Within the wake of the bloodbath at Orlando's Pulse nightclub, some pundits, activists, and presidential candidates have trotted out the dependable purple herring that the lethal rampage might have been thwarted if there had solely been some "good guys with weapons" contained in the LGBT membership.
The New York Occasions featured one such piece in a June 22 op-ed by Nicki Stallard. Stallard — a transgender lady and spokesperson for the Pink Pistols, an LGBT gun membership — has beforehand recommended that LGBT individuals purchase firearms as a way of self-defense, and she or he claims there's been a current uptick in curiosity within the group.
In her op-ed, Stallard additionally speculated how many individuals might have been saved in Florida if that they had solely introduced their weapons to the membership. However the Pink Pistols’ name to arms is misguided, misinformed, and completely irresponsible. There's a huge physique of proof that disproves these pro-gun speaking factors and means that gun possession would have disproportionately destructive outcomes for LGBT individuals. Right here’s why Stallard’s op-ed isn’t simply mistaken, it’s irresponsible.
First, it’s been well-documented that gun possession doesn't make individuals safer. In instances of assault, victims have been greater than four times more likely to be shot or murdered in the event that they have been in possession of a gun. Based on The Journal of Preventive Drugs, four.1 % of crime victims have been injured after brandishing a firearm, in comparison with 2.4 percent of victims who ran away or hid. Moreover, permissive hid carry legal guidelines are related to increases in aggravated assault, not the thwarting of assaults. And in a evaluate of 62 mass shootings over 30 years, Mom Jones found no evidence that armed residents function an efficient means to cease assaults. Actually, the publication discovered two separate incidents the place a would-be hero with a licensed firearm was killed or wounded making an attempt to cease an assault. In one other incident, an armed vigilante admitted to virtually capturing a bystander who helped deal with a shooter.
In instances the place LGBT individuals have been capable of battle off an attacker, they're typically denied the good thing about self-defense legal guidelines. In 2011, CeCe McDonald, a black transgender lady, was assaulted by a bar patron who sliced her face open with a glass. A number of individuals turned concerned in a scuffle, and McDonald fatally stabbed an attacker with pair of scissors in self-defense. She accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to 41 months in jail, and served 19 months incarcerated with men. The identical yr McDonald was attacked, Ky Peterson, a black transgender man from Georgia, was sentenced to 20 years for killing a man who was raping him, regardless of the state’s permissive self-defense legal guidelines.
In 2007, Dwayne Buckle attacked seven lesbians, punching and choking them and threatening to rape them “straight.” All seven women acquired jail sentences after efficiently preventing him off with a kitchen knife. Eisha Love was launched after being incarcerated for 4 years with no trial, charged with putting her attacker together with her automotive as she fled from an anti-trans assault. As soon as incarcerated, LGBT individuals often face disparately harsh sentences and experience higher rates of violence and sexual abuse, in response to a 2015 report by the advocacy group Black & Pink.
Even having weapons within the house is especially harmful for LGBT individuals. Transgender individuals and bisexual ladies are particularly susceptible to being the victims of interpersonal violence. Within the last year and a half, greater than 30 transgender ladies have been murdered, many by their present or former partners. Ladies killed by their intimate companion are more likely to be murdered with a firearm than by all different means mixed. Moreover, ladies who stay with their companions in houses the place there's a gun have been at an increased risk of intimate associate murder.
Suicide charges and suicidal ideation for LGB individuals are already significantly higher than for the overall inhabitants, and virtually half (41 %) of transgender individuals have reported trying suicide. In line with research, the probability of suicide will increase when there’s a gun within the residence — and for an already weak group, that is too nice a danger.
The Pink Pistols, together with gun retailer house owners, have been selling snake oil to media retailers, citing unsubstantiated anecdotal claims of upper firearms gross sales to LGBT individuals, and pointing to a rise in members on the Pink Pistols Fb web page. Even a perfunctory look reveals that many of those new members are literally straight males who're gun lovers and have wandered over from the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation to make pro-gun arguments — with some even brazenly expressing their distaste for the LGBT “way of life.”
In fact, that is no shock from the pro-gun crowd, as NRA officers have spent the final 20 years partaking in virulent anti-LGBT rhetoric, calling us “twisted” and “perverted,” and praising Zimbabwe's dictator Robert Mugabe for saying that folks like me and people who have been killed in Orlando “don’t deserve civil rights.” In response to the tragedy in Florida that explicitly focused LGBT Latinos, the NRA launched a statement that didn't point out the LGBT group even as soon as.
In actuality, the LGBT group has strengthened its resolve to advocate for higher gun violence prevention legal guidelines. A coalition of 50 heavy-hitting, principally LGBT advocacy organizations has despatched a letter to Congress demanding that legislators take instant motion to deal with gun violence.
Make no mistake: The most recent iteration of the pro-gun agenda has nothing to do with defending LGBT lives and the whole lot to do with blindly and irresponsibly promoting weapons to an untapped market. Telling LGBT individuals to hold weapons in order that they don’t get “bashed” — because the Pink Pistols group has done recently — is like telling a lady to cease sporting brief skirts to keep away from rape. It’s out of contact and deflects blame from those that ought to really be held accountable.
If members of the Pink Pistols are actually involved about ending lethal violence within the LGBT group, they might begin by slicing their ties with the homosexual bashers on the NRA.
ERIN FITZGERALD is the LGBT Program director at Media Matters. She beforehand labored on the Williams Institute on the College of California, Los Angeles, Faculty of Regulation and the Nationwide LGBTQ Activity Drive. Comply with her on Twitter @QueerEconomicus.
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