Anyone who has ever felt afraid knows that the feeling of vulnerability is sometimes hard to take.

Buying a gun and learning how to shoot it is one of the more empowering things you can do — it can also save your life. This sounds like a very conservative thing to say — but it’s just a human thing to say. People of all political stripes have decided to learn how to use a gun in order to defend themselves from a crazy world.

A new television show looks into the trend of “gays with guns,” or the “pink pistols.”

“I don’t want to get beaten to death, stabbed and burnt alive,” a woman with blond hair said on the trailer for the episode. “I want a gun to feel equal.” She is a member of the Pink Pistols, whose motto is “We teach queers to shoot.” According to the New York Post:

Two years after the massacre at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, gay, lesbian and transgender Americans are nervous. According to the Human Rights Center (HRC), a US LGBTI advocacy group, 52 gay people were murdered in the US last year because of their sexuality, and 28 transgender people met the same fate. In increasing numbers, they are fighting back by taking up arms. It’s brought them into lock step with pro-gun groups that haven’t, historically, been all that welcoming of gay people. Australian journalist Patrick Abboud traveled to the US to meet some of the new gun-toting gay people, for a report to be broadcast on Australian news show “The Feed” on Tuesday.

The Pink Pistols are sometimes called the “gay NRA,” which is funny to most of its members.

“I would never have thought I’d see the LGBTI community siding with incredibly conservative, right-wing, pro-gun advocates that have been publicly homophobic and transphobic — that didn’t make any sense,” Abboud said. But after hanging out with the members, he understands how having a gun and knowing how to use it alleviates fear.

“Gays that are armed and trained, don’t get bashed and killed,” said Jeff Bloovman, a nursing student and gun instructor who has become something of a poster boy for the Pink Pistols. “Jeff breaks every stereotype,” said Abboud. “He’s super buff, super butch, the straightest gay man I have ever met and he has tons of guns in his home.” “He spent a couple of hours showing me his guns. I couldn’t believe the number he keeps around him, I saw 35 guns, but he wouldn’t tell me how many he had.” “Some people might say he’s a gun nut, but I spent several days with him and he’s the sweetest, gentlest, most loving guy you’d know. But he genuinely goes out every day and feels like he’s going to be attacked and his schtick is that if it happens, he’s ready.”

I love this! I believe the “Gay NRA” members will find out that having a gun is empowering and allows them to walk down the street more confidently.

Watch the trailer below:



Hat Tip: New York Post

Image Credit: Screen Cap