Are you gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT)? Do you also like guns? Do you often find that your LGBT friends aren’t very enthusiastic about your interest in firearms? Do you often find that your gun friends aren’t very enthusiastic about your sexual orientation or identity? You can finally enjoy the best of both worlds because the Twin Cities has its own Pink Pistols chapter:
If you’re gay, it sometimes can be difficult to tell friends that you’re also a gun owner.
Mark Steiger describes it as “coming out of the gun safe.”
If you’re for both gay rights and gun rights, Steiger runs an organization you might want to join.
He’s head of the Twin Cities chapter of the Pink Pistols, a shooting group open to people of any sexual orientation that encourages gun ownership among the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
It’s part social group, part gun-safety education provider and part advocacy organization devoted to preserving the rights of gays to protect themselves with firearms if necessary.
Making the gun owner community more inclusive is something I’ve touched on before. At one point the gun owner community was stereotyped as being a bunch of middle aged overweight white guys. That image is changing, especially as many of the old curmudgeon social conservatives die off. I greatly appreciate groups such as the Pink Pistols. They’re expanding the ranks of gun owners, which is always good in my book. More specifically they’re bringing people into the community that face higher than average rates of violence because there are still a lot of bigoted assholes out there who want to hurt them, which means they absolutely need a means of self-defense.
If you’re a member of the LGBT community, or just a friend, join them for one of their events.
Buy ’em while you still can, everybody! Especially you marginalized groups. Especially women, too: nothing like an equalizer if you’re up against a criminal brute or two. I don’t fear normal people with guns, or even (particularly) private criminals with guns. I fear government thugs with guns, especially if they’re set in opposition to an unarmed populace.