The 2020s got off to a wild start, with pandemic lockdowns, runs on goods, medical equipment, and food, and a general feeling of unease. Gun purchases, particularly among first-time gun owners, reportedly surged as people discovered that their fellow man might not be as benevolent and well-wishing as they’d hoped, while law enforcement was forced to scale back their services.
Among all this, reports of hate crimes against minorities, particularly in the Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, shot up to record levels. Driven partly by animosity against those perceived to be from China (which drew significant public ire, rightly or wrongly, due to its apparent role in being the birthplace of the pandemic), partly by generalized fear and anxiety over the blossoming global medical crisis, and entirely by ignorance and hate, the headlines were impossible to ignore.
As a poorly represented segment of the gun-owning public and a demographic not famous for being enamored with firearms (with some obvious exceptions), there was a lot of well-founded fear in the AAPI community. Groups like the Asian Pacific American Gun Owners Association rose to help bridge the sociocultural gap and bring this demographic into the gun-owning fold. We spoke with Chris Cheng (cofounder of APAGOA, and an already prominent figure in both the gun and LGBTQ+ world, who’s well versed in preaching the gospel of self-defense to underserved demographics)
