A lot of states, particularly those on the West Coast are dominated by the large urban areas. The population in those centers are vehemently anti-gun and they create new gun control laws despite most of the people outside of those cities wanting no part in them.
This, we're told, is democracy. The will of the people.
I'd argue that it's tyranny of the majority because a large group of people have decided to infringe up on the rights of a minority, but people in states like Oregon don't really care about that.
But it seems that the minority aren't exactly rolling over and allowing themselves to be disarmed. Quite the contrary, really.
Gun sales across the country decreased in 2023, but millions have purchased firearms in the new year.
In 2023, Oregon had the fourth most gun sales per capita, with 1,372 sales per 10,000 people aged 21 or older. The only states with higher sales rates were Montana, Wyoming and Alaska.
About a third of Americans say they personally own a gun, Pew Research data shows. That statistic reflects the deep-rooted culture of gun ownership in the U.S. Another report found that in the first four months of 2024, nearly 5.5. million firearms were purchased in the country, 146,034 of which were bought in Oregon.
Data from the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was analyzed by SafeHomes.org, a safety product review site, to determine which states had the largest ownership of recently purchased firearms.
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Adjusted for population, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska and Oregon have the highest gun sales rates in SafeHomes' report.
Western states like these "have strong hunting traditions fostered by rural lifestyles and less rigid gun control laws," said Rob Gabriele, SafeHomes' managing editor. "The pro-gun cultures and the need for self-defense in such remote areas, which abound in predators that could harm livestock, may also contribute to higher gun ownership and sales."
Honestly, nothing about that is overly surprising because states with large rural populations are going to find a need for guns. Even without the four-legged predators running around, the fact that the only law enforcement officer on duty might be on the other side of a very large county means that those same folks need guns for two-legged predators as well.
That's just how things roll in rural America.
But in Oregon, this is fascinating because it's an anti-gun state. Yes, there is a sizeable percentage of the population that lives in rural communities, but it's not enough to keep the state pro-gun, as is the case with the three states higher on this particular list.
Yet the rural communities are buying guns left and right.
Or are they?
The truth of the matter is that a lot of those folks buying guns are just people who live in Oregon. The data doesn't include any information on what parts of the state, meaning a lot of people in cities like Eugene and Portland may well be getting guns because those cities feel a lot less safe than they have in the past.
Unfortunately, those same people often back anti-gun lawmakers, which creates an issue. Then again, if they've got their guns, some of them simply don't care about anyone else.
But for anti-gunners in the state, this is probably somewhat worrying.
We know that gun owners have a profound tendency to become gun voters in time. Such a high number of recent gun purchases could well signal an upcoming shift in the state's views on gun control. Anti-gunners have been dictating things for a while in the state, but that might well be changing.
Who would have thought Oregon would become such a fascinating subject and potentially a canary in the coal mine for anti-gunners?
