Gun sales surge among gays, lesbians after Orlando shooting

[aikoaiko]

I'm not sure how this data is being collected or tracked (more like anecdotes), but the 233% increase in Pink Pistols membership is quantifiable.

http://kdvr.com/2016/06/14/gun-sales-surge-after-orlando-shooting/

DENVER -- Gun sales are surging in the wake of Sunday’s deadly mass shooting in Orlando, Fla. The tragedy is generating new debate over gun control reform and the right to bear arms. Gun shops typically see a spike in customers after mass shootings. But this time, many are seeing shoppers they’ve never really seen before: More gays and lesbians.

...

However, what’s different this time around is the clientele. Mike Smith, a firearms instructor in Colorado Springs, is one of many closely tracking the sudden surge in gays and lesbians buying weapons.

“I think right now because of what happened, people are looking for answers,” he said. “You walk into a gun shop and you expect to see people, frankly, who look like me. I think we forget we’re a country of all people, not just people who fit that predetermined mold.”

The Pink Pistols is a national gun club for gays and lesbians. It saw its membership soar from about 1,500 members on Saturday to 3,500 on Monday.

[JonathanRackham]

2. Training, practice and knowledge.

Key factors to empowerment.

I have several friends and relatives who took this step years ago. They were part of the original LBGT revolution, children of the 60s. Older and wiser now.

[romanic]

3. Even thought I don't carry...

I def support my fellow gay and lesbians to arm and protect themselves. Obviously they're not buying assault rifles or uzis so that tired "ammosexual" meme can stay at the door. We have rights to protect ourselves at all costs, there's nothing funny or right-wing about that.

[Lee-Lee]

4. Good. Minorities have too long been conditioned to assume self defense is only for straight white

males for way too long. I know it's mostly a vestige of that mindset from the not too distant past when the right to bear arms was denied or at a minimum made harder for minorities, but now it's available to all and needs to be exercised by all who want to. These self imposed mental barriers where we don't seek to exercise a right due to race, sex, orientation or anything else and just assume that's only for straight white people need to be eradicated.

There is a map of instructors willing to take LGBT folks out and teach them, most volunteering to donut for free, that has gone from just an idea to over 500 listings across the nation in less than three days and still growing.

[anoNY42]

5. Not surprising (story), Surprising (reaction)

Measured and generally positive comments on a story about people buying more guns? Have the "general election season" rules here at DU already been imposed?

[linuxman]

6. Good. For the record,

I'm volunteering my time to help educate any interested LGBT person on the basics of firearms safety, handling, usage, and general info, complete with live fire familiarization should any of them in the Winston-Salem NC area choose to learn. Hit me up.

[GOLGO 13]

14. That's a great idea Linuxman.

I hope lots of training & holsters are sold with those weapons. God bless them all.

[roamer65]

7. Smart decision on their part.

They should even qualify for CCW's in "may issue" states.

[jmg257]

8. I wonder if LGBT is "good cause" enough for some states. nt

[sylvanus]

9. and the NRA and the Gun lobby wins again, soon much winning.n/t

[Paladin]

10. In the pro-gun community, this is what passes for a "Happy Ending." (nt)

[jpak]

11. Out of the millions of LGBT folks in the US - only 2000 signed up with Pink Pistols last week?

Gunnuttery Fail

yup

[aikoaiko]

12. That's probably more people than those who joined the Brady Bunch.

[ileus]

13. Now that is progressive...

[Purveyor]

15. Never heard of Pink Pistols but will be checking them out. I've been

personally armed before gay was even "gay" and with good cause.

Thanks for posting...

[aikoaiko]

16. On a related note: West Hollywood plastered with rainbow #ShootBack signs

West Hollywood plastered with rainbow #ShootBack signs

Stickers and posters featuring a rainbow-colored version of the Gadsden flag and the hashtag #ShootBack were raising eyebrows in West Hollywood on Thursday morning in the wake of the massacre at a gay nightclub in Florida.

The signage was affixed to electric boxes, light poles, trash cans and other fixtures near West Hollywood City Hall, the Pacific Design Center and along Santa Monica Boulevard. Several were hung near the Abbey Food & Bar, a well-known gay lounge.

The posters featured a coiled, striking rattlesnake, similar to the yellow Gadsden flag that reads “Don’t Tread On Me” and often is used by the Tea Party movement. The West Hollywood signs were rainbow-colored, like the gay pride flag.

“We are disturbed by them,” West Hollywood Mayor Lauren Meister said of the posters. “We don’t believe in an eye for an eye, and we advocate against gun violence.”

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-weho-shootback-rainbow-20160616-snap-story.html