Why conservatives love guns so much

Conservative pundit and activist Charlie Kirk was a staunch advocate for guns, even arguing in 2023 that “some gun deaths” were worthwhile “so that we can have the Second Amendment.” 

On Wednesday, he was shot and killed, highlighting the ongoing and uniquely American problem with gun violence—emboldened by the right’s long love affair with guns.

Most Americans support the Second Amendment right to own guns, but they simultaneously back regulations to preserve public safety. A 2024 Morning Consult poll found that the extremist pro-gun stance of the Republican Party is out of touch not only with most Americans, but even among Americans who are gun owners themselves.

For instance, President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign called for cutting federal funding for research into gun violence research. Only 33% of voters supported this idea, alongside 44% of Trump voters and 43% of gun owners. 

Similarly, Trump’s idea to limit state gun laws, end gun violence prevention programs, and reduce support for community gun violence prevention programs had low levels of support among the voting public—33% and under.

The American public’s support for gun regulations might have been heightened by the right’s stomach-turning habit of prioritizing guns over lives. 

In 2013, after a gun control bill died in the Senate, President Barack Obama comforted the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting where 20 children between the ages of six and seven were murdered alongside six adult staff members. 

In an ad posted online by the Republican National Committee, Obama was mocked with a voiceover claiming that his second term was a failure after 100 days.

“Maybe I should just pack up and go home,” it said.

And several years later, Fox News mocked Obama for crying about the loss of innocent lives at Sandy Hook.

Republicans have embraced their role as gun extremists, which has been rewarded with millions in support from the scandal-plagued National Rifle Association.

During the 2024 election cycle, the NRA spent more than $10 million to elect Republicans—though that’s a considerable decline from the nearly $30 million it spent during the 2020 cycle.

NRA spending was likely down due to a series of scandals, including infiltration by a Russian intelligence asset and millions of dollars allegedly spent by former leader Wayne LaPierre.

Trump has been a staunch NRA ally, trading in early endorsements in favor of a lax approach to gun laws and regulatory efforts meant to increase the flow of guns throughout the country. 

Though, after the Aug. 27 shooting in Minneapolis, Trump and the NRA found something to disagree on when the Trump administration floated the idea of denying gun rights to transgender people.

But the ties between the right and guns go much deeper than NRA money.

Conservatism embraces gun culture as an attempt to control things. Much like right-wing fear of diverse cities, conservatism asserts gun rights—despite the threat to public safety—because guns are seen as a way to control things. The right has a deep-seated issue with growing gender and racial diversity, so guns are seen as a way to keep that in check.

After Obama was elected the first Black president in U.S. history, ammunition and gun sales soared.

Gun culture figures like Ted Nugent, who was an NRA board member, advocated for guns while pushing racist rhetoric and calling for figures like Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be hanged. This was part of the right’s attempt to assert control over a country that it believes has gotten out of control.

At the same time, conservatives have used guns to position themselves as underdogs. In 2020, Nugent posted a meme making the ridiculous comparison between the “need” to own an AR-15 assault rifle and civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, who defiantly sat in the front of a segregated bus.

Guns are also used by the right to reinforce a culture of faux machismo. Many on the right believe that owning and using guns is a display of strength, while they deride purported feminine weakness from groups like Moms Demand Action for opposing gun violence.

Up until the early 2000s, Democrats were often fearful of advocating for gun safety. It was long believed that the NRA war chest was not worth opposing. But after multiple mass shootings—particularly at Sandy Hook—combined with evidence of the NRA’s political weakness, the party has stepped up.

President Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022, and while the law did not go as far as many wanted, it did provide funding for gun violence prevention and added new federal programs to cut down on gun violence. 

Currently, the Trump administration is working to undo many of the changes from that law, which will likely lead to more gun deaths.

Death from gun violence is down from its height during the coronavirus pandemic, but there were still more than 16,700 gun-related deaths in 2024. So far in 2025, the Gun Violence Archive has catalogued more than 10,300 gun deaths.

Charlie Kirk is one of them. And the right still loves their guns.