Packing Heat Online

Pink Pistols introduces new website

By Jone Devlin

HOUSTON - Pinkpistols is a self-defense group geared primarily toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals. On May 22, 2002, the Houston Chapter of this organization unveiled its new website.

"It's a very convenient way for people to keep themselves up to date with what we're doing and who we are," said Dan Weiner, president of the Houston Pinkpistols. "They can also get references for concealed handgun licenses and references to the Department of Public Safety site and gun manufacturers - anything we think will be useful for them. Frankly, so many people are online I don't see how we could not be online. It's like, if you're not online, where are you?"

Concealed carry laws and handgun ownership are controversial issues in most communities, and the GLBT community is no different. But according to Weiner there are many in the community who like the idea of Pinkpistols, and a lot of people who owned guns before Pinkpistols came along. Yet, this is far from the only audience Pinkpistols is trying to reach with the new website, he said.

"We also try to extend the concept to those who might like it but feel guilty about it, as well as to those who are absolutely shocked at the notion," said Weiner, who hopes to give those people visiting the website "some new ideas."

Weiner refers to studies which invariably say that people who fight back against a criminal have a better chance of avoiding harm than those who just "give in." Statistically, according to Weiner, it is five to six times more likely that the victim will walk away unhurt if he or she has a gun and fights back.

In this spirit, says Weiner, "a good part of what the Pinkpistols organization is for, is to provide information and an ethic of self defense.

"If someone is trying to harm you, you resist. If they're not, you talk and/or leave. Ninety-eight percent of the time [when] a gun is produced by a victim, the gun is not fired," he said.

"So all this rubbish about how we're trying to turn the Montrose into Dodge City is just nonsense."

For those interested in learning more about the Pinkpistols, access http://houston.pinkpistols.org.