Armed: Albert Lowe, 47, of Leslie, who is starting a Michigan chapter of the Pink Pistols, a national gay gun rights group, practices firing his licensed semi-automatic handgun.
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| Associated Press
Armed: Albert Lowe, 47, of Leslie, who is starting a Michigan chapter of the Pink Pistols, a national gay gun rights group, practices firing his licensed semi-automatic handgun. |
LESLIE - Gay rights usually are seen as part of the liberal agenda, with gun rights of interest to conservatives. So gays with guns cut across the grain of America's political landscape.
That's fine with Albert Lowe, who is starting a Michigan chapter of the Pink Pistols, a gay gun-rights group with 37 chapters in the United States and at least 5,000 members.
"I'm politically incorrect, totally," the Leslie resident said.
If the group takes hold in Michigan as it has in such places as California and Tennessee, the state could have a new set of hobby target shooters and a broader, stronger gun-rights lobby.
That is the aim of Lowe, who is in the early stages of building membership, and of some traditional gun-rights groups that are eager to gain support.
"The more the merrier, in that battle," said Chuck Perricone, executive director of the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners. "As long as they're supportive of the underlying issue, which is self-defense, we welcome their support."
Lowe said his primary reason for starting a Michigan chapter was to provide a forum to "go out and have fun target shooting."