A gay gun-rights group is calling on the LGBT community to arm themselves in the wake of the Orlando, Florida, terrorist attack Sunday that left 50 people dead.

In a statement Sunday, Pink Pistols speaker Gwendolyn Patton warned Americans to avoid a knee-jerk reaction to blame guns after 29-year-old Omar Mir Seddique Mateen opened fire on dozens of unsuspecting revelers at Pulse, a popular gay nightclub.

“The Pink Pistols gives condolences to all family and friends of those killed and injured at Pulse,” Ms. Patton said. “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. The human being’s tools are unimportant when compared to the bleakness of that person’s soul.

“I say again, GUNS did not do this,” she added. “A human being did this, a dead human being. Our job now is not to demonize the man’s tools, but to condemn his acts and work to prevent such acts in the future.”

Ms. Patton argued that stricter gun control would only disadvantage law-abiding citizens.

“It is difficult, if not impossible, to foresee such an event,” she said. “But if they cannot be prevented, then they must be stopped as fast as someone tries to start them.”

The Pink Pistols, an LGBT gun-rights organization that has 45 chapters nationwide, boasts the motto: “Armed gays don’t get bashed.”

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