Jan Elmer, 62, laughs as she looks at her target sheet at West Coast Armory in Bellevue during a Pink Pistols range meetup on May 18, 2019.

“I had never touched a gun and I was kind of uneasy just touching it,” Melissa says. “You don’t know what to expect, and the first time it was like, wow, it was kind of exhilarating because you actually did it.”

The couple have been gun owners since last year. But they have tried to keep this new part of their life private. Most of the Elmers’ friends don’t know they own a gun.

“Progressive people we know look at us kind of cross-eyed when we tell them we own a gun,” Jan says.

Coming out as a queer gun owner can be similar to what it’s like to come out as queer. There is often a fair amount of shaming — some lose relationships, jobs — says Erin Palette, national coordinator of Pink Pistols.

“There is a stigma within the queer community about owning firearms, and it’s rather ironic in that this stigma closely mirrors what it was like to come out in the ’60s and ’70s,” says Palette. “There is definitely a desire to keep their gun ownership on the down low and it can be difficult to live like that.”

Pink Pistols is an LGBTQ-inclusive gun group started in 2000 with the idea that members of the LGBTQ community should have a safe, inclusive space to learn how to use firearms for self-defense. Its motto: “Armed gays don’t get bashed.”

There are now roughly 55 local Pink Pistols chapters across the country. Washington has eight chapters, including one in Seattle.

Once a month, the Pink Pistols Seattle group picks a nearby shooting range at which to meet, places like Bull's Eye Indoor Shooting Range in Tacoma or Norpoint Shooting Center in Arlington. First-time attendees are introduced to veteran members. The talk ranges from what’s happening at work to what new gun accessories are available for purchase.

Range meetups focus primarily on shooting. People show off newly purchased guns and take turns trying out different guns. Experienced gun owners take time to teach new gun owners about firearms. In between firing rounds and in conversations that linger in the parking lot post-meetups, friendships take hold.

Because of a societal shame that can come with being a queer firearm owner and Pink Pistols’ commitment to not outing its members, it is hard to track the number of LGBTQ gun owners in the U.S.

But gun sale numbers, according to Bloomberg, have surged after mass shootings. June 2016, also according to Bloomberg, recorded the third-highest monthly gun sales on record in the country.

Pink Pistols members talk to attendees during Tacoma Pride on July 13, 2019 in downtown Tacoma. Sharyn Hinchcliffe, Pink Pistols Seattle administrator, says she has noticed more interest in the organization since the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, and the election of Donald Trump. “I would say the increase in inquiries that we get and new people actually showing up — definitely there has been [an increase]. We do definitely see it.”

That month was a galvanizing moment for the queer community, says Pink Pistols’ Palette, because the night of June 12, 2016, was when 49 people were killed and 53 others were wounded in a shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

“Pulse was that watershed moment where people said, ‘Oh wow. We are hated as a demographic and they will go after us indiscriminately,’” she says. “So there were a lot of people who were thinking, ‘Yeah, the police may not arrive in time. Maybe I should reconsider my stance on guns and have one to defend myself.’ ”

Sharyn Hinchcliffe, one of the Pink Pistols’ Seattle chapter administrators, says she has seen more interest from the LGBTQ community in the group since Donald Trump was elected. Hinchcliffe says she’s spotted new faces at meetups and has had more inquiries at Pride and gun events.

She thinks this has to do, in part, with Trump administration policies that have alarmed the LGBTQ community: the removal of the LGBT rights page from the White House website; the 2017 ban on trans people serving in the military; and Trump’s opposition to passage of the Equality Act.

There’s also the recent rise in hate crimes, Hinchcliffe notes. From 2016 to 2017, the number of hate crimes rose 17%, according to the FBI. Of those 7,175 bias crimes, 15.8% were against a victim based on their sexual orientation.

“People are definitely on edge,” says Hinchcliffe. “There is an undercurrent in this country that I have not seen before. I’m 52 and I’ve never seen it this violent.”

Hinchcliffe joined Pink Pistols after the Pulse shooting. She identifies as a straight, cisgendered woman; she says Pulse made her want to help defend her LGBTQ family. She wanted to be a shield.

“It doesn’t matter your sexual orientation, your religion, your politics — you as a human have the right to live,” Hinchcliffe says. “It doesn’t get more sacred than that.”