Guns Save Life welcomes all gun owners.  We don't care about identity politics.  People own guns for all manner of reasons.  So long as gun owners are legal and law-abiding, we welcome them into the family!

So imagine our surprise when we read a BBC report announcing that American liberals and "non-traditional" demographics have started buying guns for the first time following the election of Donald Trump.  Why the sudden rush for these "non-traditional" demographics, according to the BBC?  To defend themselves not against criminals, but against Trump voters! 

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard folks!  We will share a little secret with the BBC:  Women, minorities, even liberals have been the fastest growing demographics in gun purchasers for about eight years now!  (Shhh!  Don't tell Brian Wheeler at the BBC!)

Liberals have long made fun of gun owners for buying guns to defend their families against criminals.  We've heard their mockery for decades!

• "That's what the police are for!" 
• "Crime's not that bad…"
• "You'll just hurt yourself / shoot your eye out!"
• "The criminal will take your gun away and use it against you."
• "You're 43 times more likely to kill yourself with a gun than use it against an intruder!"

If you believe the BBC, these same people now believe that Trump voters are going to burn their homes down and kill their friends and families, so they are gunning up.

Here's the top of the BBC's story:

Why US liberals are now buying guns too

Gun ownership has traditionally been associated with the right wing in America but the election of Donald Trump has prompted some left-wingers to join gun clubs – and even start preparing for the collapse of society.

"I really didn't expect to be thinking about purchasing a gun. It was something that my father did and I rolled my eyes at him."

Clara, a 28-year-old nursing student, grew up in the Mid-West, where "the folks that had guns were seen as hicks" or were just "culturally different", she says.

It took the BBC scribe three paragraphs before he trotted out pejoratives to describe gun owners.  Cleverly concealed as someone's description, not his own.

Brian Wheeler continues:

But since the election of Donald Trump in November she has started going to a gun range for the first time and is shopping around for a semi-automatic pistol.

"It's been seeing the way that Trump's election has mobilised a lot of the far right and given them hope," she says, citing a rise in reports of hate crimes and neo-Nazi activity.

As a transgender woman, she does not fear for her personal safety in the Californian city where she now lives but she says she knows people in rural areas "who woke up and found a bunch of swastikas and words like 'faggot' and 'trannie' scrawled all over their building".

She knows people in rural areas…   Really?  And these stories didn't make the news?  Especially where America's Mainstream Media desperately want just such a story – and for it to be found true?  Color me skeptical.  The only hate crime stories Americans have read about of late are a whole host of hate crime hoaxes.  Radical Leftists have tried to make a media narrative come to life.  Here are five hoaxes in the news since November 8th.

But there's a place for liberals if they don't feel comfortable with the NRA and Guns Save Life…

Lara Smith, national spokesperson for the Liberal Gun Club, says her organisation has seen a "huge" rise in enquiries since November's election and a 10% increase in paid members.

Some of the new members are reluctant first-time gun owners, says Smith, concerned that isolated acts of aggression against minorities could escalate into something more violent and that a Trump administration will dismantle key constitutional rights, leading to a "more fascist rule than the US has ever had".

Nevermind the only fascism this past campaign season came from the left physically attacking Trump supporters.

An alternative viewpoint(!)

Finally, buried in the BBC story is an alternative viewpoint:

Gwendolyn Patton, of the Pink Pistols, a club for for gay, lesbian and transgender gun owners, says new members fear being "harassed by the gun nuts at the range".

But she says they are mostly "welcomed with open arms by the shooting community".

There you have it.

These liberals have listened to too many pandering Democrat politicians.  News of these liberals buying guns comes as bad, bad news for Bloomberg and his gun control allies.  When people buy guns, they expose themselves first-hand to the fun and empowerment of gun ownership!  They might like it!  Next thing we know, they may buy more guns.  And more gear and training.  These new gun owners who happen to be liberals might suddenly realize that much of what they have been told about gun owners has been a lie.  They may discover their fellow good guy gun owners aren't a threat, but a potential friend and ally.

Yes, according to the BBC, liberals and other "non-traditional" demographics are buying guns.  Of course!  Non-gun owners are becoming gun owners at a rate never seen since the founding of our nation.  In Illinois gun owners are registered and issued "Firearms Owners ID Cards".  The cards cost $10 and applicants who pass an extensive background check are issued the card.  While we oppose the FOID system, it does serve as a pretty good system to track the number of gun owners in the state.

At Barack Obama's inauguration, Illinois had about 1.2 million FOID cardholders.  As 2016 winds down, we're nearly at 2.1 million FOID holders.  Illinois has about 75% more gun owners today than eight years ago.

That serves as doubly bad news for Michael Bloomberg and his ilk.