First, The Times chose a Harvard study conducted between 2019 and 2021 as its primary source. 

These were the pandemic years when both Presidents Trump and Joe Biden served in office. So contrary to The Times in effect blaming Trump for the "new" development in gun ownership, demographic groups weren’t choosing to purchase firearms because of Trump; they were driven to irrational fear about all things COVID.

 This is not to suggest that irrational fear of Trump doesn't abound in some quarters.

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Report: LGBTQs Buying Guns in Fear of 'Being Put in Concentration Camps' in Trump's America

Second, The Times chose five subjects to make its case: a "transgender" (male to female), a Hispanic woman, an Asian man, a Jewish male, and a black Hispanic man who said he had a political rebirth from progressivism to conservatism. 

Here's more from the article "The Tipping Point — America’s newest gun owners are upending preconceptions about who buys a gun and why."

Ken Green’s tipping point came as he watched an angry mob storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

John Alvarado’s came during the pandemic, as he evolved from a self-described “bleeding-heart liberal” to a deeply religious conservative.

A spike in anti-Asian violence in that same period is what motivated John Tsien.

For Victoria Alston, it was living on her own again after separating from her husband.

And for Anna Kolanowski, the tipping point came as she walked to a bar one night to meet friends.

Ms. Kolanowski, a 28-year-old epidemiologist in Iowa, had once believed that no one needed to own a gun. But when she came out as transgender in 2021, and began transitioning from male to female, she had a realization: “I’m a minority now, in a world that is pretty hostile to that minority.” 

In 2022, Ms. Kolanowski bought a Glock 43X handgun and started learning how to use it.

"In hours of conversations with New York Times journalists," the article's authors wrote, continuing (emphasis, mine):

[T]hese five Americans shared deeply individual reasons for their leaps into gun ownership. But there were also common threads: new fears about political violence and hate crimes, and a diminished trust in law enforcement.

Ahh,"hate crimes." I bet you wondered when that would come up here, right?

No doubt shocking to The Times, the article noted that "most said they had been surprised by how much they enjoyed learning to shoot, and improving their skills."

The article continued:

While a majority of gun owners are white, conservative, male and from rural areas, some surveys have detected an uptick in those who are not. One by Harvard researchers found that among people who purchased their first gun between 2019 and 2021, 20 percent were Black, 20 percent were Hispanic and approximately half were women.

Above all, new gun owners said, they are motivated by a need to feel prepared for anything, in a world that feels to them less stable. For some, intensified concerns about personal safety have dispelled a lifelong aversion to guns.

Well I'll be. Who'da thunk it?

I mean, the left-wing, gun-grabbing media pushes the ridiculous notion of "gun violence" — as if it's firearms that commit crimes, not the criminals who use them — at every concocted opportunity, including by The New York Times. 

So why the revelation? 

Perhaps because the evil Orange Man™ is back in charge, and his lemming-like followers ("garbage," according to Biden, and "Nazis," according to whomever) are just as scary as he is.

Liberty Nation News also covered the so-called "gun-buying frenzy" — back in March 2020 — and found:

The highest overall firearm sales increase comes from Black men and women who show a 58.2 percent increase in purchases during the first six months of 2020 versus the same period last year.

Just one problem for The Times: Donald Trump wasn't president at the time.

Here's more:

In November 2024, Gallup noted that “gun ownership rates spiked among Republican women.” Gallup found a 14% increase in gun sales within this demographic between 2007 and 2024. The truth of the matter is that there has been an uptick in gun sales among broadening demographic groups for a while now – it didn’t just begin with Trump’s second term.

Again, oops, NYT.

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