Breitbart Tech recently had the opportunity to speak with Pink Pistols spokeswoman and California coordinator Nicki Stallard, who explained why the LGBT community should embrace the Second Amendment.

The Pink Pistols describe themselves as a group “dedicated to the legal, safe, and responsible use of firearms for self-defense of the sexual-minority community,” helping LGBT individuals who want to learn how to shoot.

What is the aim of the Pink Pistols?

Nicki Stallard: “Originally we came up as a response to hate crimes, and we encouraged people: ‘armed gays don’t get bashed.’ So we educate, we train, and we encourage people to acquire firearms for self-defense, and to take advantage of state concealed-carry permit laws where they can get gun permits.

Collectively the more of us who are armed, then we become hardened targets.”

Is there an increased threat to the LGBT community?

NS: “I think that there’s always been threats. Certainly over the last year, violence against trans, which is what I fall into, has gone up significantly. But there’s always threats of violence against the LGBT community. Now we’ve got more societal tolerance but we still are at high risk.

I think that there’s some improvements, but it depends on where you’re at also, and certain segments of the LGBT community have higher risk. For instance, the trans community has received increasing risk of violence against us.

Historically the LBGTQ community has always had threats from individuals, groups, and governments.

While we are in a period of improved tolerance, different threats have evolved, for example, the Pulse Nightclub Shooting.”

Will arming LGBT people overcome the threats?

NS: “Arming LBGTQ people is more than just guns, it is a mindset shift from being docile victims to being self-empowered defenders.

While we can’t eliminate all attacks, being able to defend ourselves will discourage threats.”

Do armed LGBT people see conservatives as allies or adversaries?

NS: “Conservatives are evolving to recognize and respect that we too have the natural rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Many conflicts between us and conservatives exist because the government is in areas of our lives where it shouldn’t be in the first place.

I’m seeing an improvement because I hang around with a lot of conservatives, I reach out, I turn the other cheek so to speak, but we can have dialogue. And when you start having dialogue, you start seeing people as people rather than us and them. Then that starts people taking a look at coming up with solutions, or addressing problems and coming up with solutions that are acceptable to both sides.”

Would repealing the Second Amendment help or hurt the LGBT community?

NS: “Our country, America, is based on a bill of rights, recognized as inherent rights. It doesn’t grant those rights, it recognizes rights that we’re effectively born with, and the Second Amendment is more than just our original right to have guns for personal defense, sporting purposes, or whatever. It’s also our personal responsibility to maintain arms to protect our free country from enemies foreign and domestic.

A domestic enemy, for example, would be a rogue government. If the American people ever lost their right to keep and bear arms, and let’s say we made a mistake of electing a very bad government, none of our rights would be secure. The First Amendment gives us all sorts of non-violent means to secure and to address grievances, but the Second Amendment is our enforcement tool. Without the Second Amendment, the American people would lack the violent means to enforce their natural rights. So if you lose enforcement of your rights, your rights become revocable privileges. So if the Second Amendment were gone, everyone’s inherent rights would be gone.

It would be a disaster not only for the LBGTQ community, but for the whole country.”

If someone wants to get involved, where should they go?

NS: “We do have a national website: PinkPistols.org, and on the website, we’ve got links for people who have started up local chapters and that’ll be the first place I’d start looking.

Another organization we have is called Operation Blazing Sword. That group got started as a Facebook group shortly after the Pulse Nightclub Shooting. 1,500 instructors across the US stepped up and offered to train people such as ourselves, and they’re all fifty states. So we’re trying to catch up. And by the way, we’re not limited to LGBTQ, we will help everybody. If we protect our neighbor’s back, then they’ll hopefully reciprocate and that works well for everybody.”

Charlie Nash covers technology and LGBT for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington, or like his page at Facebook.