Posted on 08/07/2008 5:17:57 PM PDT by marktwain
In a recent 5-4 ruling, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own a gun for personal use. While the debate will continue to go on about whether the Second Amendment really means that American citizens only have the right to bear arms in connection with service in a well-regulated militia as referenced in the amendment or we have the right to keep a loaded handgun for self-defense, right now this is the law of the land. For those American citizens who reside in congested crime-ridden urban areas riddled with drug and gang warfares, as I do, this recent ruling brings a heightened concern about personal safety. But this ruling also brings a heightened concern about personal safety for those of us who rely on hate-crimes laws to protect us from the bigoted actions by our fellow citizens.
“I can see some crazed fool come into a bar where gays hang out or my homeys and shoot the hell out of us,” Adam Williams told me. Williams is an African-American transman who has been the victim of both gay-bashing and racial violence. Feeling more vulnerable than ever in his life with this recent Supreme Court ruling Williams tell me he's going to carrying a gun with him.
“Ain't nothing out here to protect you now. I don't trust the cops ‘cause they beat the shit out of you with other officers watching,” said Williams, referring to the news about the cop beatdown of Duanna Johnson, an African-American transwoman, in a Memphis booking room that was captured on a surveillance video. “I'd be stupid not to go packing now.”
Williams lives in Oakland, just outside of San Francisco, and he's going to check out the San Francisco chapter of Pink Pistols. As a national organization that encourages the LGBT community to arm itself to prevent hate crimes, the Pink Pistols are also a social gun club. On the San Francisco Pink Pistols Web site, it invites the community to learn how to shoot:
“We are a group of primarily gay shooters, who are welcoming to all. One need not be an experienced shooter, nor own a firearm. So if you are interested in learning to shoot in a non-threatening gay friendly environment ( one member is a certified firearm instructor ) then click on for the date of our next shoot.“
Pink Pistols brandishes the mottos “Armed gays don't get bashed” and “Pick on someone your own caliber.”
The group's message is a hot-button issue swirling in the LGBTQ community: Can gun-toting solve gay-bashing?
“They're trying to get urban gays and lesbians to not be afraid of the one instrument that, when used properly and legally, can save their lives,” Jeff Soyer, a Pistols member of the Vermont chapter, told Alternate 101.
Libertarian activist Douglas Krick founded Pink Pistols in the anti-gun town of Boston. Although Pink Pistols have 48 chapters in 32 states and 2 countries, it not well received here in Boston, one of the most gay-friendly but top crime-ridden cities in the country.
“I don't believe arming ourselves is a sustainable response to a subculture of hate towards homosexuality. We are not going to settle our scores as a community by having a shoot-out at the OK Corral,” stated Sue Hyde of the Boston office of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to the Southern Voices in 2002.
But Jonathan Rauch, the gay journalist whose headline article in the March 13, 2000, Salon Magazine Pink Pistols borrowed its name from, thinks differently. And he illustrated his point by reminding us of the 1998 killing of Mathew Shepard.
“Shepard was small, helpless and childlike. He never had a chance. This made him a sympathetic figure of a sort that is comfortingly familiar to straight Americans: the weak homosexual,” Rauch told Orange County Weekly in 2003
The Pink Pistols are considered the lunatic fringe of the LGBTQ community and are often compared to the Black Panthers and Jewish Defense League, all movements in response to hate crimes and discrimination against their groups. And their advocacy of guns is understandable.
Self-defense is a human right. And great spiritual leaders have spoken out on the subject. For example, the Dalai Lama said, “ If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.” And Jesus stated in Luke 22:36, “Let him who hath no sword, let him sell his tunic and buy one.”
We feel most vulnerable when we have no means to defend ourselves from attacks both systematically and individually coming toward us. Organizations like the Pink Pistols offer a seemingly viable tool to stem gay violence.
However, guns will never be the great equalizer for an embattled group. They may, for a fleeting moment, deter our enemies but they will never permanently protect us from them. But guns do, however, signal to us that we might need to take another course of action.
One of the plaintiffs in Heller was a libertarian homosexual who joined the suit because his carrying a gun saved his life in an attack years ago. The author really doesn’t know where he’s going with this article.
next question?
This would give the term, PACKING, two meanings in the gay community
Or ever. In answer to the author's question, no, carrying a gun will not stop people from disagreeing with your lifestyle. But it may save your life if someone decides to take it a step further.
Leave it to the gays to tie everything back to being gay.
“Is that a six shooter in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?”
The perverts want to be armed. Makes me feel a lot safer.
This gives a whole new twist on saying he’s packing his gun.
Is a “transman” a trans-sexual who had a sex change operation to become a man, or was he a man originally? Is a “transwoman” a trans-sexual who had an operation to become a woman? I always get confused about trans-sexual, the “T” in the GLBT community initials.
I also get confused about true trans-sexuals and cross-dressers. I’m sure the gay community would laugh at me and that I’m hopelessly out of step with today’s world.
In the gay mafia if you get whacked...is that good or bad?
They may be surprised who they have to protect themselves from, though.
I saw a poster once that had a pic of a S&W 357 and the words “Bash This”..
Fine with me if the punks (ANY punks) who would just beat someone up (anyone) because they don’t like something about the person’s life end up with a few new orifices. Happily hetero but I’ll shed no tears if the kind of people who killed Matthew Sheppard end up on a slab.
So whats considered sufficient cause for a gay to use their gun. I mean if a Christian says homosexuality is not good can Rosie go on a rampage?
“Happily hetero but I’ll shed no tears if the kind of people who killed Matthew Sheppard end up on a slab.”
Murder is a sin and deplorable. The guys who killed Matthew did not kill him because he was gay. They did it because they were dirtbags.
Real simple:
Life In Danger? Unholster weapon and use it.
Being insulted cause you’re a freak? Weapon remains holstered.
It only gets complicated when name calling or some other form of otherwise benign intimidation is mistaken for a life threatening situation. Members of the federally protected species known as “GAY”, have used every, any and all means to outlaw even the slightest perceived insult including a candy bar ads as of late.
i have little doubt their quest for 2nd Amendment liberty will be used as intimidation rather then self protection.
BUT - They do have, as citizens, just as much right to the 2nd Amendment as any.
Hate to nitpick here but 30 shots were fired at the OK Corral and only 3 people died. I would argue that more people die each week in Washington DC than died the week of October 23rd through 29th, 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, United States.
I never heard the term ‘transman’ or ‘transwoman’ before. Just ‘transsexual’.
I have seen “LGBTQ” - where the T is transsexual, Q is for ‘questioning’ - meaning an LGBT has started screwing with the person’s head and they aren’t sure what the heck they are anymore.
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