Television editor Jonathan Fischer has decided the correct response to the June 12 Orlando Pulse attack is to arm himself for self-defense and to urge others within the gay community to arm themselves as well.
To that end, he has founded a Pink Pistols chapter in West Hollywood, and recently attended a defensive handgun class wearing a “gay-K-47” shirt.
The Pink Pistols are a LGBT (lesbian, gay,bisexual and transgender) gun rights organization that responded to the Orlando attack by urging the gay community to arm up for self-defense rather than jump on the politically correct bandwagon of blaming guns for the attack.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Fischer launched the West Hollywood chapter of Pink Pistols as a way “to make his community safer.” He said, “If someone was to try and break into my home, and especially if someone were armed, I don’t want to fight back with a kitchen knife, and I don’t think that’s extremist or crazy.”
During the week following the Orlando attack, “signs depicting a rainbow-colored Gadsden flag and the hashtag #ShootBack appeared in West Hollywood.” Those have now been followed by the launch of Fischer’s Pink Pistols chapter. A chapter in North Hollywood as also been launched.
Carrying guns is not popular throughout the entire gay community. In fact, the Pink Pistols have even been “specifically banned” from certain “LGBT centers” because of their pro-gun, pro-self-defense stance. But Pink Pistols spokesperson Gwendolyn Patton explains that those who respond by severing ties are missing the point that a growing number of gays have simply become sick of being easy targets. “People don’t like to feel helpless,” Patton said.
Equality California’s Rick Zbur does not agree with the push for gays to arm themselves in self-defense. Rather, Zbur says “Orlando made it very clear to us that common-sense gun safety laws are part of what we needed to be working on.”
Zbur did not address the fact that the Orlando gunman passed a background check for both his weapons, including a waiting period for the handgun. Moreover, the club he attacked was a gun-free zone, which means there was 100 percent gun control in the facility.
It is not clear what gun controls over and above background checks, waiting periods, and 100 percent gun bans Zbur would like to see.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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