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Blue Ridge Arsenal Gun Store

Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty

A new report shows that Black women are taking the lead among new gun owners in the Black community.

Black women are buying more guns than ever before as a means of protection against domestic violence, the Associated Press reports.

“It’s important, especially for black women, to learn how to shoot,” said Marchelle “Tig” Tigner, a survivor of domestic violence who trains women on firing guns. “We need to learn how to defend ourselves.”

Although most states don’t track gun ownership by race or gender, a recent study by John Lott found that Black women have became the largest demographic obtaining concealed carry permits in Texas between 2000 and 2016. The numbers show that they were actually getting more of these permits than any other racial or gender group in that state.

To put it in perspective, The Pew Research Center released another study, which showed that only 16 percent of non-White women pegged themselves as gun owners. About 25 percent of White women identified themselves as gun owners.

Another Pew Research survey showed a marked increase of acceptance of gun ownership among Black Households. In 2012, less than a third of Black homes had a positive view of gun ownership. That number jumped 59 percent by 2015, when more of those homes saw owning a gun as an essential.

There is speculation that the current political climate may have had a hand in this shift.

“Regardless of what side you’re on, in the fabric of society right now, there’s an undertone, a tension that you see that groups you saw on the fringes 20 years ago are now in the open,” National African American Gun Association Founder Philip Smith told the AP. “It seems to me it’s very cool to be a racist right now, it’s in fashion, it’s a trend.”

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Black Women Are Buying More Guns Than Ever  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com