Proud of Pink Pistols Atlanta

Over the past six months, the Atlanta Chapter of the Pink Pistols has been doing amazing things for its members.

While everyone was still reeling from the Club Q shooting in November of 22, Pink Pistols Atlanta held a Stop The Bleed class in early December, which was taught by local firefighters and paramedics from the organization Frontline Medical Defense.

 

The current average response time of emergency services in the city of Atlanta is 9.5 minutes, yet traumatic blood loss can render a victim unconscious in less than a minute. Stop The Bleed, designed by the American College of Surgeons and promoted by the Department of Homeland Security, follows the principle of “You Are the Help Until Help Arrives” by teaching the medical skills associated with bleeding control and stabilizing victims of violent trauma prior to emergency services arriving.

18 members of the Atlanta chapter were taught how to apply a tourniquet, when to pack a wound versus when to ventilate it, and what order of operations to follow when stabilizing patients to prevent blood loss. This class empowered those members with the skills and knowledge necessary to protect themselves and others in an increasingly dangerous word.

In January, the Atlanta chapter relaunched its annual Introduction to Pistols class, which has been on hiatus due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Last offered in January 2020, this class provides a safe and low-cost environment for members and guests to learn firearm safety and the principles of pistol shooting by certified instructors.

Conducted at the Quickshot Shooting Range in Buckhead, GA, this course consists of three hours of classroom time covering the safe handling of pistols, instruction of the mechanical components and common faults within handguns, pistol marksmanship techniques, and the consideration which must be made prior to arming oneself.

Following the classroom portion and practice with simulated firearms, participants were provided with one hour of structured range time to practice what they learned, and get comfortable with a few types of pistols and revolvers.

This past April, Pink Pistols Atlanta offered a private Everyday Carry class for its members, focusing on lawful concealed carry with an emphasis on techniques for those that intend to carry a handgun daily. The instructor, Edgar Mills of Osprey Shooting Solutions, has worked with Pink Pistols members in the past, but this was the chapter’s first formal partnership with him for private instruction.

This course included two hours of classroom time, which covered safe handling, variations in carry holsters and positions, changes to traditional safety rules when handling a firearm outside a gun range, and legal considerations for concealed carry and drawing a firearm in self defense. Following the classroom portion, participants were provided with five hours of structured range time at a private facility to practice what they learned, with a focus on drawing from concealment and engaging threats with their own firearm.

Both Stop The Bleed and Introduction to Pistols were financially sponsored by Operation Blazing Sword, Pink Pistols’ parent organization, making these classes free to attend by members of the Atlanta chapter. Osprey Shooting Solutions offered a discounted rate for its Everyday Carry class, with additional financial support from Operation Blazing Sword.

If your Pink Pistols chapter is interested in hosting classes like these, please do the following:

  1. Find an instructor and venue.
  2. Contact Erin Palette, President of Operation Blazing Sword, with the class invoice(s) for approval.
  3. If approved, Operation Blazing Sword will pay the invoices.
  4. Conduct the class.
  5. Submit a written report of the event, ideally with pictures. Please ensure that consent to be photographed is given.

When considering a class, first talk to your members. It may be that one or more of them are already instructors, and someone may be able to provide space for the class.

 

 

 

Liability Disclaimer

The head of the Triangle, NC Pink Pistols chapter came up with the fantastic idea of having a disclaimer indicating that Pink Pistols is not any kind of militia or armed security, and that if any of our members makes the decision to use deadly force in defense of themselves or another, it is 100% their personal choice and that Operation Blazing Sword – Pink Pistols has not asked, and would never ask, any of our members to do such a thing.

This position has been made clear in the Pink Pistols Utility Manual, but not everyone reads that. Given the recent increase in anti-queer sentiment and that our members may very well be armed at Pride events, we felt it important to have such a disclaimer drawn up.

If a Pink Pistols chapter plans to have a presence at Pride, please make sure that everyone who is attending as a Pink Pistol — working a booth, handing out information, or just wearing our logo in an official capacity — reads and signs this.

Thank you for helping us stay safe.

 

Pride Month Flyers

Pride month begins this week, and so Operation Blazing Sword – Pink Pistols is proud to announce that we have tri-fold information pamphlets for download. They are double sided, with one side for Operation Blazing Sword and the other for Pink Pistols. Print them out for your table, or grab a handful and pass them around to Pride attendees!

To anticipate a question, “Why Say Queer?” and “Full Circle Support” are deliberately on both sides. Someone may not think to look at the back, or the flyers may be printed out as a single-sided and unfolded sheet, and the repetition ensures that an important message is seen (“Queer”) and the other org is listed (“Circle”) so that the viewer knows to look for more information.

Special thanks to David Bock and Tiffany Reynolds for their help in making this project a reality.

Operation Blazing Sword – Pink Pistols Official Statement Regarding Mark and Patricia McCloskey

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Philadelphia, PA) July 16, 2020:

Lately there has been a copious amount of news and commentary surrounding the incident wherein Mark and Patricia McCloskey wielded firearms in response to a protest in front of their house.

The mission and purpose of the Pink Pistols is to encourage the safe and legal use of firearms in all situations, including self defense, by EVERYONE, especially members of the queer community.

In regard to the McCloskeys, we can respect their right to self defense against threats as they perceived them. However, we absolutely condemn their appalling ignorance of, and disregard for, basic firearm safety.

As to the whys and wherefores of their case, Operation Blazing Sword - Pink Pistols leaves that in the hands of the St. Louis, MO legal system.

Signed, the OBS/PP Board of Directors

Operation Blazing Sword, Inc. is a grass-roots 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to helping LGBTQ people become responsible firearm owners.

Pink Pistols, Inc. is dedicated to the legal, safe, and responsible use of firearms for self-defense of the sexual-minority community.

- http://www.blazingsword.org/
- http://www.pinkpistols.org

Why There Will Be No Gatekeeping Within the Pink Pistols

Gatekeeping: When someone takes it upon themselves to decide who does or does not have access or rights to a community or identity.

I’m going to explain why gatekeeping hurts us and why I and the other mods won’t tolerate it here, and I’m going to use queer dynamics to illustrate it.

  • Gay and Lesbian people think that Transgender people shouldn’t be under the LGBTQ tent because “being transgender isn’t a sexual orientation, it’s a gender issue”.
  • Yet Transgender people say that Gays and Lesbians have it easy because they don’t stand out in everyday life, and besides it’s socially acceptable to be homosexual these days, so if anything trans folks are more oppressed and deserve more representation, not less.
  • And I could point out that Gays and Lesbians don’t actually get along, but I’ll go one step further and tell you that subcultures within each don’t even get along. For example, we have Bears (masculine homosexual men) who deride Twi nks (feminine homosexual men) for being “too fa ggy”, and we have Lipstick Lesbians (feminine homosexual women) who look down on Dy kes (masculine homosexual women) for being “too bu tch”.
  • Meanwhile, practically everyone hates Bisexual people due to a combination of unfounded fear that the Bi person will be unsatisfied with only one type of genital and cheat/wander/leave their SOs and jealousy that a bi person can adopt a hetero-normative lifestyle and reap all the benefits without suffering any of the ill effects.
  • Then there are the Trans people who pass (“go stealth”) who just want to be thought of as men instead of transmen/women instead of transwomen, and they are called cowards by the “out and proud” Trans people who feel that trans acceptance will only happen if we are visible to the world. The stealthers regard the outers as attention whores and drama queens who are setting back trans acceptance by being outrageous.
  • (In fact, there’s an amazingly accurate parallel between stealth vs. loud and concealed carry vs. open carry.)
  • Then there are the Aces (asexuals) and Aros (aromantics) who no one really knows what to do with because “What kind of social oppression do they face?” Apparently, if they aren’t being victimized for their sexuality then they don’t “count” as authentically queer to some people.
  • Want to refine it even further? Let’s bring race into the mix. QPOC (that’s “queer people of color”) have to deal with being a racial minority as well as being a gender and/or sexual minority, so all of us with racial privilege should let them do all the talking.
  • How about class? If you’re poor and you’re trans you’re going to have a much harder time transitioning (if you can transition at all) because therapy and hormones and surgery take more money than they can afford.

I could continue, but you get the idea.

The moment we start gatekeeping is the moment this group fractures around identity issues and an ever-tightening death spiral of ideological purity. If we say “Only queer people are allowed in the Pink Pistols” then that inevitably results in statements like “You vote Republican, you’re a traitor and not truly queer” or “You’re Bisexual, you can live a heteronormative lifestyle, you’re not truly queer” or “You’re a heterosexual stealth Trans, you don’t belong here, you aren’t properly queer” and so on until there’s only one person left standing who is “authentically queer” and the rest are just posers and traitors.

So we, the mods and admins of this page, say NO to this self-destructive course of action and instead encourage people to find ways to live with each other.

This is a group for pro-Second Amendment queer people and those who support them. It will always be that way. The only thing we ask is that if you are not queer in some manner that you be queer-positive. We won’t throw you out if you aren’t (but we will if you’re abusive to our queer members), although we warn you that making statements like “I don’t believe in your lifestyle, but…” will earn you as much popularity and acceptance as people who say “I believe in the Second Amendment, but…”

So to reiterate and reinforce:

  • We don’t gatekeep against heterosexual people who consider themselves Pink Pistols.
  • We don’t gatekeep against cisgender people who consider themselves Pink Pistols.
  • We don’t gatekeep about race, or class, or religion, or anything else.

All of these inherently divisive positions must be set aside in favor of what we all have in common: Our desire to have the right to keep and bear arms and the right to use those arms to defend ourselves. Everything else is irrelevant to our mission.

Or, put more pithily, “Teaching queers to shoot does not imply that only queers can teach them, or that we can’t have straights in the organization.”

Which brings us to the word “ally”. Some of us (specifically Gwen Patton and myself, but there may well be others) want to take the term “ally” out behind the woodshed and treat it like the rabid dog it is. The only “allies” we have are from other organizations that do not consider themselves to be members of our organization; anyone inside the organization is one of us, period.

When someone is labelled “ally”, the assumption is that the person doing the labeling is stating “I’m the REAL member here. You’re just an ally, a second-class citizen.” It’s divisive, derisive, and demeaning, and it belittles those members who support us 100%, regardless of race, orientation, sex, gender, kinks, relationship structures or lack of the same, by telling them that they’re still outsiders here. That just reinforces the attitude that they’re not one of us and the pernicious idea that because they’re not us, we should exclude them, mock them, ignore them, neglect them or even hate them.

Our straight members aren’t just here to get us coffee, bow, and scrape. They’re 100% full members, just like us.

This is how it was when Doug Krick founded the Pink Pistols 20 years ago.

This is how it was when Gwen Patton was First Speaker.

This is how it will be with me as National Coordinator.

NO GATEKEEPING.

Erin Palette 

Operation Blazing Sword Founder & Pink Pistols Coordinator         

Doug “Krikket” Krick, Founder, Passes Away at 48

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Philadelphia, PA) October 23, 2018: There is sad news for the Pink Pistols. Doug Krick, known to his friends as “Krikket”, passed away last week. His mother, Anne Shutters Krick, announced on October 21, that her son Doug has taken his own life. She blames depression as the reason for her son’s death.

Doug had overcome many obstacles, according to his mother. He had battled with alcoholism, had managed to lose a lot of weight, and managed to keep a job even during the difficult times. But it seems that depression took its toll, and Doug took his life.

“I have known Krikket since the late 80’s,” says Gwendolyn Patton, First Speaker Emeritus of the Pink Pistols and Operation Blazing Sword board member. “I used to help run science fiction conventions with him. When Newsweek ran an article on the Pink Pistols in 2000, I saw he was one of the founders. I contacted him to congratulate him, and he invited me to start a chapter here in the Philadelphia area. The Delaware Valley chapter is still running to this day. Doug changed the course of my life, and the lives of countless others. He helped make us safer by encouraging us to take control of that safety personally, individually. We are diminished without him.”

His mother states on her Facebook page: “While the last few days have been unbearably hard and I never knew I had so many tears, there have also been lots of reasons to smile as we look back at happy memories and times spent with Doug.” His obituary asks that people make donations in lieu of flowers. It can be found at https://www.dupagecremations.com/obituary/Douglas-Lyle-Krick/Rosemont-IL/1819388

“I respected him and cared for him,” says Patton. “To me, he was ‘La Fondinto’, The Founder. I did my best to follow in his footsteps when he passed Pink Pistols to me, and I in my turn safeguarded Doug’s legacy the best I could, so his dream would continue. That’s my gift to Doug — that those he helped to safeguard will continue to be protected in the future.”

His obituary invites those who knew Doug “to join family and friends to celebrate Doug’s life and proclaim the victory of Christ over death at the memorial service on Saturday, November 3, 2018 at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 515 S. Wheaton Ave, Wheaton, IL 60187. There will be a visitation from 9-11am, service at 11am and a light luncheon will follow.”

The Pink Pistols mourns the passing of one of their Founders, and will do their best to keep his memory and his legacy alive.

Operation Blazing Sword, Inc. is a grass-roots 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to helping LGBTQ people become responsible firearm owners.

Pink Pistols, Inc. is dedicated to the legal, safe, and responsible use of firearms for self-defense of the sexual-minority community.

http://www.blazingsword.org/

http://www.pinkpistols.org

Erin Palette at GRPC 2018 (Video)

Erin Palette, Founder of Operation Blazing Sword, announces a merger with the Pink Pistols at the 2018 Gun Rights Policy Conference in Chicago, signaling the formation of the largest queer pro-gun group in the country.

(Her name is pronounced “pal-ET” not “pal-AY”.)

Watch HERE on YouTube.

World’s Largest LGBTQ Pro-Gun Group Forms

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (Sept 23, 2018) – The 33rd Annual Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC 2018) in Chicago became the site of a historic announcement for the LGBTQ community. The Pink Pistols – the nation’s first pro-gay, pro-gun group – is joining forces with Operation Blazing Sword, a program dedicated to firearm education, training and support for the LGBTQ community. This merger results in the creation of the single largest queer pro-gun group in history. In further news, Gwendolyn Patton, legendary First Speaker of the Pink Pistols, has been succeeded by Erin Palette, the Founder of Operation Blazing Sword. Ms. Palette will serve as Coordinator for both factions of the newly-formed LGBTQ Super Group.

Founded in 2000, Pink Pistols had a simple mission: “We teach queer people to shoot. Then we teach others that we have done so.” Beyond training, the Pistols also successfully filed numerous amicus briefs in high profile cases. Their membership at the time of merging was estimated to be 30,000 across North America.

Operation Blazing Sword was formed in response to the Pulse Massacre of June 12, 2016. Led by Erin Palette, this fresh platform provides members of the grossly under-served LGBTQ community with access to education in safe firearms handling as well as encouragement to obtain Concealed Carry Weapon (CCW) permits where legal. At the time of its merger, Operation Blazing Sword was powered by 1,600 volunteer instructors from all walks of life – conservative, liberal, straight, queer, transgender, and cisgender.
During her acceptance speech, Ms. Palette recalled the early days of Pink Pistols, when being outed as queer often resulted in loss of one’s job or worse. It was for this reason, Palette explained, that national member lists were not maintained. By keeping Pink Pistol factions regional its members’ privacy was protected from subpoena, but this dramatically limited the scope of Pink Pistol chapters’ community outreach.

The announcements at GRPC 2018 herald in a new era of LGBTQ Second Amendment support and activism. On this topic, Palette passionately asserted that “the ability to connect…is crucial.” Since Operation Blazing Sword is a 501c3 tax deductible charity, funds can now be raised at a national level to help chapters in need, whether that is to rent a booth at a Pride Festival, buy ammunition for a range day, or hold a community seminar. “After all,” reminded Palette, “the most powerful sword is the one wielded by two hands.”

OPERATION BLAZING SWORD
800 Belle Terre Parkway, Suite 200-302 Palm Coast, FL 32164-2310
EIN 81-4230880

One Hand Falls, Another Hand Rises…

“The time has come,” Says the Pink Pistols First Speaker

For Immediate Release (Philadelphia, PA) September 23, 2018: At this year’s Gun Rights Policy Conference held in Chicago, a statement was read by Nicole Stallard from the First Speaker of the Pink Pistols, Gwendolyn S. Patton. The following is the original statement from the First Speaker, which was edited for brevity at GRPC:

One Hand Falls, Another Hand Rises…

This is a catchphrase from a recent new favorite science fiction series, Glynn Stewart’s “Starship’s Mage”. In this series, high representatives of the Mage-King of Mars are called his Hands, who are his eyes and ears, and who speak with his voice. They’re not unlike Lois McMaster Bujold’s “Imperial Auditors”, or even E. E. “Doc” Smith’s “Lensmen”, who inspired comic-book history’s greatest interstellar police force, the Green Lanterns.

I was first exposed to the Pink Pistols in 2001, a bare year after it was created by an old and dear friend, Doug Krick. My lifemate showed me an article about the group, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that a friend was responsible for its existence. I sought him out and congratulated him on it very shortly afterward, and as a consequence, he asked me if I might be interested in starting a chapter in the Philadelphia area. After discussing it with my lifemate, Maggie, we decided to start one together. We got our carry permits, she bought me my first gun as a birthday present (a FEG clone of a Browning Hi-Power), and we announced the formation of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Pink Pistols. Our first month’s meeting was just the two of us at a Chinese restaurant, but we started attracting members with the second meeting, notably Thomas Nelson, the current head of the chapter, to whom I bequeathed it when I stepped up to other duties. Soon after came Andrew Greene, who has been the organization’s poster boy, having had to discourage a small mob of louts who intended him harm, having seen him come out of a Philadelphia gay bar. He’s told that story any number of times, since, often to reporters. I have equally-often saluted his patience in this regard.

Somewhere between 2003 and 2005, I graduated into being the officials Media Spokesperson for the organization, since Doug Krick (known as Krikket) really didn’t enjoy talking to the media, and I did. Over time, I took over other duties, such as webmistress and documentation writer. The first “New Chapter E-Book” was written by me, with input from Doug, a useful document that eventually evolved into our current Utility Manual. Then, with a suddenness straight out of the core of Chaos, I suffered an accident. It was around 8:30 on a blustery Friday evening, I having discharged my responsibility to work late one day a month. The weather was dry but very windy, with strong gusts that snapped out of the West without warning. While re-arming myself after a day’s work (which did not allow guns inside the building), one of those gusts, estimated at 40mph, slammed my car’s steel trunk lid on the top of my head.

It was shortly determined that I had suffered a broken neck, three levels of disks literally exploded, the vertebrae jammed together. As soon as it could be accomplished, I had surgery to repair this damage, replacing the disks with banked bone grafts and much chipping and scraping away of bone spurs to make room. This repair was progressing well for about seven months, as did the physical therapy, until complications set in. I was growing sharp bone spurs from all of the fusion joints and everywhere the bone had been scarred during the surgery. Eventually I had a small forest of sharp, rough bone inside and around my spine. I found that I would be rendered utterly unable to plan a day ahead of time, as debilitating pain might come out of nowhere to leave me flat on my back, twitching and wishing it would just STOP. This led to my being put on permanent disability, as I could not promise to an employer that I would be able to fulfill my duties at any given moment. This being beyond any employer’s ability to reasonably accommodate, a government expert determined that I was no longer employable.

I did try to keep running my Pink Pistols chapter, but a couple of years later, I had to set it all down in hands I felt would maintain things properly, and retired to deal with my injuries and their consequences. This condition pertained until early in 2012, when the Sandy Hook shooting occurred. Then I started hearing that the Pink Pistols weren’t responding on the subject, and there was much speculation that the organization was defunct. Before I could respond to this, Oleg Volk called me out of nowhere to upbraid me for the group’s silence. His entreaty to Do Something resulted in my investigation, to find the website mostly dead, more than half its links dead, nobody doing anything I could find, and more than a little validation of the rumor that the group was also dead.

I called Krikket and offered to pull its mivonks out of the grinder. I just had one request. If I was going to resurrect the organization, I wanted it to be MINE. I wanted the keys and the pinks. He agreed, arranged for the domain to be transferred to me, and gave me his blessing. I selected “First Speaker” as my title, to follow his “The Founder” (which I translated as “La Fondinto” in Esperanto, yet another sci-fi homage to Philip Jose Farmer’s “Riverworld”). I put the website to order, wrote some press releases, and rolled up my sleeves.

In 6 years, I coordinated the rebuilding of the organization, practically from the ground up. The organization helped with many judicial amicus briefs for some very high-profile cases, from DC. v. Heller to Peruta to Grace & Pink Pistols v. DC. We had some of our best coverage in the media, including the horrific deluge following the tragedy at the Pulse Nightclub, the LGBT community’s own 9/11. The last half decade has been a pleasure and a terror to deal with, exhilarating and maddening in its headlong flight between the Scylla and Charybdis of the 2016 election. The Pulse shooting led directly to the founding of Operation Blazing Sword, out of the massive flood of support offered by the shooting community across the continent and even a bit beyond. Swamped by reporters, I begged for help with those offers, and our own Erin Palette stepped up to the plate and took a swing at it. She’s done a magnificent job, and I’m beyond proud of her achievements, as if I invented her or something.

And so we arrive at the present day. The injury and its consequences that I originally retired to deal with has not gone away. In fact, it has somewhat worsened over the years. Just as I can’t handle a lot of recoil up arm, stress has become another source of exacerbation that frequently leads to me flat on my back, going “ow, Ow, OW”. And just as I had to go on disability because I could no longer fulfill my obligations to employers, I am once again faced with the reality that I must direct my energies to my own health. And, truth be told, the social structure we find ourselves in, 18 years after the founding of the Pink Pistols, is not the same as the one that pertained all those years ago. Back then, the LGBT community was in far more danger, being less accepted than it is now. The system we devised to deal with the potentialities of “Imperial Entanglements” is less necessary than it was back then as well. Some changes are called for.

One such change is that I must once again hand over the Pink Pistols to another to administer. Truth be told, I’ve been on the lookout for someone to hand it TO for many years. It is my heartfelt belief that I have found this person.

A while back, I was approached to join the Board of Directors of Operation Blazing Sword. As the duties aren’t very difficult, I agreed. I also started the process of re-converging the two organizations into a single entity. After all, OBS came from the Pink Pistols. It’s only fitting that they unify once again to take the Pink Pistols into the next phase of its existence. We’re as yet uncertain what the final structure of that unity will resemble, but at the very minimum, the Pink Pistols will be in most excellent hands.

Over the next few months, I will be handing over my role to Erin Palette. This will not be a sudden thing, as was my medical retirement in 2010. Instead, it will be a careful, measured transition, involving a corporate attorney, so we have every “I” dotted and every “T” crossed to the best advantage of both the Pink Pistols and OBS. I have every faith in Erin and OBS to carry the Pink Pistols onward.

I won’t be going away completely. I will be there for Erin to consult with, and I hope I will remain of help when she needs it. If they will have me, I intend to stay on the Board so they will have access to my 17 years of knowledge regarding the operation and management of the organization. Also, they’re dear to me, and retirement should not necessarily mean that one loses one’s friends. But make no mistake, this is a retirement. To be honest, I need it. To be equally honest, the Pink Pistols needs someone younger, with different viewpoints, with different strengths, and fewer impediments. There will be changes in the structure of the Pistols, but great effort will be taken to prevent the loss of what makes it so special.

It has been my honor and my pride to do what I could do for the Pink Pistols over nearly two decades. I hope to give what advice and support I can in the future. But the best thing I can do is to hand it over to those I feel will serve you at least as well as I, and hopefully better. I have been dedicated to each and every one of you being as strong as you can be, as well defended as can be achieved, and as supported by our nation as can be arranged.

I don’t know what title Erin will choose for herself. She may choose to carry on as the First Speaker, or she may choose a title more commensurate with the eventual structure the unified organization will suggest. Please give her the support she is due. She has already done much for the Pink Pistols, and I’ve grown to recognize that she will do no less than her best for all of us.

One Hand Falls…Another Hand Rises.

Respectfully,

Gwendolyn S Patton

First Speaker, Pink Pistols

DIFFICULT QUESTIONS FROM ABOVE, SAYS PINK PISTOLS SPEAKER REGARDING LAS VEGAS SHOOTING

DIFFICULT QUESTIONS FROM ABOVE, SAYS PINK PISTOLS SPEAKER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Philadelphia, PA) October 2, 2017: Just after 10PM Sunday, Las Vegas time, a man, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock of Mesquite, NV, opened fire from the 32nd floor hotel room he had checked into several days earlier. A storm of bullets rained down upon the Las Vegas Strip, upon people attending the Route 91 Harvest country music festival below. People reported that the gunfire kept up for a very long time, after which current tally is at 50 people dead, and 406 taken to nearby hospitals. The family of Paddock have no idea why he committed the act. Reports are that he would go to Las Vegas to gamble, and sometimes went to shows. This shooting is not thought of as associated with any international terrorism, and is being classed as a “lone wolf” shooting.

Gwendolyn Patton, First Speaker of the Pink Pistols, an LGBT self-defense organization, was stricken when she first heard of the event. “Once again, I’m shocked at the senselessness of it all,” she said. “I was left speechless when I learned of the Pulse nightclub shooting a little over a year ago in Florida, and now I’m just at a total loss about this act of senseless violence.” The Pink Pistols issues its heartfelt condolences to those who are hurting as a result of the actions of a clearly deeply disturbed individual, and hopes that answers regarding a potential motive will eventually become clear.

“I must, however, say one thing, and I deeply dislike having to repeat myself like this,” Patton said. “No matter what kinds of weapons Mr. Paddock had. No matter how many he had. No matter the sizes of the magazines, the caliber of the bullets, the color of the guns, or the style or design, the guns had no choice, for guns are not living creatures. A gun cannot choose to refuse to fire if the action is illegal. They’re just machines. I hate having to defend inanimate objects yet again, but I know that once again they will be low-hanging fruit for those who project their anger and fear onto them.” Her lips press into a hard line as she considers.

“People died because of the actions of a human being. He had a number of weapons, so clearly this was not a spur-of-the-moment situation. He chose this action. He chose the time. He chose the place. It was Mr. Paddock’s choice to do this heinous, horrible thing. What I pray for is that we learn why he did this, so we can prevent others from feeling the same way in the future. We need to intervene in the lives of our loved ones, to give them the love and help they need when they are hurting or suffering from emotional pain, or rage, or hate, that can cause them to lash out against their fellow human beings in such a fashion.” She shook her head and continued. “What we should not do, however, is allow ourselves to escape from the necessity of such intervention by taking the responsibility for the act off of the man and projecting it onto his tools. Guns did not do this. Guns were USED to do this, by a man with unknown motives and unknown thoughts. The man is responsible. Let’s keep the responsibility on the man, and try to solve the cause, rather than blindly blaming his tools.”

People around the world have been victims of anger, desperation, fear, hate, greed, and terror. They have been attacked with cars, trucks, rocks, bricks, bottles, bombs, bullets, and blades. In many of these places, the objects used to commit the acts either were already highly restricted, outright illegal, or became so shortly thereafter. But the laws against the objects have not prevented further such attacks. Such laws will be ineffective because the objects are not the source of the evil. Such evil can only come from the minds and hearts of human beings, and all of these objects must be wielded by human beings in order to cause death and injury. All of these objects have peaceful uses, but have been misused to commit terrible acts. We must resist the temptation to do the simple thing, to blame the tool when we must be trying to understand the individual.

It’s easy to blame the tool. When blame is settled upon an inanimate object, we stop questioning. We stop looking for deeper answers. We stop going to the greater effort to solve the greater problem. We take the easy way out — make a law against an object, dust off our hands, and go back to the television. We think our job is done, but it’s not, because it never was about the objects, but about the people. People are hard to fix. People are hard to understand. People are hard to stop when they are set on a goal.

But because these things are true, we can’t allow ourselves to stop with the easy solutions, because even if we ban one tool, they’ll pick up and pervert another tool. If we ban guns, they’ll pick up bombs. If we ban bombs, they’ll crash cars. If we ban cars, they’ll pick up knives. If we ban knives, they’ll swing sticks. If we ban sticks, they’ll throw rocks — and all of our evolution will be reduced back to the antelope’s thighbone against our prey all over again, once again, we’ll be sent back to what Cain used against Abel. Cain used a rock against his brother, but it wasn’t the rock that got marked as a result. These horrible things happen to us, and we need to take the more difficult path and solve the underlying reasons for them and become better human beings.

Let our sympathies be with those who lost loved ones last night. Let us help heal the wounds in their hearts, the holes in their lives. Let us try to understand why such a thing could happen, why this man did something his family members say was so out of character for him. And let’s not just take the easy way out. This time, let’s not just blame inanimate objects, post a hashtag, and go back to our cheeseburgers. Let’s take the more difficult route and work to solve the actual problems, whatever they may be.

The Pink Pistols is an international organization dedicated to the legal, safe, and responsible use of firearms for self-defense of the sexual-minority community. Chapters may be found across the United States and Canada. Though the Pink Pistols is for the LGBTQ community, it is not solely composed of the LGBTQ community, and all are welcome to join.