People tend to buy guns when the future looks uncertain or when society around them crumbles. We all tend to prize safety, even if too few Americans these days cherish Liberty. With Democrats in control of Washington once again, it could mean more records for gun sales.

Indeed, 2021 is keeping pace with 2020. “So far this year, there have been over 30 million checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System,” reports the Washington Examiner. “In 2020, there was a total of 39,615,395 checks.”

For obvious reasons, last year set a record. A global pandemic and a big presidential election had folks on edge. Violent crime and murder spiked tremendously with Black Lives Matter riots and other leftist-inspired social violence, which was followed by subsequent leftist efforts to defund the police. People bought more guns for security.

So far this year, that gun-buying trend has continued, and amidst it all there are some big ironies.

First of all, when you have prominent Democrats saying things like, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15,” it makes many Americans suddenly want an AR-15. When a Democrat president nominates a gun grabber to head up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, it motivates gun buyers. (That nomination failed, by the way, but gun owners should still beware.) As society seems more dangerous, Democrats have demonized the law-abiding citizen. Those citizens are now buying more handguns for personal protection.

This was true during Barack Obama’s presidency, and it’s true during Joe Biden’s.

Another irony is that the biggest driver in the increase of firearms purchases is not white men. “Close to half of all new U.S. gun buyers since the beginning of 2019 have been women,” reports The Wall Street Journal. The Journal adds that the academic 2021 National Firearms Survey revealed more intriguing data: “Among new gun buyers, 55% were white, 21% were Black and 19% were Hispanic. Among new women gun owners, 28% were Black.”

They might not even be Republicans. The Journal highlighted a female sociology professor who was worried about Donald Trump’s supporters. Many of those minorities aren’t necessarily GOP converts, either; they’re just alarmed by the fact that Black Lives Matter violence ended up meaning 5,839 blacks were killed last year — 2,244 more than the previous year.

On a final note, leftists often blame guns for the rise in crime, but gun sales have been increasing for nearly 30 years while crime has, until 2020, gone in the opposite direction. That has to do with the hundreds of thousands if not millions of times guns are used for self-defense.