Several niche, left-leaning gun advocacy groups said that since the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, they can hardly keep up with the surging demand for firearms training.
With Donald Trump sending armed federal agents into communities around the country, even more once gun-shy liberals and leftists are considering getting armed.
And while Americans tend to think of gun owners as leaning more Republican and male, already more women, gay people and people of color have taken up arms in recent years, particularly after 2020.
I fundamentally disagree with this as an effective tool for building a mass movement that is necessary for the change we want to foment. We cannot achieve these goals by beginning our fight as a fractured base - this is why political education is such an important part of the process in organizing new people into these movements. Not a single person raised in liberal society popped out of the womb as a leftist - every one of us had someone pull us into this fight in one way or another and kick start our development as political actors. As people able to do that for others now I see it as our duty to do so.