How do you get liberal media to give positive coverage regarding owning, carrying, and shooting guns? When the gun owners are members of a leftist-qualified “victim” group. Crosscut.com recently published an article by Dorothy Edwards about a national organization of gun owners called Pink Pistols. And what qualifies Pink Pistols for positive coverage? It is an LGBTQ gun club.
Still, even though the coverage was positive, the story noted some interesting ironies to belonging to a gay gun club in liberal cities such as Seattle. The title of the article provides a clue: “Outcasts within the outcast community: Seattle’s LGBTQ gun club upends stereotypes. Pink Pistols offers queer gun owners empowerment, inclusion and community.”
Melissa Elmer and her wife Jan met John Abbitt at West Coast Armory in Bellevue, WA. John was there to teach the Elmers how to shoot a gun, something neither one of them had ever done.
Like most new shooters, after the initial uncertainty, they expressed a sense of accomplishment just having fired the weapon. Melissa said, “I had never touched a gun, and I was kind of uneasy just touching it.”
What I found most interesting about their story is it shows just how intolerant the political left has become. The couple mentioned having to keep gun ownership private because of their leftist friends’ disapproval. Jan said, “Progressive people we know look at us kind of cross-eyed when we tell them we own a gun.”
Erin Palette, Pink Pistols’ national coordinator, said that many progressives, even people who are also LGBTQ, shame gay gun owners. She said some gay gun owners even lose friends and jobs over it. Palette said, ironically, the stigma is like “coming out as queer” in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Why do these folks want to learn to shoot guns? For the same reasons any American does: recreation and self-defense. The group now has over 50 chapters across the country. The Elmers belong to the Seattle Chapter, one of eight chapters in Washington State.
Their motto is not only humorous but also poignant: “Armed gays don’t get bashed.” Well, at least, not physically, but they still get verbally bashed by today’s highly intolerant left.
