I want to take a moment to welcome members of the LGBT community to a collective we like to call The People of the Gun. It’s a tongue-in-cheek name we’ve given ourselves to affirm our mutual, natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.

There are no hard and fast rules for membership. Anyone who supports and/or exercises their gun rights is welcome. It doesn’t matter if you’re gay or straight; male, female or transgender; old or young; white or black or brown; native or immigrant, whatever.

That said, there are a some shared beliefs underpinning the POTG’s culture. Here are five things you can do to ease your entry into this diverse and welcoming firearms fellowship.

1. Master and practice gun safety

Carry your gun safely. Shoot your gun safely. Store your gun safely. We don’t want you or any other American to shoot themselves or anyone else — unless that person or persons on the receiving end poses an imminent, credible threat of death or grievous bodily harm.

2. Support gun rights

Many POTG feel that ALL gun control laws degrade and destroy our gun rights, violating the Second Amendment’s prohibition against ANY government regulation of the right to keep and bear arms. Not use. Keep and bear.

You may not be ready to oppose background checks or government-mandated training. You may think these laws are “common sense” and important for society’s safety. But take a closer look and keep an open mind. Understand that people who oppose these laws are on your side.

3. Support the Constitution

The POTG believe that gun rights do not come from the government. They consider the right to keep and bear arms either a natural right (i.e., a manifestation of our right or even obligation to defend innocent life) or a God-given one. Or both.

The POTG consider the Second Amendment to be an irreplaceable protection of that natural or God-given right. They support the Constitution’s other prohibitions, such as amendments that ban the government from violating your freedom of speech and ensure due process. It’s all part and parcel of the same ideology that enables firearms freedom.

4. Learn the history of your right to keep and bear arms 

You probably chose to exercise your gun rights simply to protect yourself, your loved ones and your community. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, there’s everything right with it. But the right to keep and bear arms was guaranteed by the Constitution so that free men and women (and now transgenders) can defend themselves against government tyranny. Google is your friend.

5. Respect other gun owners

While we rarely encounter them on this, the world’s most popular firearms blog, there are some gun owners who are racists and/or homophobes. To further the cause of civilian disarmament, the anti-gun mainstream media like to portray all gun owners as ignorant, racist “right-wing extremists” or “violent insurrectionists.”

It’s simply not true. Sure, some members of the POTG don’t approve of your “lifestyle.” They may not support gay marriage, abortion, public education, income redistribution, socialized medicine, laws that address global warming or other of your political beliefs. But the POTG have an over-riding concern: government should stay out of its citizens’ business, to the extent that the Constitution dictates.

All that means is that the POTG believe in firm boundaries for government intervention. Boundaries that protect and encourage self-reliance. Tolerance. Respect. Shielding them and you from government tyranny (yes that again). That’s a belief you should tolerate, if not endorse.

Shooting at a gun range is perhaps the most important step you can take in the journey you find yourself on. All of what I’ve just written is the truth about guns and gun owners. Sharing your firearms skills with the POTG, talking to them, getting to know and appreciate them, will prove me right.

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39 COMMENTS

  1. Wow RF you had me until #5-5000 years of social norms/every mainstream religion and somehow it’s all erased in 5 years after being declared “normal” behavior. I don’t have a problem with gay folk being armed but please don’t think I have to “approve” of their behavior. It doesn’t make you “raciss” or homophobic(no fear here)either. I know they’re still overwhelmingly voting D too. Hell-I still get disapproval being married to a brown woman and having 2 kids. I don’t give a rat’s azz if people don’t like it…it’s one reason I’m armed.

    • The most important thing isn’t that you find their orientation disagreeable. It’s that you wouldn’t try to hurt people whose orientation you find disagreeable. That’s what really matters.

      • Ralph I’ve never advocated hurting gay folk. In fact I was made fun of(by a deranged hillbilly) for hanging out with gay dealers at an auction in Chicago. My wife(before we got married) was in an entertainment troop consisting mainly of gay boys-and I got hit on (I was a hunk then). I sold insurance to the “mate” of one(years later) and attempted to get death benefits for him waaaaaaay before it was common. Attended a Christmas party with mostly gay antique dealers a few years ago-and was invited to a gay wedding(which my wife politely declined). I don’t have to approve of folks behavior to help them get armed-or receive Jesus Christ as their saviour for that matter.

        • If you have to keep track of your encounters with gays, you’ve got a problem.

          If you’ve got to tell the Internet a hundred times you are married to someone with a higher melanin content, you’ve got a problem.

      • I’m with FWW on this, a man whom I respect, despite the occasional disagreement……

        Five minutes ago, homosexual acts, even among consenting adults, was criminal behavior. I am never going to initiate criminal violence against someone because of their homosexuality, just as I wouldn’t attack anyone else just for their particular birth defect. However, neither am I going to embrace homosexuals’ actual behavior nor approve of their exceedingly destructive lifestyle, just because some court ruled it’s all the rage. Neither would you, if that same court ruled tomorrow (and it might) that civilian disarmament is the next big craze.

        If the LGBTQQIP2AA wants to experiment with gun ownership, have at it. That’s a natural right granted to you by God or Nature or whatever exists out there. It does not rightly rely on either government or me for consent. The POTG are just kidding themselves, though, when they gleefully anticipate that, on balance, gun ownership is going to turn more LGBTQQIP2AA’ers into pro-2A constitutionalists, than it will just give more hard core liberal LGBTQQIP2AA’ers street cred to come out as severe “common sense” firearms freedom infringers.

        We learned that same lesson with the evangelicals. As a demographic, they’re not limited government devotees. They’re just regular ol’ selfish people who don’t like government pushing them around, but who have no compunction supporting a big government liberal like Trump who’ll use government to push other people around for their purposes. It’ll be the same with the LGBTQQIP2AA’ers. Overall, they don’t believe in Individual freedom. They just believe in their own little personal freedom, which for some may include a little plinkster, and will merrily use government to erode other people’s freedom.

        • Except the realityis that there have been gays since the beginning of written history and guaranteed before that too. Not to mention throughout the animal kingdom.

          No one is asking you to be gay. You don’t have to “like” them any more than you have to “like” your neighbor who is out promptly at 7A with a frakkin’ weedwhacker, and keeps the Rihanna cranked until 9:59P. As long as no one is forcing you to participate, what’s the problem?

          I don’t believe in any man-made deities, and I never will. that doesn’t mean I don’t hang out with Christi-Jew-Hind-slems. (none of whom actually follow their texts, they just ‘identify…)

          We’re hardly the first civilized group to quit caring what one does with their genitals (as long as you don’t rape, and they aren’t actual children). Spending energy on “disapproving” of what someone does that has sweet FA to do with you is a complete waste.

    • Let’s end whose smoking who’s pole and who’s licking rug. It’s time to take a political page from the gays and drill the anti gunners out office.

    • FWIW, I think you may have misread that. RF does NOT say that we all should approve of their behavior/lifestyle/whatever. He does say exactly what you said in support of their being armed.

        • Well, it appeared as such to me, because I think you and RF are essentially saying the same thing. If I’m wrong… well, never mind then.

  2. Thank you for your excellent statement of our POTG philosophy–as a fellow MOT this is the very best explanation of our position of mutual tolerance that I have ever seen–but now we must “spread the Gospel” to those who still believe that all of us POTG are vicious violent uneducated cave-dwellers hell-bent on mass murders. דמד

  4. The views by the LGBT community are no different when it comes to guns. One side wants to protect themselves why the other side wants someone else to do it for them.

    • Exactamundo! There is “Big Gay” and then everybody else.

      The average homosexual is pretty much on our side, if we give them the chance.

  5. Are special needs kids invited or is that still….”full retard”?
    As a parent with a special needs kid….at least thanks for not using that phrase in this article.(i truly have contempt for it)..since we are inviting everyone to the table.

    As for the lgbt community?…they have been around guns for a long long time?
    Not just since orlando.
    Keep calm and carry on! And fight back!

    • “Are special needs kids invited…?”

      I say, “Why not?” If someone can be trusted in public without a guardian, they should be trusted with firearms.

      Of course, I’m still going to unashamedly use “that phrase” when it seems appropriate to the narrative. If it hurts someone’s feelings when I do… well, I’m sure everyone is considered an asshole by someone. I can live with that.

      • It’s just irritating….to use thst term to compare bad judgement to a involuntary medical condition…im not for it obviously but I’d still cover your back if needed.
        Team America!

        It would be so nice if we could just be civil .

        • Still on this SJW bullshit, huh? Accept it, your kid is retarded. Just like the parent of a paralyzed kid is the parent of a paralyzed kid – not someone “physically challenged”. This kind of self-delusion and verbal gymnastics does NOT help your child – it merely denies reality and the appreciation of what actually comes with that reality.

          Euphemisms are not your friend…

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuEQixrBKCc

        • I can understand your irritation, I really can. I have two younger family members that suffer from (different) developmental disorders. But its just a word. One whose current use is so dramatically different from its original use that its almost kind of pointless getting worked up about. If someone said to my nephew “get out of the way you f***ing retard!” of course I’d be furious and I’d consider that extremely disrespectful and just bad form in general. But these days 99% of the time its used, thats not at all the context being used. “This test is retarded” “My mom was being so retarded last night, she made me go to bed before the end of Game of Thrones” etc etc. I can’t manage to get worked up about. Those comments have NOTHING to do with those with mental pr physical defects. Thats not what the people are referring to, thats not what theyre thinking of, and thats not how anyone interprets its. Getting uipset at that usage is thiiiiiiiiis close to getting upset at the use of the word niggardly. sure, it has nothing to do with black people, but sounds the same as a term used to denigrate them so it must be bad too!! At this point, the overwhelming casual modern usage of the term “retard” has little more to do with mental retardation than sounding the same.

          The word retard is on the final arc of trajectory that MANY other similar words have gone through. Words are originally used as medical terms to describe a medical condition. They enter common usage to refer to people with this condition. Then becomes used derogatorily to refer to people with this condition. Then enter broader usage to refer derogatorily to people who do NOT have that condition (insulting them by suggesting they have affliction). Lastly it becomes used commonly as a derogatory term in general with no real remaining connotation by those who use it to the original condition it described. Still not convinced? Still think that despite this the word should be avoided due to its origins/history? I’m assuming then you NEVER use the words idiot, moron, dumb, imbecile, pinhead? Those ALL have gone through the process i just described. They started off being medical terms referring to the mentally retarded/differently abled/special needs/whatever, and are now so far removed from that literally no-one ever thinks about that when they say “this test is dumb!”

      • Perhaps, since the actions of gun-grabbing Anti 2A people is intentional and considered, not a congenital problem (usually), we should consider that “Full retard” is not appropriately or correctly descriptive and choose a more accurate term “Full fascist”.

  8. To all the LGBT folks I know (none of whom will read this) and all those I haven’t heard from (and likely never will), I’d like to extend this same welcome.

    The People of the Gun are the most truly tolerant and welcoming group you’ll ever find.

    Sure, you may have to take a deep breath and keep your tongue behind your teeth when its members say things that rub you the wrong way or espouse political notions you abhor, just as I occasionally do when I’m in your company. But the bottom line is that every last one of the POTG is completely supportive of your right to self-defense — which includes a right to own and carry the best possible tools for the job. More than that, we’ll go out of our way to help you get set up and stay safe.

    A very large percentage of us (probably the majority) are individualists, and as such we’re willing to fight for your right to make your own individual choices in pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness (even if we disagree with them). Trust me, we have no interest in coercing any of you to act against your will. I, for one, am 100% on your side. And I’m far from the only one.

  9. On a completely unrelated note, my wife and I went and saw the new Purge movie this evening. In the beginning of the film, one of the main characters actually blames the NRA ( yes, the real NRA) for the fictional purging of the poor, the sick, and of course, minorities. I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that is how far anti gunners have come. I believe this will be the last money a theater gets from me.

  10. Very well put, RF! And welcome to all newbies from one of the POTG – you’ll like it here. We embrace freedom, and who don’t like that?

    • This is some really bad pandering. We simply need to get them to realize that their safety should be in their own hands and that every human being should be capable of protecting themselves from bodily harm, and not reliant on cops who are going to stand around for 3 hours while people are dying. There was no reason to go into religion or conservative/libertarian politics. That’s the kind of stuff that drives people over the fence the wrong way if their opinion on pleb gun ownership is up for grabs (never say “civilian gun ownership,” as cops are civilians but they still get carve-outs for private ownership and military-style salt waffles in controlled states). Do not try to proselytize people based on “that darn obummercare an’ ‘bortions!” or bring up some Old Testament stuff that was copied by Muhammad when the more pressing issue is just stopping Hillary this November.

  12. I personally welcome the LGBTetc people to the POTG crowd. Why? More the merrier. We need to get more people from as many backgrounds as possible irregardless of ethnicity, lifestyle choices, income strata, religious affiliation, educational achievement, etc to knock on the head the notion we all all racist, homophobic, uneducated, OFWGs.

    I personally do not care about gay marriage because it doesn’t affect me in the slightest. I am also pro-choice on abortion (but glad my then girlfriend, later wife, now ex-wife didn’t exercise the choice because spending time with my son is the best fun I have), and support government paid education, and socialized healthcare (saves me a fortune on medical bills the few times I use it).

    I’ve had a few gay coworkers over the years. Never bothered me. We got on well and respected our mutual skills. My parents had a gay couple as friends. I helped them with IT issues they were having at less than half the cost of a computer shop. We all had a laugh at the folder names when their hard-drive was backed up. Then we cracked jokes about ex-partners. They were great to help. They would prepare me a meal as further payment for my work.

    At my range, we help any new shooter with questions. Why not take advantage of the collective thousand-plus years of knowledge the rest have accumulated. Unlike the FUDDs who will look down on new shooters with disdain and contempt, we have found that assisting new shooters is the best way to keep new shooters, Growing your numbers is important.

    One person is the son of a now deceased member. Although he is doing better than me this year, he is often asking questions about my reloading processes. I don’t mind helping because I am competing against myself more than anything else. So I’ve advised him of which cases, primers, powder (type and weight), and projectiles I use, and updates on the progress of my experiments.

  14. Well said, Robert.

    Same page could be written to any group that the anti’s “claim” we exclude.

    If I could reiterate one point it would be this: To all newcomers to the POTG club, don’t believe everything you hear/read in the MSM, TV or many web sites.

    Believe little…do your own research. The Truth is Out There, and it will become clear. Propaganda always shows itself to be the lie it is; the truth will bubble up to the surface.

  15. What I see here is a lot of religiously based overt distaste for the actions of other people which have no effect on anyone those people didn’t arrange those actions with beforehand. This is followed by professions of tolerance based on those people with objectionable habits not reacting to religiously motivated asshattery. So you expect that you can decry the way someone else peaceably lives and get any sympathy from anything but a token of their number who fall into the out-lier bands of the Gaussian distribution?

    Folks like @formerwaterwalker and his ilk are the reason we have trouble bringing diverse people together under the banner of natural rights for all. They’re too busy extolling their own virtue and bragging about how they have non-white friends to actually be a decent person. If they’d shut their trap once in a while and realize nobody but other ultra gullible believers in magical anthropomorphic golem making invisible men in the sky wants to hear about someone else’s very similar irrational belief in magical sky daddies. The rest of us just see you both as bigots wrapping your bigotry in a cloak of weak interpretation of stuff still other believers in magic say that some completely other believers in magic say that some invisible magic guy said.

    If your interpretation of the stories in an ancient tome written by primitive bronze age tribesmen includes a sky daddy that doesn’t like someone else’s way of living, who cares. Shut up about what your interpretation of the ramblings of bronze age primitives says and just be a decent human being for a minute. Perhaps one concerned with the problems of today.

    The biggest bigots on the planet are those that claim that they harbor no bigotry while professing a bigoted point of view.

    • How RETARDED-you can’t come up an original user name. Almost like another useless troll who “comes here often”…I see you’re boasting of your infinite belief in co-existence while accusing me and my ilk(who’s that?) of being closeted bigots…cute.

  16. Regardless of my thoughts, or anyone else’s, on the morality of LGBT, etc., what this gun shop is doing is great PR for the pro-gun movement for multiple reasons.
    1. It shows the POTG are much more socially sensitive than the anti-gun community tries to paint us.
    2. It shows we are presenting real solutions to real threats, in near real time, not like the “pie in the sky” stuff the antis are pedaling.
    3. It gets us a foot in the door (certainly not a lock) on a whole new group of voting supporters.
    4. It is smart for that gun shop, because I’ll bet at least half of the 500+ people taking those classes will buy a gun from that shop. I hope a lot more LGSs follow suit.

    We should take this kind of creative, high profile action every time there is a tragedy. It is good for everyone.

  17. I don’t care who you are, your religious beliefs, the colour of your skin or your sexual preference or practice. If you are legal to purchase a firearm, then welcome to exercising your right to defend yourself from unprovoked, life threatenning attack.

  18. Welcome new gay gun owners. Please follow the safety rules, get training and practice.
    And please stop supporting and voting for gun grabbing homosexual politicians like Tom Ammiano in California, Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin and Jim Gray in Kentucky who is running against Rand Paul.
    There are others in different states.

    And if you think Christians are the enemy then your guns will provide only limited protection.

  19. To “Gays Against Guns”, I have to say that the only conclusion I can draw is that they approve of 31 people getting slaughtered in an Orlando bathroom because they were required by law to be victims.

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