month with the fatal shootings of two Minnesotans, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, at the hands of federal agents.
Whenever gun-grabbing politicians question why Americans even need "assault weapons," gunnies basically retort with "Because you tell me I don't need one." And then sales of such caliber of firearms increase dramatically. Could it be that fervent anti-Trumpers are reacting in the same vain when Trump expressed that Pretti should not have had a gun in that situation?
Of course, surges like this have been seen before in the not too recent past. But is it different this time?
Gun sales surged during the conflicts that followed the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Permit applications in Hennepin County jumped again following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. capitol and remained high through the summer crime wave that same year. More recently, sales went up following the assassination of DFL Rep. Melissa Hortman and the Annunciation Church mass shooting last year.
Last month’s increase appears to stand out, however, said Rob Doar, president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center, a gun rights advocacy group.
“At least anecdotally, the demographics are shifting a lot, where we see people who are more liberally aligned, or on the left, expressing interest in gun ownership,” Doar said. “From what I’m hearing from permit to carry instructors, their classes have been younger and not necessarily your typical conservative.”
We've been reliably informed for years by anti-gunners that the quickest way for the right to embrace gun control is when black people and other non-traditional demographics start to purchase firearms. But as we saw in the aftermath of the summer of unrest in 2020 as well as this past month, 2A activists are more emboldened (and encouraged) than ever with people wanting to exercise their inalienable right to keep and bear arms. As expected.
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