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.
“They did it because they were dirtbags.”
The only good dirtbag is one taking a dirt nap:-)
“I wonder, if Matthew Sheappard’s killers found Jesus and repented all their sins, would they go to heaven when they died whilst their victim continued to roast in hell for all eternety for being gay?”
If they were saved they would. However they would still face judgement for their sins.
IF Matthew is in hell its not because he was or wasn’t gay. It would be because he wasn’t saved.
JMH Chrisitan Opinion
It would make the Marxist Phelps clan think twice.
Matthew Sheppard's salvation is between him and God. We have no idea what was in his heart. We all have sins. The God I know is bigger than all of these sins and knows the heart of the sinner.
Good question.
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is important to all minorities. Minorities are always the target for tyrants and fanatics. All minorities have been targeted for violence at one time, or another. Jews, Native Americans, Japanese-Americans, Chinese-Americans, African-Americans, Arab-Americans, gay Americans, and etc., they have all been tarageted for violence.
Exactly, and the ultimate minority is the individual. He is in a group all his own. This is why this is such an important individual right.
“...the lunatic fringe of the LGBTQ community....”
Uh, I don’t mean to sound ignorant, but just what is “the LGBTQ community?” Bacon, lettuce and tomato loving Quaalude gobblers?
“Happily hetero but I’ll shed no tears if the kind of people who killed Matthew Sheppard end up on a slab.”
Agreed.
“The God I know is bigger than all of these sins and knows the heart of the sinner.”
Yup.
Why do you hyphenate all your Americans? I’m of the opinion that if you hyphenate, your allegiance is suspect. I was born here, so I guess that makes me a Native American, right? I’m an American, no hyphenation.
You are going to fire upon the police inside the cop shop while under arrest? Good luck with that. < /sarcasm >
That’s what makes me wonder, would they pull the trigger on someone who called them a sodomite or what they do a sin?
Duh. That's the point. The Sex Positive Agenda (as preached by Kinsey, Reich, and some feminists) seeks to end all moral judgements over ANY sexual pairing regardless of sex, age, relation, marital status, number, or species of partner(s).
The more letters they add to the descriptor, the more they will try to show that people are a "little of this and a little of that" or at the very least "equivalent" to someone who engages in a broader selection of sexual options from the pornocopia of lifestyles.
I think if someone was threatening to ‘kick their ass’ or otherwise making physical threats then they have a right to defend themselves. I mean if you’re marching in a GLBT parade then expect some epithets and condemnation hurled your way, that’s freedom of speech, but if someone came at a gay swinging a ‘Godhagesfaggots’ sign like they were going to hit them with it?
Just my .02
Gays with guns don’t get bashed. Great slogan to annoy those on the left and some of those on the extreme right too.
Agreed!
But if we had level headed, even handed, "Justice" without a prevailing protected class of citizen, we would have full use of the 1st Amend, because of the 2nd Amend.
The article above could easily be associated with encouraging use of the 2nd Amend to parse the 1st.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.