Karen McCloud and her girlfriend fired round after round, the bullets hitting the human shaped silhouette down range in the head and chest.

A former soldier, Ms McCloud was a straight shot. Her hands steady, her breathing calm, she squeezed the trigger of her 9mm handgun, the hot casings falling to the floor.

“Bad people have guns, and the only people who can stop them are the good people with guns,” she said, reloading her weapon. “And that's exactly what went wrong the other night.”

Mrs McCloud, 48, is one of thousands of people in the gay community who have reacted to the horrors of the Orlando shootings by calling for the right to bear arms in self defense.