The New York Times deplores the idea of gun rights for the little people and that’s regularly reflected in its “news” stories and editorials. In an ongoing demonstration of their hypocrisy, NYT writers scribble out their screeds while working behind the protection of armed security. You know…guns for me, but not for thee.
In the Gray Lady’s never-ending effort to try to explain how life works west of the Hudson River to its dwindling Upper West Side reader base, they recently mentioned the fact that 22 million guns were sold in the year 2020, and that, more disturbingly (to them at least), 7.5 million Americans bought their first gun that year. Even worse, half of those new buyers were women and nearly half were “people of color.”
While that’s old news around these parts, it’s the kind of information that that could shatter the carefully curated misconceptions of thousands of loyal Times readers. In an effort to bury those truths, they made sure to toss in all manner of fake news, junk science studies and cherry-picked stats and expert opinions in an attempt to depict gun ownership as déclassé and downright dangerous.
Unfortunately, many of the paper’s readers aren’t buying the mainstream media narrative that guns are bad. In fact, like millions of other Americans, lots of them are voting with their wallets and buying guns.
Here are some of the less-biased graphs from the Times story, Why Some Americans Buy Guns. (You can bypass the paywall via the Wayback Machine.)
Social scientists are just beginning to understand who is purchasing firearms and how gun ownership may alter behavior.
In 2020, while many communities were under Covid lockdowns, protesters were flooding the streets and economic uncertainty and social isolation were deepening, Americans went on a shopping spree. For firearms.
Some 22 million guns were sold that year, 64 percent more than in 2019. More than eight million of them went to novices who had never owned a firearm, according to the firearm industry’s trade association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation…
Who started buying guns?
Millions of Americans who had never owned a gun purchased a firearm during a two-and-a-half-year period that began in January 2019, before the pandemic, and continued through April 2021.
Of the 7.5 million people who bought their first firearm during that period, 5.4 million had until then lived in homes without guns, researchers at Harvard and Northeastern University estimated.
The new buyers were different from the white men who have historically made up a majority of gun owners. Half were women, and nearly half were people of color (20 percent were Black, and 20 percent were Hispanic)…
Why did Americans decide to buy guns?
Self-defense is the top reason Americans purchase handguns. Gun ownership is not just a constitutional right but a necessary form of protection, according to organizations like the National Rifle Association and National Shooting Sports Foundation.
A study of individuals who said they were planning to purchase a first or second firearm during the early days of the pandemic found that would-be buyers were more likely to see the world as dangerous and threatening than individuals who were not planning to purchase a firearm.
The fact that the Times finally reported these numbers — albeit years late — suggests that even the paper’s brass has decided it apparently can’t ignore a reality this obvious any longer. The story clearly reflects the paper’s wonder and incomprehension at those who own guns and — even more so — the millions who have decided to become gun owners for the first time.
“The real question I wanted to answer was, What do people get out of having a gun?” [University of Wisconsin-Madison psychologist Nick Buttrick] said. “Why would somebody want to take this really dangerous thing and bring it into their lives?”
He recruited college students, some of whom came from gun-owning households, to participate in a study in which they would be subjected to very mild electric shocks (he likened the sensation to static electricity).
While the shocks were administered, participants were given a friend’s hand, a metal object or a prop that looked and felt like a pistol but had no firing mechanism. For participants who grew up around guns, holding the prop that resembled a firearm provided the greatest comfort, Dr. Buttrick said.
The author goes to great lengths to reassure its readers that they really don’t want to handle, let alone own these mysterious talismans of death and tools of systemic racism.
Researchers are increasingly focusing on the idea that an armed person is more likely to perceive others as armed, and to respond as though he or she were threatened, a concept called gun embodiment.
“The idea behind embodiment is that your ability to act in the environment changes how you literally see the environment,” said Nathan Tenhundfeld, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and a co-author of one recent study. “Gun embodiment gets at the idea of the old colloquialism ‘When you’re holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’”
Stereotypes and emotions influence an observer’s ability to correctly identify a gun and, therefore, whether a particular individual is actually armed. One study found that participants were more likely to mistakenly think that a Black person was holding a gun than to mistakenly think that a white person was armed.
You get the idea.
It’s clear that the author wanted to make sure that none of its readers were somehow tempted to make the grave mistake of exercising their Second Amendment rights. But running a story revealing the reality of soaring civilian gun ownership was a risk for the one-time paper of record.
New Yorkers have been living through years of increasing homelessness, lawlessness and violent crime. Media outlets have worked hard to reassure the city’s residents that what they’re seeing for themselves every day isn’t actually the worst crime in the city’s history.
Times editors were probably concerned that reading of millions of others who live in benighted areas outside of the tri-state area deciding to buy a firearm for the first time could prove to be disturbingly contagious. And since Bruen removed the NYPD’s vice grip on who can own and carry a gun (though there’s much still to be resolved in the courts) the average New Yorker might read something like the Times’ story and think, ‘Huh, I apparently have the same rights people do in Ohio…maybe I should own a gun, too.”
That’s enough to strike fear in the heart of any New York Times scribe.
The NYTimes lies more that Meritless Garland (AG). WHY would anyone bother reading their crap? Not even under category of “know the enemy”.
It’s important to remember the New York Times was an ardent supporter of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime. even after the invasion of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. It simply moved article in support of the Nazi’s from the front page to the back pages. It continued to support the Nazi’s after the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht). It only stopped openly supporting the Nazi’s after the United states entered the War in Europe.
Plenty of Progressives of that era were enamored with Italian Fascism and National Socialism, and they were also proponents (and still are) of Eugenics.
C.S.,
” . . . of that era . . . “.
And our modern Leftist/fascists are NOT enamored of fascism???? Coulda fooled me. Read any dacian the demented or MajorLiar comment (or jsled, the few times that Leftist slacker shows up), and the fascism fairly drips from your screen.
Like Charles Lindbergh & Joe Kennedy. And Henry Ford…
2020 proved to be a disaster for the left in its attempts to inhibit gun ownership…they may want to rethink their tactics in the future…fear for one’s personal safety is a great motivator…especially when the police are rendered ineffective or simply overwhelmed……..
will you people at TTAG please remove the spam post at the top of the comments here.
They may get kickbacks for those spam posts too. Boat payment coming due, dontcha know, and ammo to buy…need advertising and eyeballs.
got it. i figured out this one easy hack to erase them.
While I’m sure there are any number in the NYPD who are vicious, I think what Bruen removed was their vise grip.
“Vice” may be appropriate, tongue in cheek, considering the stories of graft.
supplementing your salary is routine for the NYPD…as it is in many places…but in New York it’s practically an institution…well-structured and organized…
dang it, got manipulated on that one.
poor human mind.
generations have grown-up under the Sullivan law…this is a new experience for them…they’ll need time to adjust…
‘When you’re holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’
thats not true and the fact that less than 5 % of ordinary law abiding gun possessing citizens (3% in 2022) actually fire because necessary brandishing worked, shows it to be false.
I never hammered a nail I didn’t absolutely need to hammer. But if it became necessary to hammer a nail its a good thing to have a hammer.
Goes back to leftists not being able to control their emotions or behaviors.
As if possession of a hammer necessitates you start hitting things. Any and all things.
Because to a leftists of course it does.
leftist are emotionally unstable to begin with, it helps feed their confirmation bias which in turn feeds their emotional instability.
And thinking they are normal project themselves on to everyone else.
When I’m holding a hammer everything looks like a skull.
Ye speak the truth my kind sir. I dont go looking for nothing i have to hammer (or shoot)
.40 cal Booger:
Having driven a nail with a hammer once or twice myself, I would like to offer this observation:
If everything looked like a nail when I was holding a hammer, I would not know where the real nail was and would not be able to drive it home. As it is, there are days when driving a nail is a hit-or-miss proposition. Just saying.
“’The real question I wanted to answer was, What do people get out of having a gun?’ [University of Wisconsin-Madison psychologist Nick Buttrick] said. ‘Why would somebody want to take this really dangerous thing and bring it into their lives?'”
“’The real question I wanted to answer was, What do people get out of having a [medical procedure]?’ [University of Wisconsin-Madison psychologist Nick Buttrick] said. ‘Why would somebody want to take this really dangerous thing and bring it into their lives?'”
“’The real question I wanted to answer was, What do people get out of having a [vehicle]?’ [University of Wisconsin-Madison psychologist Nick Buttrick] said. ‘Why would somebody want to take this really dangerous thing and bring it into their lives?'”
“’The real question I wanted to answer was, What do people get out of having [bacon]?’ [University of Wisconsin-Madison psychologist Nick Buttrick] said. ‘Why would somebody want to take this really dangerous thing and bring it into their lives?'”
“’The real question I wanted to answer was, What do people get out of having [an abortion]?’ [University of Wisconsin-Madison psychologist Nick Buttrick] said. ‘Why would somebody want to take this really dangerous thing and bring it into their lives?'”
We can play this game all day.
I had to buy a gunm in case my pet rattlesnake got loose.
possum:
You never fail to amuse. Thanks for the laugh.
The ny times/slimes limited and placed reports of the Holocaust on their back pages…Only a Parakeet gives a sht what the nyt says.
Even when I had a cockatiel living in my nest, I didn’t subject her to the NYT. She got to sh!t on the very best blank newsprint I could source from a hard-working paper mill in America’s heartland! I also have my doubts about that soy ink they use at the Times. Wasn’t it a Times reporter who needed PTSD time off after he went to the gun range one time for training and some pew-pew? I think he was breathing the air too much in the pressroom. There’s a reason why pressrooms are almost fully automated for over 20 years now. That air is toxic!
To me, that’s evidence enough that the Times is full of estrogen and liberal tears; almost as much as their woke words!
the NYT is and remains an influential rag…much like WaPo…with their stories being reprinted throughout the country…the next time you encounter an interesting article check the byline for its source…
Breaking new headlines the 2A is for everyone including those who claim not to believe in it
there was a time when Rudy (and others)…thought NY’s gun laws should be applicable to the rest of the nation…some still do…so this must be hard for them……..
Great example of the typical firearms owner.
Opinion: The AR-15 next door | The Gazette
https://www.thegazette.com/staff-columnists/opinion-the-ar-15-next-door/
Awaiting moderation. Imagine That.
it’s ’cause you spelled your name worng.
Sure did. face plant.
“Unfortunately, many of the paper’s readers aren’t buying the mainstream media narrative that guns are bad.”
Thank ‘Hollywood’ for that. Guns solve problems, kill the bad guys, and shooting bad guys them get the girl.
That makes an impression on the number 1 group who watch those movies, young folks. They hear things like this from the hero :
So, exactly what is dangerous about a gun? What can and sometimes is dangerous is the intent and purpose of the person holding the gun. As is a knife, chainsaw, car, match, or any number of other objects.
What I find amusing here is the complaint/report that half or so of those buying guns are women or various minorities. As if this should be forbidden.
So, should people panic because women, or those who are most likely to become victims of crime or tyranny are arming themselves?
my dad would make a shovel dangerous. We lived in Central Arizona, away from town, if a snake was discovered near the house he would grab the shovel before reaching for the gun. The snake seldomly survived. He reserved the ammo for larger more agile pests/dangers and harvesting game.
It all depends on the size of the snake. Here in Florida, we sometimes see boa constrictors coiled up on the street. You know, when there’s not an alligator or feral boar there. Anyway, a young boa can still take up a full traffic lane, and be thick enough to mess up your undercarriage.
Forget the shovel. That’s firearm territory right there.
I saw one once that was blocking traffic. Somebody had hit it with their car. The snake was VERY large and had already checked out of this mortal plane. Its last meal, however, out-survived the snake and was still struggling inside of it.
Unfortunately, a “good guy with a big knife” didn’t get there in time to save the li’l critter from death by oxygen deprivation.
At least he didn’t suffer the added indignity of being pooped out by the snake. Insult to injury.
Read the NYT comment section for some laughs. Here’s a good one:
I bought a weapon and ammunition to defend myself from Republican fanatics with assault weapons.
women buy guns… NY Times mystified.
I got news for ya, although women weren’t ‘traditionally’ in greater numbers among gun purchasers from gun stores… women for a long time have been gun posessors. A lot of women buy guns from other gun owners in private sales or borrow them. So there are a lot more women with guns than that indicated by sales with 4473’s.
I personally know of several women who have never purchased a gun at a gun store but own several guns each, heck I sold them some in private sales, and at three have had to use them in home defense.
My mom carried a gun, she also ran a training course teaching women how to use guns and they frequently ‘graduated’ the class and bought the gun they were loaned by my mom for the class.
So I’m pretty sure there are a lot more women out there with guns than these the NY Times suddenly seem to have discovered.
Heck, my wife carries the gun I gave her (its one she wanted, but she didn’t buy it and I did.). She also knows several women that carry guns that borrowed them or were gifted them, so never purchased them. Around, based on surveys, ~25% of the U.S. female population borrows guns to have at home or carry and around 3/4 of those have had to use those borrowed guns to protect them selves or family from, for example, violent home invasion or violent stalkers or rapists.
There are a lot of women out there with guns. I’d be willing to venture that the general population anti-gun have no idea that every day, overall nationwide, when they are out in public they encounter women, maybe multiple women, carrying a borrowed or gifted gun legally.
And its more than just women. The left-wing doesn’t want anyone not them to have guns but the left wing accepts its OK that the left wing has guns. Somehow in their minds their lives are more valuable and more worth defending than yours or your family;
Even Joe Biden has guns in his home, about 5 of them according to Hunter Biden in text messages (https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/hunter-biden-illegals-to-blame-for-tossing-his-gun-in-a-dumpster-near-a-school/#comment-6644238) – and the son of Hunters sister-in-law-turned-lover/pump-piece-when-hookers-not-avaiable has, according to Hunters text messages (see link), “There are f—ing more weapons in your sons room then in an armory,”. – these are all left-wing liberals.
And even in the anti-gun groups own ranks, for example, Shannon Watts once admitted that some women (and men) in her organization owned and carried guns. And there’s a woman that’s a member of Moms Demand Action that has appeared in a pic (protesting with MDA) with an article here at TTAG, that I know for a fact she owned an AR-15 and carries a Sig Sauer P226 and I know that because I saw her the day she purchased at the gun store about an hour after their MDA protest broke up and she still protests with MDA today. Our own local resident ex-very-rabid-anti-gun person now pro 2A and pro-gun after her life altering awakening to reality, used to work directly with Shannon Watts at times, sometimes she will see a pic of anti-gun groups protesting and point out for us which ones she knew to be gun carriers and owners of AR-15’s.
But ya never really see the left-wing talking about them owning guns AND wanting to take those guns away – its always wanting to take your guns away on the pro-2A side. We occasionally here at TTAG see a left-wing’er come out and say (e.g. in their biased and delusional articles bought forth here as part of TTAG produced articles) they own guns and we see people comment that anti-gun will take their guns too…well, I do not believe that to be true as anti-gun is not going to take the left-wing guns and that’s evidenced by their acceptance that its ok for a left-winger, even in their own anti-gun groups ranks, to have guns but they protest against your guns on the pro-2A side.
Its also evidenced by the left-wing acceptance of the very-militant and violent members of the liberal LGTBQ (and what ever alphabet letter follows that now) community having firearms – for example, notice how the left-wing tried to downplay the gender-identity factor in connection with the Nashville and Club Q mass-shootings (the Club Q shooter identified as non-binary) to make it about YOUR guns on the pro-2A side instead of the militant and violent mental illness of these members of the liberal LGTBQ (and what ever alphabet letter follows that now) community having firearms. Notice how its OK for the left-wing’s pet private army ANTIFA to have AR-15’s to ‘provide security’ for a sexualized and basically obscene pornographic drag show for small children and the left-wing anti-gun groups didn’t say a word about it but if pro-2A people show up in public carrying AR-15’s the left-wingers point to it as ‘proof’ of the cause of gun violence and all sorts of things and YOUR guns on the pro-2A side need to be taken away. And they do all this while ignoring the cause of their claimed ‘gun violence’ which are criminals and mental illness.
And now the left-wing media in the form of the New York times wants you to know that woman and minorities buy guns and its a somehow complicated and perplexing to them with a negative slant but they don’t bother to have negative slant on the left-wing having guns and anytime its comes up they direct the narrative to YOUR guns on the pro-2A side are a problem.
My wife out shoots me with her pistol. And ive heard im not the only fella that gets outshot by his lady
They are right on a few things. I really do not want to kill anyone. I will do so, if it is me or my family against the attacker.
Like other normal people, most gun owners do NOT want to do the deed, but we are resigned to it.
guns enable real humans to defend themselves from obiden voters
If NYT thinks guns are dangerous, wait until they see the number of deaths in homes and hospitals. According to the National Safety Council, 175,500 preventable accidental deaths occured in the home and communities. Estimates for hospital “misadventures” range from 100,000 to 200,000.
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