Meet Some of America’s Newest Gun Owners

“[Anna] Kolanowski, a 28-year-old epidemiologist in Iowa, had once believed that no one needed to own a gun.

“But when she came out as transgender in 2021, and began transitioning from male to female, she had a realization: ‘I’m a minority now, in a world that is pretty hostile to that minority.’

“In 2022, Ms. Kolanowski bought a Glock 43X handgun and started learning how to use it.

“In hours of conversations with New York Times journalists, these five Americans shared deeply individual reasons for their leaps into gun ownership. But there were also common threads: new fears about political violence and hate crimes, and a diminished trust in law enforcement.”