Armed Gays Don’t Get Bashed

by zombiehunter | 12:13 pm, June 10, 2009 | Comments Off

That’s the slogan of the Pink Pistols, a gay, pro-gun rights group. The Pink Pistols and GOProud are supporting Senator John Thune (R-SD) on an amendment to recently-introduced Federal “so-called hate crime” legislation, Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

(As an aside, I think “so-called hate crime” legislation is rather silly. Instead, why not just make assault, murder, and violent crimes against individual rights illegal? Then when someone is suspected of committing one of those acts, we can charge them, try them, convict them, and punish them. That seems simpler than trying to read a criminal’s mind to determine intent/motivation – besides, aren’t all crimes motivated my some degree of hate?)

Conceptually, the amendment would allow citizens with concealed carry permits to carry handguns across state lines with reciprocity, while following local concealed carry laws. That makes sense to me. If the original legislation is intended to reactively punish thuggish citizens for “so-called hate crimes,” it only makes sense to also proactively make it easier for all citizens to defend themselves and prevent the “so-called hate crimes” in the first place.

Jimmy LaSilva, executive director of GOProud, said:

We support this because we think it’s advantageous to make it legal and relatively easy for gay people to arm themselves so they can protect themselves. In the next few weeks we want to start highlighting some of those stories. There are people who have averted gay bashings because of their ability to use guns.

Gwen Patton, a spokesman for the Pink Pistols, also supports the concealed carry reciprocity:

Self-defense with a firearm is a valid and viable method of self-defense and protection. Imagine that individuals follow you from a place known in the neighborhood as a GLBT gathering place. They follow you to your car, and when you try to open the door, they hold out pipes and yell — ‘Hey, faggot!’ You pull out a concealed weapon that you have a license to carry. They say, ‘He’s got a gun!’ They drop their pipes and run away. No shots were fired, but a beating was just averted.

So there you have it. Once again we see guns are just tools that can prevent (often without shots fired) thuggish citizens from violating the individual rights of other citizens – gay, or otherwise.

H/T CompleteColorado

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