Pro-gun LGBT group Pink Pistols grows after Orlando massacre
Pro-gun LGBT group Pink Pistols has seen its membership grow significantly in the wake of the Orlando shooting.
Membership of the group has gone from around 1,500 to almost 7,000 Facebook members, USA Today reports.
“We no longer believe it is the right of those who hate and fear gay, lesbian, bi, trans, or polyamorous persons to use us as targets for their rage. Self-defense is our RIGHT,” the Pink Pistols website reads.
“We teach queers to shoot. Then we teach others that we have done so. Armed queers don’t get bashed,” the site continues.
Explaining that the group is not only open to LGBT members, the website states: “We like to say that we are FOR the sexual minority community, but not exclusively OF it. We welcome anybody.”
Gwendolyn Patton, a representative for Pink Pistols, said in a press release following the mass Orlando killing:
“This is exactly the kind of heinous act that justifies our existence. At such a time of tragedy, let us not reach for the low-hanging fruit of blaming the killer’s guns.
“Let us stay focused on the fact that someone hated gay people so much they were ready to kill or injure so many. A human being did this.”
49 people were killed and 53 injured in the shocking terrorist hate crime attack last week, which saw a gunman open fire inside The Pulse gay bar in Orlando, Florida.
