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Pink glittery cowboy hats, matching ass-less chaps
and lots of dancing to “I Will Survive" by Donna Summers is what I
pictured when I first heard about the Pink Pistols, a pro-gun organization
with the motto “Armed Gays Don’t Get Bashed."
I’m a staunch pacifist – I don’t even swat mosquitoes – and yet I immediately
respected the Pink Pistols’ mission as I understood it from that first introduction.
What better place to blast away stereotypes about macho masculinity and homophobic
myths about “pussies" and “fags" than in a shooting gallery filled with Charlton
Heston types? If some closed-minded bigot can bond with the gay guy next
to him over the best way to oil a Colt .45, he might learn to respect the
guy as an individual and thereby discard his ignorant hatred, right? Or
at the very least, he’ll think twice before assuming that any man with a
boyfriend is an easy target for a beating.
According to FBI statistics in 2001, 13.9 percent of reported hate crimes
were due to “anti-homosexual bias." That number seems low to me, considering
how many times I personally have seen, or known of, someone being harassed
for not adequately conforming to hegemonic gender identity. Hate crimes differ
from random violent crimes because they serve as a threat against a group
of people and therefore have distinguishing psychological effects. Queer
youth are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than other young
people, comprising 30 percent of youth suicide annually.
Guns are as central to American culture as oppressive gender roles and McDonald’s;
while it may sometimes be hard to admit, the craving to try them out is intense.
I figured if I’m ever going to learn how to shoot a gun, I’d feel a lot
more comfortable doing it with a group of gay men who have the chutzpah to
call themselves the Pink Pistols (after an article by Jonathan Rauch in Salon).
So when the Boston chapter went on its monthly shoot, I went along. And
I loved it. It was so much fun – empowering even; they don’t call guns “The
Great Equalizer" for nothin’.
It was a relief to learn that guns, as objects, tools, are not, in and of
themselves, dangerous. Having heard so many stories about kids accidentally
killing their friend while showing off the gun they found in dad’s underwear
drawer, I was scared – what if I drop it or my finger slips on the trigger?!
I was even afraid of bullets. Will they explode if someone steps on one or
squeezes one too hard, like in cartoons?!
I had told Krikket (aka Doug Krick, the national founder of Pink Pistols and
organizer of the original chapter, proudly based here in Boston) that my
knowledge of guns extended as far as Nintendo Duckhunt, and he graciously
arranged for a certified instructor to come along to teach me. Paul Kempley,
a charming and personable ex-Marine, was a reassuringly knowledgeable, safe,
patient and fun instructor.
In three years, the Pink Pistols have expanded to include over 30 chapters
all across the US. The Pink Pistols are an accepting, welcoming and good-natured
gun club, and I was wrong about the pink cowboy hats and even more wrong about
the disco music. The Pink Pistols are not all gay men; they are a diverse
collection of folks – lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, BDSM, polyamorous, any
and all who are open to “alternative" sexuality or identity: a leather-clad
fella you might run into at Man Ray on goth night; a woman who carries her
ammo and ear-protection in a pink diaper bag; a muscley ex-Army civil rights-conscious
leader in the Massachusetts Libertarian Party; a friendly woman and her son,
a charming and handsome young man who, at 13, is the youngest Pink Pistol
… In fact, the most unifying characteristic among the bunch that I went shooting
with was their enjoyment of marksmanship and their conviction that self-defense,
and the use of firearms, is a civil right.
The Pink Pistols’ goal is to educate people about discriminatory gun laws
and demystify and democratize the gun.
Contrary to what you might think after watching Michael Moore’s Bowling
for Columbine (a good exposé on this topic, albeit disappointingly
lacking in gender analysis), there is no correlation between the availability
of firearms, the homicide rate or the suicide rate in the US, according to
Gary Kleck, a criminologist quoted often in Gun Facts, a publication
provided to me by Paul from the Pink Pistols. And, according to Gary Kleck
again, firearms in private hands are used 2.5 million times each year to
prevent crime, including rapes, assaults and kidnapping.
One popular statistic propagated by advocates for stricter gun laws states
that 13 children are killed each day by guns, but that number is based on
data that includes “children" up to age 19 or 24, depending on the source.
According to the Center for Disease Control, of the 5,000 annual accidental
deaths of children aged 0-14, automobiles account for 56 percent of the deaths
while firearms account for only three percent, or 142 kids.
It’s hard to distinguish the criminals from law enforcement sometimes, let
alone tell which government and corporate higher-ups are criminal; and it’s
rare that I feel like anyone with a gun or other life/death power is on my
side. So I am thankful to the Pink Pistols for protecting my Second Amendment
rights while creating a beautifully non-judgmental community and an opportunity
to blow off some steam.
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