Straight Shooters: Meet the Gay Gun-Rights Activists - The Atlantic</tle><meta name="scriptn" ntent="It&#39;s not jt macho Bible thumpers who treasure their Send Amendment rights."/><meta property="kx:tle" ntent="Straight Shooters: Meet the Gay Gun-Rights Activists - The Atlantic"/><meta property="kx:scriptn" ntent="It&#39;s not jt macho Bible thumpers who treasure their Send Amendment rights."/><lk rel="nonil" href="><lk rel="image_src" href="><meta name="thor" ntent="Mar Cogan, Natnal Journal"/><lk rel="ia:markup_url" href="><meta property="article:publisher" ntent="><meta property="article:opn" ntent="false"/><meta property="article:ntent_tier" ntent="metered"/><meta property="article:tag" ntent="sex"/><meta property="article:sectn" ntent="Polics"/><meta property="article:published_time" ntent="2014-08-06T16:00:00Z"/><meta property="article:modified_time" ntent="2014-08-06T16:00:13Z"/><meta name="robots" ntent="x, follow, max-image-preview:large"/><meta property="og:tle" ntent="Straight Shooters: Meet the Gay Gun-Rights Activists"/><meta property="og:scriptn" ntent="It&#39;s not jt macho Bible thumpers who treasure their Send Amendment rights."/><meta property="og:url" ntent="><meta property="og:type" ntent="article"/><meta property="og:image" ntent="><meta property="twter:rd" ntent="summary_large_image"/><lk rel="alternate" type="applitn/rss+xml" tle="The Atlantic" href="/feed/all/"/><lk rel="alternate" type="applitn/rss+xml" tle="Bt of The Atlantic" href="/feed/bt-of/"/><meta name="referrer" ntent="unsafe-url"/><meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-pable" ntent="y"/><meta name="apple-mobile-web-stat-bar-style" ntent="black"/><meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-tle" ntent="The Atlantic"/><meta name="keywords" ntent="pk pistols, gun rights, gun owners, gay gun enthiasts, gay people, Cheng, gay muny, Big Gay Al, proment gay marksman, gay Republin anizatn" emID="#keywords"/><meta name="news_keywords" ntent="pk pistols, gun rights, gun owners, gay gun enthiasts, gay people, Cheng, gay muny, Big Gay Al, proment gay marksman, gay Republin anizatn"/><meta name="" ntent="polics,sex,natnal-journal"/><meta name="" ntent="Mar Cogan, Natnal Journal"/><meta name="" ntent="2014-08-06T16:00:00Z"/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><script type="applitn/ld+json">{"@ntext":","@type":"NewsArticle","headle":"Straight Shooters: Meet the Gay Gun-Rights Activists","alternativeHeadle":"Straight Shooters: Meet the Gay Gun-Rights Activists","scriptn":"It&#39;s not jt macho Bible thumpers who treasure their Send Amendment rights.","url":","datePublished":"2014-08-06T16:00:00Z","dateModified":"2014-08-06T16:00:13Z","isAccsibleForFree":false,"hasPart":{"@type":"WebPageElement","isAccsibleForFree":false,"cssSelector":".article-ntent-body"},"publisher":{"@id":"},"maEntyOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"},"image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","width":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":720},"height":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":405},"url":"},{"@type":"ImageObject","width":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":1080},"height":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":1080},"url":"},{"@type":"ImageObject","width":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":1200},"height":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":900},"url":"},{"@type":"ImageObject","width":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":1600},"height":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":900},"url":"},{"@type":"ImageObject","width":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":960},"height":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":540},"url":"},{"@type":"ImageObject","width":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":540},"height":{"@type":"QuantativeValue","unCo":"E37","value":540},"url":"}],"thor":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mar Cogan","sameAs":"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Natnal Journal","sameAs":"}],"articleSectn":"Polics"}</script><lk rel="preload" as="image" href=" imageSrcSet=" 750w, 828w, 960w, 976w, 1952w" imageSiz="(m-width: 976px) 976px, 100vw"/><meta name="next-head-unt" ntent="61"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-g=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-p=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-p=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-p=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-p=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href="><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href="><noscript data-n-css=""></noscript><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/></head><body><div id="__next"><div data-tegory="story page"><div></div><nav class="Nav_root___6bX9" aria-labelledby="se-navigatn" data-tegory="Se Nav" data-event-module="se nav" id="ma-navigatn"><div class="Nav_maNav__yofcm"><a href="#ma-ntent" class="Nav_skipLk__Evjjd">Skip to ntent</a><h2 id="se-navigatn" class="Nav_visuallyHi__AbSDF">Se Navigatn</h2><div class="Nav_flexContaer__Q3LKQ"><ul class="Nav_leftContaer__cPQgJ"><li class="Nav_navListItem__cEyWT Nav_visuallyHiOnMobile__hxCGG"><a href=" class="Nav_navLk__5SUAA"><svg xmlns=" viewBox="0 0 87.83 134" class="Nav_bigA__XvGGC"><tle>The Atlantic

gay gun group

At a lol shootg range, the 23-year-old print of the Salt Lake Cy chapter of Pk Pistols, a natnal lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr gun club, helps a tattooed member improve his marksmanship.

Contents:

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 group *

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. 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.

GETTG TO KNOW THE GUN-LOVG GAYS, JEWS AND MOTHERS OF AMERI

'Don't attack gay people bee that uld be a really bad cisn,' Pk Pistols lear says after what may prove a fleetg ncealed rry victory. * gay gun group *

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.

STRAIGHT SHOOTERS: MEET THE GAY GUN-RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

* gay gun group *

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.

GAY GUN GROUP BELIEV ITS D.C. COURT W PUTS HOMOPHOB ON NOTICE

Explore gay Mosw wh Mr Hudson. The bt of Mosw for the discerng gay man. Where to sleep, eat, drk, shop and play. * gay gun group *

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.

U.S. GAY GUN GROUP'S MEMBERSHIP SURG AFTER ORLANDO KILLGS

Now, wh Omar Mateen, Amerins are all too aware how anti-gay vlence n explo randomly, terrifygly, and sr more than jt LGBT people.

The mottos of the Pk Pistols say all: “Armed Gays Don’t Get Bashed” and “We Teach Queers to Shoot and We Teach the World We Did It.

AT THE SHOOTG RANGE WH THE PK PISTOLS, A GAY GUN GROUP

The motto on their Facebook page stat: “Not gay as happy, but queer as fuck you. “We regnize that the LGBTQ body is unr attack, It’s always been unr attack, ” said John Grwiler, one of the prcipal anizers of Gays Agast Guns (GAG) a New York-based “clive direct actn group of LGBTQ people and their alli mted to nonvlently breakg the gun dtry’s cha of ath.

That’s not a world I want to live or a world we, Gays Agast Guns, want to support. “People are adults, they n make their own choic, But we’re not gog to get volved a turf war between Pk Pistols and Gays Agast Guns, ” said Grwiler. While Obama tri to work out how gun laws uld change, some of his most vol opposn has e om the least expected parts of Amerin society: gay people, Jews, even mothers and grandmothers.

GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

Ken is a foundg member of the Hoton chapter of the Pk Pistols, the natnwi pro-gun group for gay people.

Their motto: “Armed Gays Don’t Get Bashed. “Every summer here Hoton there are people, mostly high school kids, who will e down here and harass gay people, ” says Ken, 62, his Texan drawl.

”The Pk Pistols’ philosophy is simple – if more gay people knew how to handle guns, and if gay people had a reputatn for beg able to fend themselv physilly, then they’d be ls likely to be picked on the first place. The problem is the prenceptn homophobic thugs have about them.

GAY MOSW · CY GUI

But, Ken says, ’s a prenceptn gay people often share, too. “You have a lot of groupthk a lot of gay anisatns. If you’re gay, you are non-vlent, you’re a liberal.

We don’t re if you’re gay or straight. The first thg he did after his victory was take some of the $100, 000 prize money and upgra his Natnal Rifle Associatn membership to lifetime, last year, Cheng took to his blog to announce he was gay. But he wanted people to see that gun owners were a diverse set of people—and who better than a gay, racially diverse, tech-geek-turned-champn-marksman to liver the msage?

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY GUN GROUP

Gay Gui To Mosw, Travel Safely In Gay-Friendly Areas & Districts - Mr Hudson.

TOP