Frank Langfitt

This is a Smith & Wesson 380.

And then my next gun will be a Glock.

And I already have a shotgun.

So this is a task I would stumble over.

Putting the bullets in.

Great to be here, Aisha.

Yeah, you know, Aisha, for years, really decades, the stereotypical image of American gun owners has been white, rural, and Republican.

And Charles, he's none of those things.

He's Black, liberal, and lives in the suburbs.

Charles did not buy guns illegally.

for some of the typical reasons we usually think of, like hunting or self-defense against random crime.

Instead, he's bought guns because he's afraid of some of President Trump's policies and what some of his supporters might do.

He told me over Trump's second term, he's seen a lot of things that scared him.

The arrest of a foreign student who criticized your university's policy on Israel.

And the handcuffing of a U.S.

senator.

Charles worries that ordinary citizens like him could eventually be targeted.

That civil unrest that you expect would be triggered by the president or the administration through rhetoric?

I did more than 30 interviews over seven months, and I talked to new gun owners, people who help run gun clubs for those on the political left, as well as firearms trainers and academic researchers.

And Aisha, I found a lot of evidence that more liberals, people of color like Charles, and LGBTQ folks are buying guns out of fear.