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Gun ownership diversifying
So runs an article in the Economist.
"Decades ago most people bought guns for hunting and recreational shooting. Now they mostly do so for self-defence, which is a universal concern. People who feel vulnerable to crime or hold less faith in the police are more likely to arm themselves.
Rising murder rates in 2020 and 2021 heightened those anxieties (blacks are the likeliest victims). Membership of the National African American Gun Association grew in 2020 by more than 25%, to 40,000. Blacks have a long history of owning guns: Harriet Tubman toted them, Martin Luther King kept them at home. But this tradition was long "surreptitious", says Aqil Qadir, a third-generation shooter who runs a firearms-training centre in Tennessee."
The manner of thing you'll rarely, if ever, see in the American media.
….Decades ago good pistols were expensive and black folks were mainly poor. Now our society is rich and a much better handgun can be bought for the price of a good pair of sneakers ; $600.
…Pistols are lighter, less likely to jam and carry 3 times as much ammo. Holsters are much lighter and hold the pistols with more security.
…And poor black folks can and do buy pretty much whatever they need and want.
….Pistols retain their sexiness and cachet so that even folks who profess hatred of them secretly buy and possess them.
…The issue of gun control has been decided : the country chooses freedom except in the most Statest jurisdictions.