Posted on 08/16/2005 3:07:44 AM PDT by jsh3180
Posted on Tue, Aug. 16, 2005
PINK PISTOLS
GAY GUN OWNERS
MEMBERS OF NATIONWIDE ORGANIZATION PACK HEAT TO FIGHT HATE CRIMES
BY ASHLEY FANTZ
afantz@herald.com
Keith Jackson disappears into his Wilton Manors bedroom and returns with a taupe suede clutch. He unzips it carefully.
''I love this one, because the bullets just fly out and you don't have to reload,'' he said, ejecting a clip from a nickel-plated .45-caliber semiautomatic Smith & Wesson.
``And if some redneck decides he's going to harass or harm me, he'll be thinking twice about it pretty quickly.''
Raised in rural Pennsylvania, Jackson is an avid hunter who keeps a gun on his boat, in his car, and on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. But he's allowed his membership to the National Rifle Association to lapse since he heard about the Pink Pistols.
In fact, Jackson wants to start a local chapter of the nationwide organization of gay gun owners who believe that packing heat reduces their chances of becoming hate-crime victims.
The Pink Pistols have more than 7,000 members in the United States and British Columbia, many of whom feel alienated from conservative gun rights organizations like the NRA.
The name was coined by a gay journalist in a Salon.com essay five years ago. There are other gun-owner' groups for minority populations whose members believe that the law fails to protect them from bigots: Jews for the Preservation of Firearms; the Second Amendment Sisters, which caters to women of all backgrounds; and the Tenth Cavalry Gun Club, named after the U.S. Army Civil War regiment of black soldiers.
''A lot of gay people want to feel protected, but when I first tell them about the Pistols, they laugh hysterically for five minutes,'' Jackson said. 'When I ask them, `Why haven't you considered getting a gun?' they just say, 'Well, because I'm gay!' ''
''It's a ridiculous stereotype,'' he said. ``That we're too queeny or that guns scare us. I don't have to be straight to have good aim.''
FIRST MEETING
Last week, Jackson hosted the group's first meeting at his home, drawing six people. The Pistols will gather in early September, he said, at the shooting range at Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World off Griffin Road.
Pink Pistols members don't have to register or pay fees. ''Some people don't want it out there that they're gay,'' said Jackson. ``Or, that they own firearms.''
Alan Kurland, Jackson's partner of more than a dozen years, has been open about his love of guns since his early 20s. Jackson bought the Fort Lauderdale hair stylist his first firearm, a .25-caliber Baretta.
Kurland has since traded up to a Smith & Wesson .357 magnum, a model light enough to wear on his ankle, even while snipping and teasing hair at his Victoria Park salon. He also keeps an automatic for extra firepower, just in case the place is robbed.
''I think I feel more afraid than Keith does about being targeted for being gay,'' he said. 'I'm not going to a gun range. There's this macho good ol' boy thing going on. I don't think most of my friends would feel comfortable.''
TARGET PRACTICE
Kurland sometimes practices at a cabin in rural Pennsylvania that Jackson's family owns.
Recalling a night when someone threw a bottle at his head a few minutes after he left a gay nightclub, Kurland says several of his friends have been harassed as well. His clients tell similar tales.
''It's a bigger fear than most people realize, especially in Wilton Manors. Where do you think people who want to enjoy a little gay-bashing go?'' he asked.
Hate crimes against homosexuals and transgendered people in Florida have increased steadily in recent years, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
FDLE statistics show that in 2003, 55 hate crimes were committed against homosexuals and transgendered people statewide. That's the largest proportion of hate crimes ever attributed to sexual orientation, as opposed to race, religion and other hate crime categories.
Kurland, who grew up in Pembroke Pines, says he is still haunted by the 1987 beating death of gay musician Leslie ''Les'' Wan outside the Copa Cabaret and Disco in Fort Lauderdale. David Schwartz of Sunrise went to prison for 10 years for the crime.
The case of Wyoming 21-year-old Matthew Shepard, who was beaten, tied to a fence post and left to die in 1998, has been a powerful Pistols recruiting tool.
''That frightened the hell out of everyone,'' said Gwen Patton, national spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania-based Pistols. 'It made a lot of people think, `Do I ever want to find myself alone without protection of any kind?' ''
Gun control advocates don't object to groups like the Pistols, as long as they emphasize gun safety over vigilantism.
''I'm not going to tell a group their fear isn't valid.'' But most people who own guns are more likely to shoot themselves than an attacker, said Casey Anderson, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Dean Trantalis, who is gay, said he's not surprised that a group like the Pistols would form in South Florida.
''We live in a society where some people -- the Broward County School Board -- think it's acceptable to promote bigotry,'' said Trantalis, referring to recent anti-gay comments made by members of the schools diversity committee about an educational DVD featuring children's characters. ``Obviously, we're not as tolerant an area as some might think.''
While some Pistols chapters are social clubs, others are informational, teaching members how to store, use, and clean their firearms and about the laws governing self-defense. Others are political. In San Francisco, Pistols organize voter outreach and have recently been vocal opponents of the mayor's gun control initiatives.
In Salt Lake City, Utah, Pistols have taken to the streets to demand that the city step up its vigilance against hate crimes. An unarmed lesbian was murdered there this summer, although police have not said the crime was motivated by her sexual orientation.
SUPREME COURT
Nationally, they have joined Supreme Court cases defending Second Amendment rights.
Jackson said the local chapter will educate members on gun use and laws, including a new state law that will take effect this fall that allows anyone to open fire when they have a ''reasonable belief'' they are in danger.
''Hopefully, you never have to shoot anyone,'' said Jackson. ''We're not about violence or vigilantism. Gay people are constantly aware that they are extra vulnerable. So having something like this'' -- he fingers the Smith & Wesson -- ``is just a confidence booster.''
It reduces their chances of becoming crime victims, period. They follow the same rules as everybody else, I just don't have a problem with it.
Right on!
For the benefit of all, no comment
That brings to mind hillary's cankles.
I could be wrong but I'd think you'd need to be a pretty good sized dude to consider a .357 magnum as "light enough to carry on your ankle".
Get better friends. With friends like that, you'll go to jail for a long, long time.
Check the weights on the .357's at the Smith website.
later pingout.
Maybe they hired a reporter from the NY Post.
Ditto....tra la la, la la....if they can hold up a STEEL frame 1911 and keep the group together, then more power to them....I don't believe that they should be hurt because they are deviant, I just don't want them influencing my children or grandchildren...
If only them poor chilluns could exercise their rights, too....
I used that joke once recently...apparently it 'dates' you as someone 'older'......
BTW: Wilton Manors is the only city in the US with an ALL GAY city council.
Try not to limp-wrist that thing....
Any responsible, law abiding person that wants to carry for self defense has my support
You are actually saying that if I am at home with my family and someone breaks in my house that I cannot shoot them?
This is a basic case of self defense. Would you have me ask the would-be robber whether he was after just my property or the 'ole tie-em-up and murder the family thing?
I think I would take my chances and shoot the SOB in the head.
Well, dunno where you come from OHIOman, but here in the Communist Wealth of Virginia, you'd better retreat if you have the option, or you will be giving everyting to da bad guy, baby... everyting.
Well it sounds like in Va you just gottq make sure that he does not survive.
BINGO!!
Ask someone with real authority, and not your cop friends, what the penalty is for tampering with evidence in your state.
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