Like it or not, the gun control debate in the United States largely comes down on partisan political lines. Most Republicans embrace and support the Second Amendment, while most Democrats want to see our gun rights restricted or negated altogether.
With the election of Donald Trump, however, more liberals are starting to recognize the value of the Second Amendment, and that doesn't bode well for the anti-gunners among us.
Anti-gunners are now at the point of trying to convince liberals and minorities to stop buying guns, saying that if too many of them become pro-gun, it could permanently stop gun control from passing: https://t.co/qt7goSrpoX ic.twitter.com/nAVKZCMCBd
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) March 12, 2025
Gun control activists Devin Hughes and Caitlin Clarkson Pereira are the source of the pearl-clutching highlighted by FPC. The pair's comments came during a recent podcast discussion on the push for a national right-to-carry reciprocity bill. As you can imagine, the anti-gunners are no fans of that idea, but their concerns go much deeper than a single piece of legislation. At one point in the conversation Hughes hit on the greatest fear of the anti-gunner coming true; lefties embracing their right to keep and bear arms.
But also have conversations with people who, like, you don't have to go out find the nearest person with a MAGA tattoo or whatever and chat them up, but like we still have friends and family and even people on the left who are considering getting guns in these troubled times, and we need to start having those conversations and showing what the evidence is. Because if we don't, we won't have to worry about getting like a majority of the country because we won't even have a majority of people left of center. And like once that happens, then the firehose of falsehood is too firmly ingrained. So like this is not necessarily our last chance, but it's getting close.
It's ironic that Hughes complained about a "firehouse of falsehood" given some of the whoppers he unleashed during the podcast. For starters, young Devin claimed that during the Founding era there were "a bunch of states that just would not allow you to carry concealed guns in public." The truth is that most states didn't have any outright prohibitions on carrying around the time the Second Amendment was ratified, and when we did start to see states adopt regulations on carry most of them were aimed at restricting concealed carrying while leaving open carry untouched.
Culturally, open carry was seen as more acceptable in those times, with concealed carry associated with scofflaws and those who wanted to keep their guns hidden away for nefarious purposes. That cultural more has obviously shifted over the centuries, and now it's concealed carry that is more broadly accepted (though the vast majority of states still allow for open carry without the need for a license or permit).
Hughes also claims that weakening concealed carry laws overall increases violent crime, which is odd given that less than 1% of active concealed carry holders will ever have their permits revoked because of a violent criminal offense. It's also worth noting that the right-to-carry revolution and shift towards "shall issue" laws in the 1990s coincided with a decades-long decline in both homicide and violent crime rates, contrary to the claims of gun control activists that more guns equals more crime.
Though the pair discussed the prospects of right-to-carry reciprocity throughout the podcast, the prospect of more liberals and lefties exercising their Second Amendment rights was also a recurring theme.
Devin: And there have been recent articles where it talks about various minority communities buying guns to protect themselves, which is understandable. That fear is understandable, and nothing we say should undermine that fear. Getting a gun is not the answer to that [though]. It's only gonna make those communities less safe, result in more deaths and injuries. And the buying of guns there is not only making those communities less safe, it's empowering the very forces that are attempting to make those communities less safe. Like if you look at the boards and companies that are pushing firearms and the firearm messaging out, do they look like the minority communities that are claiming to be like, Oh, look at how great.
Caitlin: Looking to protect you? Yeah, no, that's definitely not them.
Devin: Yeah, that they look like older versions of me.
Caitlin: No offense to older Devin, but yes.
I don't know if these two understand how completely condescending their attitude towards minorities embracing their Second Amendment rights really is, but I suspect they wouldn't care even if they did have that self-awareness. Devin and Caitlin think they know better than those Americans who've decided that it's time they started keeping and bearing arms because they're concerned for their personal safety. In fact, in their perfect world the members of those various minority communities wouldn't have the choice to buy a gun or to carry it for self-protection.
Fortunately, that's not the world we live in, and we the people are still (mostly) free to keep and bear arms if we choose. There's still lots of work to be done to secure our Second Amendment rights, and as the full-blown freakout by Hughes and Clarkson Pereira remind us, Second Amendment advocates have the opportunity to grow our big tent movement even further by reaching out and encouraging Americans of all races, colors, and creeds to think seriously about self-defense and our fundamental right to keep and carry a gun.
