No need for new weaponry here. We have Pluto the Watch-Spaniel, who will warn us if insurrectionists, antifa or intifaddists stage a frontal assault (he’s currently practicing on Amazon and UPS delivery people).
I considered it towards the beginning of the pandemic last year. Wasn’t quite sure how things would go. Didn’t really think that we were facing the end of civilization as we know it, but at the same time, wasn’t entirely confident that things wouldn’t fall apart.
But, if it comes to that, plenty of my friends have more guns than they have hands to hold them in, and will be happy to have me join them in their post apocalyptic survival game.
I won’t deny there are plenty of those people out there, would seemed to be looking for a LARP of the Stand. 
It did strike me as funny that it seemed the most violent individuals during the last 2 years were the rabid anti-maskers and insurrectionists, who tended to be those who were the ones who were traditional gun-huggers.
Which brings us back to the OP and the non-traditional purchasers. So we have had quite a few considered, and 3-4 who did among family and friends. And I was very glad to hear that the vast majority of those who did took safety/CCW courses.
Another, but much more detailed article on the changing groups supporting gun ownership, and yes, mostly for the reasons we were worried about - protection from hate crime, distrust in cops, etc.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/18/business/gun-control-debate-women-minorities/index.html
Actually worth reading, and it points out as to why they are against some gun control legislation, in that in many examples, it is disproportionately applied to POC
Those common-ground issues include opposing county pistol permit laws in states like North Carolina, where a recent University of North Carolina Law School study found Black Wake County residents in and around the city of Raleigh were nearly three times less likely to have a handgun license applications approved as their White counterparts.
The point that seems clear is one that has applied to the few people who have mentioned friends/family buying firearms during these few years (well, other than us hobbyists)
“The party lines just fall away when it becomes an issue of family or personal safety,” said Kelly Ann Pidgeon, a licensed firearms safety instructor and DC Project member who trains women at her Armed and Feminine gun range in Western Pennsylvania.
So yes, it seems to focus on fear, not a hopeful thought. I’m still holding out hope that if we as a nation can get our act together and once again consider working together rather than endlessly bickering, we might end up with everyone be willing to look at firearm safety from a POV where we’re not indulging in traditional power fantasies or as a tool to protect themselves from those who use such tools to oppress them. I guess that makes me an optimist, but it doesn’t make me feel like cheering.
I’ve owned one gun or another for probably 65 years. It was the norm in Alaska way before the NRA became a bunch of assholes. The only ones I have now are a .22 bolt action rifle my brother gave me when I was 12, and a Sig Sauer .22LR semi-auto pistol (Mosquito) that I bought about ten years ago and have never fired. I take the latter with me on RV trips.
I have no idea whether any friends or family have bought guns, and it wouldn’t occur to me to ask, since it’s none of my business.