People of the LGBTQ community across the United States (US) are arming themselves over a perceived concern that they would be rounded up and placed in concentration camps under the second Trump administration, American media reported on Sunday (January 5). 

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Since Donald Trump won the November 5, 2024, presidential election, non-traditional gun groups across the US have seen a flood of interest (in purchasing firearms). 

The surge in firearm training requests 

Speaking to The Philadelphia Inquirer, a spokesperson from the Liberal Gun Club said that the group received thousands of firearm training requests since the polls, more than in all 2023 combined. 

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Also read | Rewind 2023: Did the LGBTQ movement cross the line?

The spokesperson said that about a quarter of these requests were from those in the LGBTQ community. 

The head of the Delaware Valley chapter of the gay gun group Pink Pistols said that the organisation received a sudden flurry of emails inquiring about gun training. 

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'If I can't protect myself, who will?'

Speaking to the publication, a trans woman in Glen Mills who runs a social group said, "There’s definitely a feeling among a lot of LGBT individuals: ‘If I can’t protect myself, who will."

Also read | India’s LGBTQIA+ community marks one year since the marriage equality verdict. Has anything changed? 

David Yamane, a professor of sociology at Wake Forest University said that it is difficult to track the rise or fall in gun ownership among the LGBTQ community as there are few published studies about the relatively small population. 

A dramatic shift in gun culture in recent years

However, Yamane argued that the American gun culture dramatically shifted in recent years, away from a focus on hunting and recreation and towards self-defence. 

He said that as the culture shifted, people who owned guns became far more diverse. The professor said that the year 2020 was a period of tremendous social unrest and social uncertainty. 

"And a large number of people in the United States, under those conditions, look to firearms to reestablish some sense of safety and security,” Yamane said.

He added that racial and gender minorities “led the way” in terms of new gun ownership rates in 2020 and afterwards.

(With inputs from agencies)