LGBT People Need More Guns, Not Fewer

Laws and cops can't save gay, transgender people—guns can, writes Nicki Stallard in 'NYT'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 22, 2016 1:33 PM CDT
LGBT People Need More Guns, Not Fewer
LGBT members need guns to protect themselves, Nicki Stallard writes in the "New York Times."   (Facebook/Pink Pistols)

When Nicki Stallard first started her journey from a male body to a female one, she got a "preposterous" piece of safety advice that left her feeling insulted: Carry a whistle. "I didn't need a whistle; I had a gun," she writes in her New York Times opinion piece, which advises other members of the LGBT community to similarly arm themselves, especially in the wake of the June 12 mass shooting in Orlando. "If anyone should be concerned about protecting the individual right to bear arms, it's LGBT people," she writes, dismissing calls for further gun control laws and noting that LGBT members are subject to "frenzied" attacks, often from more than one perpetrator, that can lead to death.

Stallard notes that the number of people in Pink Pistols, her pro-gun LGBT Facebook group, jumped from 1,500 to 6,500-plus after Orlando, and that LGBT members have been rushing out to buy firearms since. Although she agrees that "violence is rarely the answer," she's ready to use her gun if need be, as she doesn't think any laws (or law enforcement) can necessarily save gay or transgender people during an attack. "This is a call to LGBT people to take their own defense seriously, and to question the left-leaning institutions that tell them guns are bad, and should be left to the professionals," she writes. "Become a professional. … That's what the Second Amendment is for. We can fight back when our lives depend on it." Her entire take here. (This man says he was the Orlando shooter's gay lover.)

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