Gwendolyn Patton of Pk Pistols says the group chang the perceptn that gay people are easy victims. “We teach queers to shoot then we teach the rt of the world we’ve done . Becuase then they may thk twice about g them as a target.“
Contents:
- PK PISTOLS: LGBT GUN OWNERS UNE ARMG GAY COMMUNY
- STRAIGHT SHOOTERS: MEET THE GAY GUN-RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
- JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN IS FIRST AMERIN MALE PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
PK PISTOLS: LGBT GUN OWNERS UNE ARMG GAY COMMUNY
Meet Pk Pistols, the natnal gay group dited to armg the LGBT muny and fightg homophobia wh firepower – or at least the threat of * gay gun owner *
Meet natnal gay group dited to fightg homophobia wh firepower – and why they thk gay rights and gun rights are a natural f. But I felt nfint my teacher, Jeff Bloovman, a Philalphia gun stctor and a member of the Pk Pistols, an LGBT group based around the belief that guns n go a long way batg homophobia.
A small, loosely anized group of a few dozen chapters sttered across the stat and Canada, cludg Toronto, San Francis and Charlton, South Carola, the Pk Pistols’ membership has climbed om around 1, 500 earlier this month to about 6, 500 sce the June day Omar Mateen attacked the Pulse nightclub, turng the dance floor to a killg field and crashg together two culture war battlegrounds that rarely nverge: gays and guns. While the majory of LGBT people seem to be llg for more regulatn, Pk Pistols and their alli are hunkerg down and takg up arms, bandg together unr the group’s motto, a nontatnal warng to potential gay-bashers: “Pick on someone your own liber.
STRAIGHT SHOOTERS: MEET THE GAY GUN-RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
* gay gun owner *
The Pk Pistols formed around 2000, after gay journalist Jonathan Rch – still outraged by Matthew Shepard’s 1998 murr, and knowg gay men who stopped attacks wh guns – published an article on Salon. “[Gays] should set up Pk Pistols task forc, sponsor shootg urs and help homosexuals get licensed to rry, ” he wrote, notg that they should do a way to garner as much publicy as possible.
“Pk pistols, ” he wrote, “would do far more for the self-teem of the next generatn of gay men and women than any number of hate-crime laws or anti-discrimatn statut. Rch went on: “If beme wily known that homosexuals rry guns and know how to e them, not many bullets would need to be fired.
In fact, not all that many gay people would need to rry guns, as long as gay-bashers uldn’t tell which on did. ” Jt knowg that a gay person uld have a gun would ter a potential attacker.
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN IS FIRST AMERIN MALE PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
As Rch has nced, same-sex marriage, the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and other ton have empowered LGBT people, but remas that anti-gay attacks, like anti-Amerin attacks, n be vised upon at anytime. (Rch even ed the word “low-level terrorism” to scribe homophobic attacks like the one that end Matthew Shepherd’s life. ) LGBT people know that each new space needs to be navigated litely, lt our mere existence enrage some homophobe.
Now, wh Omar Mateen, Amerins are all too aware how anti-gay vlence n explo randomly, terrifygly, and sr more than jt LGBT people.
Founr Doug Krick tablished the group after readg a 2000 Salon article by gay journalist Jonathan Rch, who was sickened by a seri of hate crim agast the LGBT muny, cludg the murr of Matthew Shepard. “In those stat, homosexuals should embark on anized efforts to bee fortable wh guns, learn to e them safely and rry them. They should set up Pk Pistols task forc, sponsor shootg urs and help homosexuals get licensed to rry....