A Tool to Defend Yourself

Salena Zito: For many, owning a gun was taboo. Now they’re buying them.

This follows, for the most part, one man's journey from anti-gun to gun owner.

The first time David picked up a gun to learn how to use it — this time for protection — was five years ago, when he went to a range a few weeks after Robert Bowers walked into the Tree of Life synagogue and killed 11 people who had gathered to worship not far from David’s home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

He took a class, and considered buying a firearm, but he didn't. Then October 2023 rolled around.

Then Oct. 7 happened — and everything else that went with it in the following days and weeks, like the brazen antisemitic graffiti splattered on the front wall of Allderdice High School and throughout the Summerset neighborhood, as well as the tire slashings, the defacing and burning of lawn signs that support Israel, and the woman using a hammer to hit the window of Marvista Design where a sign read “We Stand With Israel.”

Antisemitism has skyrocketed since 7 October.

Last month, the Anti-Defamation League reported antisemitic incidents in the United States rose by about 400% in the first two weeks alone after the war broke out. By the end of October, that number hit an average of 28 a day — and is still climbing.

And people who previously didn't think about owning a firearm, now realize that they might need to protect themselves.

That was reflected in background checks for firearms in October.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation reports over 1.3 million gun checks, an 8.3% increase over the same period in 2022.

There is more. A gun instructor who is running classes in the community, and even taught one free class as an act of giving back. And the quote from the movie Shane that gave rise to the title to this post.

Instead, [Shane] says it’s “a tool, like a shovel or a hammer or an axe. It’s not bad in and of itself; it’s what you do with it.”

There is also an interesting discussion how firearms weren't always a Republican thing. Do you think autoworkers in Ohio or Michigan might have gone hunting in the fall? Click thru. (Hat tip to Slow Facts)