Name: Rosario: This interesting boom in gun ownership
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Rosario: This interesting boom in gun ownership

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The firearm-safety instructor went around the room the other day at a west-metro gun store asking the class why they were there.“With everything going on, I bought one and I figured I should take a class,” said a man.“My wife said we should get a gun for the house and I figured I better learn how to use it with all the stuff going on,” said another.“My home was broken into and I want to learn,” said a Black middle-aged woman.Then the instructor asked how many wanted to also take a permit-to-carry class.Hands shot up.“It used to be that only one or two hands would go up,” he said “Now, it’s one or two people who don’t want to do it.”Whether it’s rational or irrational fear due to the pandemic, rioting, civil unrest, economic instability, another election cycle or a rise in violent crime in some areas or the perception of it, America seems to be arming itself like never before in recent memory.Permit-to-carry and other firearms-related classes in the Twin Cities and across the nation are booked. There’s been a months-long run on popular handguns and ammo, creating a shortage rivaling that of toilet paper and hand sanitizers earlier this year.“Out of stock” is the common refrain.In June, the month after the May 25 police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked peaceful protests as well as burning and looting, a record 3.9 million Americans underwent FBI background checks to purchase or possess firearms. The previous monthly record? Roughly 3.7 million checks in March. As the FBI noted in a recent report, seven of the 10 largest background-check weeks since the National Instant Criminal Background Check System began operations in 1998 have taken place this year.“It’s gone absolutely bonkers,” Kevin Vick, chief operating officer of the Stock and Barrel Gun Club, which has locations in Eagan and Chanhassen, said, talking about shortages and the uptick in class-takers.“At this point, 80 to 90 percent taking the classes are first-timers, except for those renewing their (carry) permits,” he explained. “They include some business owners who were looted, a woman who was carjacked … there’s a lot going on in the cities that just isn’t making the news.”He also noted another&nbsp;class and gun ownership trend: “We are seeing a lot of people of color and females.”Louis Dennard can attest to that. The IT consultant, Army medic veteran,&nbsp;Edina resident&nbsp;and&nbsp;father of three&nbsp;founded the three years ago.“We’ve trained about 50 people in the past 60 days,” Dennard said. The club, which also has non-Black members, serves as the local chapter for the Atlanta-basedThe national group&nbsp;has more than 30,000 members with 75 chapters across the nation. Approximately 60 percent of its members are female, according to&nbsp;a NAAGA spokesperson.Dennard’s club, which Vick welcomed to shoot and meet at the Stock and Barrel ranges, recently launched an initiative to sponsor and bankroll firearms classes for single mothers.One of the recipients is club member Khadijah Ramadan. The clinical psychology therapy intern grew up in a North Minneapolis household where her father owned firearms but her mother detested them.“We&nbsp;weren’t allowed to even have water pistols,” Ramadan recalled during a recent chat. “My father was the head of the household but&nbsp;my mother was the ruler. She instilled the fear of God in me.”But Ramadan’s attitude changed after a domestic-violence incident during her second marriage.“I never had fear&nbsp;until I became a single mom out by myself,” she said.She joined after learning about the club in a Facebook post, unaware that her father, Matthew Ramadan, was already a member.“I learned so much about guns,” she told me. “I want women like me to know that we as women need to be able to protect the home as well. I don’t ever want to have that fear again of ‘I may not live through this because I don’t know how to protect myself.’ ”Her 64-year-old father, who was born in North Minneapolis but grew up in Los Angeles until he returned to attend the University of Minnesota in 1974, came from a hunting family. He was 2 when his late grandfather gave him a .22-caliber rifle, which he still has.He learned about the club following the Floyd killing as rumors were circulating about outsiders coming to North Minneapolis, his home turf, to “destroy stuff.”“These weren’t protesters,”&nbsp;he said. “They were using them as cover.”Dennard, Matthew Ramadan, fellow club member Connor Daine and others patrolled the streets in front of mostly Black-owned businesses one night and watched as drivers of pickup trucks and other vehicles, some with no plates or out-of-state plates, passed by and left.“Their jaws were dropping,” Dennard said of the store owners. “To see somebody that looks like them, with a gun, who is not a criminal, protecting their interests … it was a culture shock in a sense.”“What you have to understand is that gun ownership has been a part of the African-American community since at least the Civil War era,” explained club member and retired small-business consultant Greg Hill of South Minneapolis. “This is not a new phenomenon.”Hill, like Ramadan and Dennard, cite the election of President Donald Trump, his divisive rhetoric, and the increase in white supremacist groups and incidents as other factors in the rise in gun-ownership interest. And don’t mention the National Rifle Association, which they feel has given lip service to gun owners of color, supported an open-carry ban in California only after the emergence of the Black Panthers movement in the 1960s, and stayed silent following the 2016 fatal police shooting of Philando Castile, a permit-to-carry owner, during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights.“It was once a multi-cultural organization that reached into the community and promoted firearm safety,” said Hill. “It wasn’t the right-wing-wacko organization that it is today.”For Dennard, gun ownership, whatever other good reasons for it, comes down to self-defense.“My mission is to get home to my family every day,” he said. “Having a gun is like car insurance. You don’t jump into your car every day and say, ‘I’m going to get my money’s worth out of my car insurance today.’ Well, you don’t grab a gun and say, ‘I’m going to use this today.’ But it’s there when you need it.”PrintThanks for reading!Get unlimited access to enjoy this article and moreAlready a subscriber? LoginView more on

The firearm-safety instructor went around the room the other day at a west-metro gun store asking the class why they were there.“With everything going on, I bought one and I figured I should take a class,” said a man.“My wife said we should get a gun for the house and I figured I better learn how to use it with all the stuff going on,” said another.“My home was broken into and I want to learn,” said a Black middle-aged woman.Then the instructor asked how many wanted to also take a permit-to-carry class.Hands shot up.“It used to be that only one or two hands would go up,” he said “Now, it’s...

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Rubén Rosario

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Twin Cities news, sports, politics, entertainment and business from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Minnesota's first newspaper.

Rosario: This interesting boom in gun ownership

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