In firing a handgun for the first time, I may have taken the first step toward making myself the tiniest bit harder to kill. However, instead of community, I found suspicion.
Prior to the shoot, I had announced myself in the parking lot as a journalist writing about queer people arming themselves. The Pink Pistols organizers knew I was there, and I promised there would be no photos and nobody’s name would be used in the story without permission.
I hoped that might establish trust with my fellow arms-bearing queerfolk. Instead, most people went out of their way to avoid me for the afternoon — organizers included. Few of them wanted to talk at all, and one insisted the serial numbers be redacted from any photo that depicted guns. . . .
No men or male-presenting participants spoke with me. The chattiest person was a 61-year-old butch dyke from Oakland who, when I asked her name, requested to be called exactly that. She’d worked in private security in Los Angeles in the 1980s, an environment so sexist that the only way to succeed was to become a better shot than the boys. A National Rifle Association member in her youth, she now owned a .38 revolver (“standard cop gun back in the day”), an 18-inch barrel AR-15, and a 12-gauge shotgun. Incidentally, she now works in mediation and conflict resolution and described her politics as extremely progressive.
It had been a long time since she’d fired anything, she said. “And I pray to God I never have to use those guns for self-defense.”
I asked her if she had any pointers for a gun-curious first-timer. Get a good grip on tactics, she said. “If somebody comes into your home, how do you control them? There’s a whole art to doing that. Learn the California Castle Laws,” she said, referring to the legal doctrine that justifies the use of force when an intruder unlawfully enters a home. “And learn the psychological implications of potentially taking someone’s life.”
That got to me. I don’t need to be persuaded that, in a country where 125 people are killed and another 200 wounded by guns every day, I’m playing with fire by even mulling the idea of gun ownership. I honestly can’t envision myself killing people, even to save my own hide. Even gaming out such a scenario feels like faux-macho stupidity. And I would much rather learn how to save a life than take one.
I mentioned this to a gay veteran friend who’s also the strongest voice urging me not to go down this road. He said that, having been in combat, you never know how you’ll react when you’re full of adrenaline and being shot at. “I can tell you firsthand, it’s not good,” he said. “Please find another option.”
Just before my fourth and final turn shooting, a shell casing ejected by the person in the adjacent stall struck my bare shin. It wasn’t hot, but it hurt. I shot close to the target anyway. “Pretty good,” my coach said, with a whiff of approval.
I placed his Beretta on the bench for the last time, stuffed my paper target souvenir in my bag, and headed back home to San Francisco. I couldn’t deny that the experience hadn’t been fun — maybe too much fun. The shooting stance felt sexy; the rush is real. Would I go shooting again? Absolutely. Do I want to become some highly trained, cold-blooded killer? Not in the least.
I’m haunted by my friend’s warning to find another option. I would love one. But I don’t know what it is.
— Astrid Kane in Queer and trans people are arming themselves. Should I?
“where 125 people are killed and another 200 wounded by guns every day…”
That, that right there is why they didn’t trust a journalist…. you represent lies and false and deception. That is a lie straight from gun-control central.
When I read that statement, I actually said to my self “.40 ain’t gonna put up with that!”.
So are you saying less than 45,000 per year are ended with firearms, or less than 120,000 people are shot per year. Or are you pointing out that the journ-o-list mixed up his yearly firearm death stats with casualty stats for the entire Vietnam war?
No, i’m saying that its a lie that “125 people are killed and another 200 wounded by guns EVERY DAY” and its also a lie because it conflates the term ‘homicide’ to always mean ‘murder’ and that’s not true.
For example, … according to the anti-gun GVA, in 2024, excluding suicide, and according to other independent researchers, there were ~16,576 killed with firearms (~17,000 rounded in other research). That’s 45 a day. (this figure include murders, accidental shootings, and homicides deemed legally justified i.e. self-defense, and police shootings – with guns).
Then if we include suicide, as in actual death and not claimed attempts like the anti-gun like to throw in to inflate the numbers of those died, that’s ~8,200 .
16,576 + (~8,200) = ~24,776 in 2024.
~24,776 / 365 = ~67 a day (if they happened every day which they don’t), not 125 a day
It is not true that “45,000 per year are ended with firearms”
16,576 / 365 = 45 per day, not 125 a day.
accounting for suicide … 24,776 / 365 = 67 per day, not 125 a day.
(and also, deaths from gun do not happen ‘EVERY DAY’ as the idiot journalist claimed)
In 2024 there were ~3,400,265 deaths (including suicide death):
* 0.7% of the deaths involved firearms
* the others were due to other non-firearms use circumstances
But, wont someone think of the trans, since that’s what this article is about….
According to the ‘Human Rights Campaign’: They claim “At least 30′ transgender and gender nonconforming people were killed in 2024 – with ~60% of those shot, or 18 were killed with a gun involved (they didn’t differentiate suicide death by gun).
If we subtract that from the 24,776 above (which included suicide) …. 24,776 – 18 = 24,758 non-transgender and non-gender nonconforming people died with gun involvement…. hmmm…. no trans and gender nonconforming people genocide after all.
But lets not rely on the anti-gun GVA…
According to the CDC, for 2023, there were 46,728 people that died from gun-related injuries. That figure includes gun murders and gun suicides, along with three less common types of gun-related deaths the CDC tracks: those that involved law enforcement, those that were accidental, and those whose circumstances could not be determined. The total excludes deaths in which gunshot injuries played a contributing, but not principal, role. (CDC fatality statistics are based on information from official death certificates, which identify a single cause of death.)
And here’s the problem with the CDC data – this > CDC fatality statistics are based on information from official death certificates, which identify a single cause of death. Those death certificates cause of death are determined by doctors/medical people. The CDC does not substantiate if the death certificate cause of death is true or false, they rely on the ‘honor system integrity’ of the medical profession.
In 2023 there were more than 23,000 death certificates that falsely identified gun-related injury as the cause of death simply because a gun was present in some manner (even though it wasn’t used). This brings the 46,728 down to ~23,720 for 2023. This also happens to be the two years when the Biden admin started pushing hard the ‘gun violence epidemic health issue’ and anti-gun doctors started really pushing hard for dictating that ‘gun ownership’ questions be on patient forms and ‘counseling’ to patients about gun ownership while they were wanting to get into the the tax payer money chow line.
How do I know this 2023 ‘more than 23,000 death certificates that falsely identified gun-related injury as the cause of death’? Because state systems also list the cause of death recorded but not the death certificate listed cause of death that the CDC gets. My wife has access to various state systems in all 50 states for research, searching those reveals a difference in the number of gun related deaths and they don’t match up with what the CDC says, which means the death certificates info presented to the CDC contain false causes of death as ‘gun’ after the actual cause of death was recorded in state systems. They changed the cause of death for reporting to CDC so the number of gun deaths would look higher.
(~23,720) / 365 = 65 per day, not 125 a day.
But, as an aside thing, lets look at the ‘honor system integrity’ of the medical profession: Using the CDC year for their gun death stuff, In 2023, ~247,000 people were killed directly by what the medical profession calls ‘medical mistakes’ to keep from calling it ‘malpractice’ … Ya think their death certificates listed ‘medical mistake’ as the cause of death?
clarification for: “This also happens to be the two years…”
the hard push indicated happened in the 2022 – 2023 time frame.
‘knife violence’ – As of March 14th, 2025: There were ~1,600 criminal attacks upon victims daily across the United States where the perpetrator used a knife.
Or…. how about ‘hand violence’: As of March 14, 2025: There were ~3,800 criminal attacks upon victims daily across the United States where the perpetrator used bare hands.
Or…. how about ‘blunt-object violence’: As of March 14, 2025: There were ~4,300 criminal attacks upon victims daily across the United States where the perpetrator used a ‘blunt-object’ (i.e. bat, crowbar, house-hold items, etc…)
Or…. how about ‘ligature violence’: As of March 14, 2025: There were ~1,200 criminal attacks upon victims daily across the United States where the perpetrator used a ‘ligature’ (to choke) (i.e. rope, extension cord, chain, etc…)
Or…. how about ‘fire violence’: As of March 14, 2025: There were ~700 criminal attacks upon victims daily across the United States where the perpetrator used fire.
Or…. how about ‘poison violence’: As of March 14, 2025: There were ~1,200 criminal attacks upon victims daily across the United States where the perpetrator used ‘poison’ (includes drugs either illegal or prescription or over-the-counter, household cleaners, etc…)
Or…. how about ‘chemical violence’: As of March 14, 2025: There were ~2,200 criminal attacks upon victims daily across the United States where the perpetrator used ‘chemicals’ (i.e. pepper/mace/bear spray, ammonia, acids, etc…)
Or…. how about ‘pencil/pen violence’: As of March 14, 2025: There were ~300 criminal attacks upon victims daily across the United States where the perpetrator used a sharpened pencil or pen.
the list goes on for non-firearm for a bit more but just for these categories of criminal attacks upon victims – this is over ~5,580,000 victims over the last year period March 15th 2024 – March 14th 2025
(note: numbers year trend – from March 15th 2024 – March 14th 2025: varies +/- ~10% depending on specific day. numbers rounded. includes ‘domestic violence’. in the overall daily ‘criminal violence’ attacks daily across the United States, a firearm was used by the perpetrator in less than 1% of cases.)
Now another problem with the CDC stats for firearms:
CDC accepts causes of death for all manner of things, and still does, based upon the ‘body part/organ/system’ that failed but something changed. That change was in relation to only firearms. For firearms related it became “gun-related injury” —- “related”. This is the anti-gun concept, that simply by a gun being present or near there is a ‘relation’, even if no shots were fired or even if its a law abiding person carrying concealed or open and simply doing normal-every-day-things-like-shopping-and-not-interacting-with-anyone there was ‘injury’ ‘related’ to guns. The term ‘injury’ is a broad term used by anti-gun that includes a bit of everything from emotional to physical to psychological to imaginary to falling down and scraping knees to simply proximity ’causes trauma’.
Anyway, for anything firearm, CDC got away from the ‘body part/organ/system’ that failed standard and made it “gun-related injury”. You see it being used in anti-gun ‘studies’ and articles and left-wing media especially anti-gun studies and missives – they take the CDC numbers for ‘gun related injury’ and very slyly relate it to, for example, murders or suicides or even accident, and say things like ‘according to CDC the number of people shot… is 45,000 annually’ or something like ‘45,000 deaths due to guns annually’.
Because the CDC went to a “gun-related injury” basis for death reporting for firearms, it means a lot of anti-gun people in the medical community or in states in positions to report to the CDC a ’cause of death’ can simply say something was ‘gun related injury’ because there was a gun present in some manner even if the gun wasn’t used (i.e. a gun owner had guns in their safe in the home). Thus the report that CDC gets is a ‘gun related injury’ and their numbers are falsely inflated for ‘gun deaths’ (including suicide).
Now, are people shot and do they die? Yes, and not saying it does not happen. But in reality the number of people who die as a result of being shot is much less than CDC or anti-gun claim it is.
It sounds like you’re still conflicted because of the current political demonization of firearms. I was fortunate to grow up at a time when guns were considered tools. News flash: They still are. There are no ‘bad’ guns, just bad owners.
I suggest you first innoculate yourself to the “guns are bad” mindset. Attend local pistol matchs, perhaps incognito at first, and just watch firearms being used responsibly. If you have a responsible friend who owns a firearm, watch them disassemble and clean it. Satisfy yourself that a firearm doesn’t magically turn the holder into a homicidal maniac. When the ‘mystery’ is gone, you’ll be better able to decide if you could purchase a firearm for enjoyment AND self-defense.
Sounds advice, John.
I wonder about the gay combat veteran advising this (cough, cough) journalist to not own a gun. Was that general, anti-gun advice, or advice based upon knowing the writer’s personality?
Of course it’s fine if anyone wants to own firearms and learn how to use them. The interesting part is the motivation. In 2020, I began to see articles about black people arming up because they were concerned about the physical threat coming from white supremacists. Yep. I’m not talking about one or two articles. I kept hearing about it. Now another left wing demographic is playing the right wingers are going to hurt me game.
Ever since Trump won last November, I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about the alphabet crowd fretting over MAGA coming after them. Yep. Dan left that part of this person’s article. I have no idea of it is a man or a woman because she/he/it is self-described as a “tran[z]gender and nonbinary person.” The name is Astrid. I think that’s a female name which probably means the author is a dude, but who knows?
From the article:
I’ve never lost so much sleep as I have since the election. It’s enough to erode my lifelong revulsion toward guns and gun culture. For a tran[z]gender and nonbinary person like me, the gains of the last decade — starting around the time of nationwide marriage equality and tran[z] actress Laverne Cox’s Time magazine cover story — now feel imperiled, an anomalous blip of se[cks]ual freedom, like Weimar-era Berlin. Every LGBTQ+ person in America is watching the accumulation of “Don’t Say Ga[e]” laws, book bans, and bills in red-state legislatures that would make being tran[z] a felony. They’re grappling with the anxiety — even paranoia — about where it all leads.
Notice the insane levels of ignorance based on living in the liberal disinformation bubble. Now we can understand the mindset which is intentionally dangerous. This is the same ignorant and fearful mindset that cheered on destructive forces in the Fiery but Mostly Violent Summer of BLM which was the direct cause of nearly three dozen murders and the indirect cause of thousands more thanks to a “reimagining” of how law and order works. Most of the murder victims were not white people. Democrats cheered it on. Now they’re cheering on the destruction of the Tesla company which is naturally spilling over to actual assault and private property destruction because it’s okay to punch a Nazi. Only Nazis would drive nazicars. These people are so lost. It’s sad to watch.
*[_] trying to avoid moderation
There is a group out there assaulting people, blaming Jewish people for the ills of the world, vandalizing en masse, swatting their perceived enemies and spray painting swastikas everywhere and normal people should be concerned.
Trouble for the media is that group isn’t a bunch of MAGA voters.
But the insurrection on that day five years ago! And now this…
The impact that new U.S. [liquefied natural gas] LNG exports have on the environment and the economy was reviewed by U.S. Energy Department scientists and completed by September 2023. It appears that neither President Biden nor Secretary Jennifer Granholm liked the science or the conclusions. Rather than “follow the science,” they buried the report while allegedly making claims directly refuted by their own experts.
The report was finished while Biden was still running for reelection and would have likely enraged environmentalists. The draft study, “Energy, Economic, and Environmental Assessment of U.S. LNG Exports,” found that, under all modeled scenarios, an increase in U.S. LNG exports and natural gas production would not change global or U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
The propaganda media will bury this scandal along with downplaying the violent and destructive behavior coming from the Democrat activists.
Taken in it’s entirety one can surely state that the journalist is q ueer!
“Prior to the shoot, I had announced myself in the parking lot as a journalist writing about queer people arming themselves.”
This was it’s first mistake…journalist and queers have both proven to be extremely left-thinking…and left-thinking folks have been proven to be extremely distrustful when it comes to speaking the truth on nearly every topic imaginable.
Anti-Gunner Organization Just Made the Case for Trans-Identified People to Own Firearms.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/jeff-charles/2025/03/31/anti-gunner-organization-just-made-the-case-for-trans-identified-people-to-own-firearms-n2654766
Transgender and non-binary people, particularly Black transgender women, are overwhelmingly impacted by gun violence.
It turns out that prostitution and being lgbt, and especially t, puts you at risk for suicide and getting killed in a dangerous lifestyle, but let’s blame it on guns because we aren’t really interested in solving problems outside of raising money and getting more Dems in power. No one wants to hear the truth.
“Transgender and non-binary people, particularly Black transgender women, are overwhelmingly impacted by gun violence.”
According to the ‘Human Rights Campaign’: all of 18 of them in 2024 (see my other post further up).
The greatest threat LGBTQ people face is from members of, or participating in, the LGBTQ community:
In 2022, 48.2% of lesbian women reported violence against them in the forms of physical violence, stalking (including with violent assault), or rape by their partners (either by their partner only or with the involvement of male(s) or female(s) bought in by the partner —- two thirds were exclusively the partner female perpetrator, one third was the partner female perpetrator with involvement of one or more males or females perpetrator bought in my the female partner perpetrator).
In 2022, 66% of ‘transgender’ (term as used here also includes those who have either partially or fully transitioned) individuals reported experiencing violence against them in the forms of physical violence, stalking (including with violent assault), or rape, with their ‘partner’ (the term ‘partner’ includes real biological male or female and ‘transgender’) being the perpetrator. (two thirds of perpetrators were exclusively the ‘partner’, one third of perpetrators was the ‘partner’ with involvement of one or more others either real biological male or female or ‘transgender’).
In 2022, 38% of gay and bisexual males reported experiencing violence against them in the forms of physical violence, stalking (including with violent assault), or rape, with their ‘partner’ being the perpetrator. (for perpetrator(s): 3/4 of those the ‘partner’ exclusively, one quarter of those were the ‘partner’ with others bought in that were either real biological male or transgender, with, in the case of bisexual sometimes real biological females were bought in by the ‘partner’)
In 2022, 63% of bisexual females reported experiencing violence against them in the forms of physical violence, stalking (including with violent assault), or rape, with their ‘partner’ being the perpetrator. (for perpetrator(s): 80% of these was the ‘partner’ exclusively, and 20% with others bought in by the ‘partner’ that were biological male or female bisexuals or a mixture of ‘transgender’, lesbian, or straight males and females).
In 2022, (overall, for all violent crimes including sexually based offenses) 69% of violent criminals were either gay or bisexual or expressed ‘gender identity’ issues.
In 2023, all of the above 2022 percentages increased by 8%.
In 2024, all of the above increased percentages in 2023 increased by 10%
An 18% increase above the 2022 percentages over the years 2023 and 2024.
In 2022, as in past years the main ‘environments’ in which members of the LGBTQ community experienced violence (as victims) involved prostitution, drugs, risky sex practices, and partner-perpetrator violence which accounted for more violence against members of the LGBTQ community than all other sources combined. In 2023 and 2024 the same trend continued.
The “Transgender and non-binary people” ARE NOT “overwhelmingly impacted by gun violence” – they are are overwhelmingly impacted by “Transgender and non-binary people – LGBTQ community – life style/choice” violence.”
Left Wing domestic terrorism mental illness continues: … Cuts Off Woman Driving Tesla, Then Assaults Her
“…’
“I’m just appalled,” she said. “I didn’t buy my car for a political statement. I bought my car because it’s really fun to drive. My politics have nothing to do with that. I’m ashamed of our society and what they are doing.”
The video shows the man in the car pulling up in front of her, then boxing her in. The man comes over to her vehicle and she starts to say that he cut her off. That’s when she says he reached into the car and began punching her. She said at one point she bit his hand. Then a passenger from his car came over and pulled the man away.
…
In a completely separate incident, Arizona’s Family 3TV/CBS 5 also interviewed another woman who had received a note on her car calling her a “Nazi.” She then also got another message referring to her as a “racist POS.”
Both women signed up for a gun safety course and are taking measures to better protect themselves.
…”
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2025/03/30/watch-woman-driving-tesla-cut-off-on-highway-then-assaulted-by-suspect-n2187299
Yes, The Left Supports Domestic Terrorism; Liberals Remain Silent About It.
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/03/31/yes-the-left-is-100-behind-domestic-terrorism-n3801312
can ya get my posts out of moderation please, thanks.
“The media in are the enemy of the people.”
President Donald Trump in 2018.
And that is still true to this day. And their sexual orientation doesn’t matter. They are still the enemy.