from
inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/gun-ownership-violence-safety-protection-philadelphia-20231205.html

Gun ownership boomed during the pandemic. Meet some of the reluctant
firearm owners.
“As a single Black mother, in the area that I live in, I just want to
protect my family,” said Tamika Murray, who purchased her first firearm
in 2018.

A shopper, left, checks the feel of a new handgun for sale at a gun show
in Pennsylvania in 2023. In 2021, the city of Philadelphia issued 52,230
new license-to-carry-permits, an increase of more than 600% from the
year prior. But a significant group within this class of new gun owners
are not gun enthusiasts, and they don’t fit the profile of a typical
American gun owner.

Staff Photographer
by Nate File and Massarah Mikati
Published Dec. 5, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET
Janice Tosto never thought she would become a gun owner, especially now
at age 58.

But over the last year, she began feeling a growing sense of lawlessness
and danger in the city and particularly in her Germantown neighborhood.
Now, she’s applying for a permit to carry a firearm.

“I’m not thrilled that I have to do this,” she said. “I’m kind of scared
about doing this, but at the same time because of the way that things
are going [with] all this lawlessness in the city, … as a Black woman, I
just feel that it’s really important for me to have all the tools
necessary to be able to defend myself.”

Tosto’s far from alone.

Since the pandemic began, gun sales and permit issuances have risen
sharply in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, matching nationwide trends. In
2021, the city issued 52,230 new license-to-carry-permits, an increase
of more than 600% from the year prior. In both 2020 and 2021, there were
more than a million gun sales or transfers across Pennsylvania.

“I’m not thrilled that I have to do this.”

Janice Tosto
While the boom of sales and permits have slowed since their pandemic
peaks, those who work in the industry attribute the increased interest
in firearm ownership to fear amid growing gun violence, as with Tosto.
In 2022, for example, 514 people were killed in homicides in
Philadelphia, the vast majority by gun.

Tyekah Dixon guides a new gun owner during a training session at the
store, Surplus Armé, that she and her husband Tom own in Chester, Pa.
The Dixons focus on proper firearm safety and deescalation techniques
during their training courses.

Tom Dixon
“We get [customers] from all over,” said Tom Dixon, a firearm trainer
and the owner of Surplus Armé, a gun store and manufacturer in Chester.
“A lot of women. Definitely a lot of women. All demographics.”

Darren Watson, owner of the security and firearm-safety training company
Born 2 Protect, said that he particularly saw an influx of Black people
buying firearms during the pandemic.

As people who grew up in communities disproportionately affected by gun
violence, Watson and Dixon are intimately familiar with the risks that
guns pose. But legal firearm ownership, they say, isn’t a risk if people
are trained on how to safely store and handle their weapons.

Darren Watson, owner of Born 2 Protect, offers gun-safety and training
classes.
Courtesy of Darren Watson
“Even for myself living in the inner city, there was a lot of
information around firearms and the Second Amendment that we just didn’t
talk about,” said Watson, who’s from West Philadelphia. “Education is
key. Education eases inquiring minds.”

But a significant group within this class of new gun owners are people
who are not excited to carry such powerful weapons. They are not gun
enthusiasts or Second Amendment hard-liners, and many of them don’t fit
Pew’s demographic profile for the typical American gun owner. Over and
over, this group articulated their growing fear for their safety in
Philadelphia, and how they felt like buying a gun was the only way left
to protect themselves.

Janice Tosto
Janice Tosto doing her radio show at G-Town community radio station in
Philly.
Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Someone was shot and killed near the laundromat where Tosto takes her
clothes. Citizen app alerts about nearby robberies and shootings make
her tense.

But it wasn’t until she read an interview with Republican mayoral
candidate David Oh in the Philadelphia Sun toward the end of his
campaign that she got serious about getting a gun. Without mentioning
statistics or specifics, Oh spoke generally about Philadelphians who are
more fearful than ever about the crime and violence in the city.

“A lot of people don’t venture out of their homes. They don’t want their
kids going outside,” he said in the interview. “A lot of people have
already purchased guns. And these are not people who love guns.”

Tosto felt like Oh was speaking directly to her; she eventually voted
for him. As she awaits approval of her license, Tosto has spent time
thinking about what it would mean to not only own a gun, but have to use
it to defend herself and possibly take another person’s life.

» READ MORE: Gun sales and permits surged during the pandemic in Philly
and Pennsylvania

“I don’t want to hurt an innocent person,” she said, being clear that
she plans to align with a gun owners group so she can learn how to
safely use and store her gun. But her own safety is too important to go
without one. “If I have to injure and potentially kill someone, I’m OK.”

Tamika Murray
Tamika Murray walked into Founding Fathers Outfitters a bundle of nerves.

She had been sitting on the idea of owning a firearm for years. She had
even applied for and received her license to own a firearm in 2013. But
Murray couldn’t bring herself to actually purchase one.

Tamika Murray got her license to carry a firearm in 2013 for safety
reasons, but it wasn't until 2018 that she finally purchased a gun.
Courtesy of Tamika Murray
“There’s a lot of trauma in our community … from firearms,” said Murray,
who is Black. “So many of us have lost brothers and cousins and uncles —
it’s been a plague.”

Guns were always taboo in Murray’s community when she was growing up.
Murray herself never expected to become a gun owner. And it wasn’t until
2018 — five years after she first received her license — that she
decided to buy her first gun, after having worked in probation and parole.

“It just opened my eyes more to saying this is a safety concern I need
to address, and I need to learn what I need to do,” Murray said. “As a
single Black mother, in the area that I live in, I just want to protect
my family.”

That’s when she went to Founding Fathers, a small gun shop in Montgomery
County. It was like trying on a pair of shoes: She had to feel the
weapon, grip the weapon, to determine whether it was right for her. She
felt empowered.

Since purchasing her firearm, Murray has been taking training classes to
increase her knowledge around gun ownership and safety. She knows gun
ownership is a catch-22 (“The same way it can help, it can hurt,” she
said.), but to Murray, education is an answer.

“If we had more education, more resources, it wouldn’t be such a strong
issue,” Murray said.

Brandon Hall
Aside from hearing the occasional gunshot or seeing people carry guns
illegally, Brandon Hall wasn’t exposed to guns — or at least legal
firearm ownership — throughout his lifetime.

But over the last few years, as gun violence has steadily increased,
Hall’s perception began to change. He’s lost many friends to gun
violence, and most recently, his younger cousin was killed at a store in
Mantua during his college break.

“I felt more secure, to be honest with you.”

Brandon Hall
That’s what Hall was thinking about when he ultimately decided to get
his license to carry in 2018, and purchase his first firearm in 2019.

“It was always more for safety for myself and my family,” Hall said. “I
felt more secure, to be honest with you.”

Since Hall got his first firearm, many of his family members started
purchasing their own, too: his wife, his mom, his brothers. He even
convinced his grandmother, who was against firearms, that legal gun
ownership was a good idea for safety.

“I think the Black community is getting more into gun ownership,” Hall
said. “With what happened during the pandemic, I think people were just
feeling less secure. All that accumulating made people want to own guns
legally, and put less taboo in the community.”

Dionne Jackson
In 2020, a person was shot and killed right in front of Dionne Jackson’s
home in Olney. Her children, then 10 and 4 years old, saw the body lying
in the street.

“My children lived with that,” Jackson said.

» READ MORE: Do crime-tracking apps help or harm communities? | Pro/Con

Jackson started fearing more and more for her own safety, too. There was
looting in Olney not far from where Jackson lived, and her Citizen app
kept buzzing about home break-ins. A year later, a woman was raped
inside the bathroom of the Center City Macy’s, even while her husband
was waiting for her in the store. It shocked Jackson.