This morning I encountered an article entitled Gay gun activists: Growing LGBT push to support the Second Amendment at msnbc.com. Sorry, foxnews.com. It starts with Top Shot winner Chris Cheng revealing that no one in the gun world gave a damn that he’s gay. Writer Hollie McKay’s then pays a visit to Gwen Patton. The Pink Pistols’ pistolero defends LGBT gun owners’ right to defend themselves by force of arms – despite the supposedly tolerant left’s intolerance for anyone opposing civilian disarmament. “Some think of us as traitors,” Gwen explained. “But at the end of the day, it’s about recognizing that the government shouldn’t be taking our rights away – our rights to be armed, and our rights to be happy and with the person we love.” Rather than leaving it at that, McKay turns to the Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence to add some “balance.” Check this out . . .
Of course the push for concealed carry has may [sic] opponents. Ladd Everitt, communications director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said that hate crime is an issue our federal government has taken very seriously, pointing out the Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in 2009.
Why “of course”? Of course as in “we all know there are anti-gun extremists who oppose Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms”? Or “of course” as in “there are lots of good reasons why members of the LGBT community shouldn’t be armed?” And what’s up with the word “many”? How many people oppose the “push” for concealed carry? Some? Most? Methinks Ms. McKay’s bias is showing. But nothing like this . . .
“The law contains explicit protections for members of the LGBT community,” he said. “If groups like Pink Pistols are feeling targeted or under threat, it might be from members of their own community in the pro-gun movement.”
Now that makes my blood boil. First, Everitt uses the word “feel” to suggest that LGBT Americans aren’t really targeted or under threat. While the right to keep and bear arms isn’t based on “feelings,” and I’m not enamored by the FBI’s “hate crimes” classification, McKay’s article points out what anyone with common sense already knows: LGBT Americans are in the crosshairs for criminal violence.
According to FBI Hate Crime Statistics, sexual orientation is the second largest motivator for bias crimes in the United States, second to racial bias, and far exceeding the number of religious or ethnically-spurred hate crimes.
What’s worse – far worse – is Everitt’s suggestion that the “pro-gun movement” are violent homophobes. Everitt’s been around the pro-gun movement long enough to know that Second Amendment supporters believe that all Americans have the right to keep and bear arms – regardless of their race, color, sexual orientation or creed. As a quick look at our “I am a gun owner” Facebook gallery reveals.
As I’ve said before, the antis lack anything remotely resembling a moral compass. They lie, mischaracterize, emotionally manipulate and smear good people in their endless pursuit of statist control. Shame on Ladd Everitt. A concept with which he is no doubt totally unfamiliar.