“Shooting isn’t like any other hobby,” says Erin Palette, the founder of the LGBTQ-friendly firearms education network called Operation Blazing Sword. “Car people will talk your ear off, but they usually won’t say, ‘Hey, do you want to drive it?’ But, at practically any shooting range, shooters who catch you looking at their guns will say, ‘Hey, do you want to shoot it?’”

Erin’s right. Almost without exception, lawful gun owners believe ‘the more responsible gun owners there are, the better.’ No matter who you are, we support your Second Amendment right. As a result, newcomers to the firearms community are often pleasantly surprised by the openness and generosity with which they’re received.

Contrary to mainstream propaganda, most gun owners will treat “gun-curious” LGBTQ people with equally open arms. In fact, this welcoming ethos is the driving force behind Operation Blazing Sword, which Erin founded to help arm LGBTQ people in the aftermath of the devastating Orlando nightclub shooting.

“Following the Pulse shooting, we saw an outpouring of support that people don’t expect or talk about,” Erin says in an interview with TTAG. “This reaching across the aisle that we’re told never happens.”

“There were a lot of white men, gun owners, who were saying, ‘You have a right to life, you have a right to defend yourself—and I will help teach you. I’ll take you shooting, and I’ll pay for everything. I just want you to learn and have a good time.’”

The Emblem of Operation Blazing Sword

Because Erin was a familiar face at shooting ranges as well as in the LGBTQ community, gun owners started approaching her, volunteering to provide nonjudgmental firearms instruction to LGBTQ people without prior shooting experience. It started with a handful of individuals, but, even on that small scale, getting the word out was an uphill battle.

“Because of how everyone on social media is in their own bubble, I knew the people who really needed to hear this welcoming message wouldn’t see it,” Erin explains. “But I thought I could just collate the names of these people who were willing to help, and hopefully the people who needed to see it would, and they might even share it.”

To Erin’s amazement, over the course of that one day, the trickle of volunteers became a tide.

“12 hours later, I collapsed into bed. We had over 100 volunteers,” Erin recalls happily. “Over the next month, I was getting a hundred emails a day from people who wanted to help in some way. So, I got some amazing, really competent people who helped put all that data on a map.”

Now, about two years later, there are over 1,500 volunteer trainers indexed on Operation Blazing Sword’s publicly available map:

 

  

The list includes people in every state and every metropolitan area, including (currently) more than 40 in California and hundreds all along the East Coast. You read that right—gun owners in the bluest of blue states are allowing their names to be listed on Erin’s map.

“‘Coming out’ as a gun owner in a liberal state is very similar to ‘coming out’ as queer in a conservative state,” Erin observes.

“The communication and education goes both ways,” she says. “Not only do queer people learn what it’s like to be a gun owner, but gun owners learn what it’s like to be a queer person. We’re making that personal connection, and it’s a deeper and more important idea of let’s not do this civil war that seems inevitable.”

Speaking of which, you’re probably not surprised to learn that by and large, gun owners aren’t the ones holding Operation Blazing Sword back from even more explosive success.

“Getting instructors isn’t the hard part,” says Erin. “There are many people who have signed up. The hard part is getting the message into the community—traditional forms of media, the gay newsletters, the help centers—all the things like that won’t talk about us.”

“They regard us as if we’re radioactive, because they’ve bought into the narrative that if we have anything to do with guns, we are evil and toxic and Republican and conservative, and so the moment we try to speak to them, they plug their ears and go la la la la la.”

In fact, Erin recently planned an active shooter survival training event that was cancelled by those who had previously agreed to host it… because it had to do with guns. Very luckily, Erin was able to get short-notice funding from Brownells to host it at a different location (it’s called One Aim and will take place on July 14 in Orlando, and future organized OBS events can be found here).

Image via Operation Blazing Sword

Looking at the big picture, such obstacles are only speed bumps. Already, half of the people who fired their first shots thanks to Operation Blazing Sword now own guns. Of those, two-thirds have obtained carry permits. That’s a powerful thing, particularly for those of us who believe that all concealed carriers are, in a way, gun activists. A trend like that, reproduced nationwide, could change the entire cultural landscape.

“The amazing thing is, this is completely grassroots,” Erin adds. “We’re not funded by a New York billionaire. We’re not funded by the NRA or any other gun organization. I wish they would donate, of course! But all of this is funded by volunteer donations.”

As such, it’s important to clarify that Operation Blazing Sword is not a full-on training organization. In Erin’s own words: “We’re not claiming that we do professional training. We like professional trainers and we don’t want to put them out of business. These are people who wouldn’t seek out training otherwise, and once they have a good first experience, if they’re interested in learning more, we’ll refer them to someone who can give them more training.

Above all, Operation Blazing Sword “removes a huge barrier to entry for people who are already hesitant about going shooting,” says Erin. “It really removes the fear of the unknown. So, now, they understand how firearms work, they understand what they don’t do, and now they’re armed against the misinformation out there.”

That’s something everyone can get behind. Follow Operation Blazing Sword on Facebook and share their website with anyone you know who could benefit.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

139 COMMENTS

  1. there are plenty of Democrat gun owners as well…
    and plenty of Independents, too
    personal responsibility is key…with great rights come great responsibilities…some people are not ready for them…at any age
    gun ownership and use is a choice…

    • I do not trust anyone who claims to be a member of the Democrat Party and also claims to own guns. To me, it is an in-your-face example of hypocrisy. It is almost like a wealthy Democrat (socialist). Independents, on the other hand, I almost always assume they are a gun owner and a firm believer in the 2nd Amendment.

      • Your attitude is one of the reasons our gun rights are doomed. The long term demographics in our country are not favorable for gun owners. We desperately need to pull in people who would normally be anti-gun, and it can be done, but it’s extremely difficult when people insist on gun ownership as an overall part of their political identity.

        Organizations like in this story are who the NRA and other gun rights groups should be enthusiastically supporting. If we don’t start making gun ownership and gun rights a less partisan issue, we will lose. I can assure you, anti-gun people welcome and seek out traditionally pro-gun people for their side.

        • It’s about education.

          I grew up very very Democrat, and the leftistest part of the Democrats. For example: my stepmother claimed she would disown any of the kids who joined the military. How’s that for dysfunctional?

          But, at some point about 10 years ago, I decided I wanted to buy a handgun. A period of investigation and learning came from that, and the more I learned about guns and especially gun laws, the more I figured out just how wrong the Democrats are about guns. And not just wrong, but ignorantly wrong. A wrong based in irrational fear and shrill histrionics. Real fucking wrong.

          Now it’s over a dozen guns of differing types later, and I try and engage my family and others gently. Trying to educate them. But the resistance is strong. And emotional.

          (Incidentally, while I understand the comparison to gun owners and LGBQT folks (coming out of the closet, social ostracism, etc), no one is going to target me to drag behind their truck or try and beat me up just for being a gun owner. I mean, let ‘em try but, you know, I’ve got a gun.)

          But all of that doesn’t mean I have suddenly turned in to a Republican. There are social and economic policies that I still agree with the Democrats on.

          They have, however, completely lost me as a lockstep, full ticket voter. Especially with this last round of using children as puppets and out-and-out lies from organizations like Every-town. And I’m not the only one.

        • “Demographics” are not as much on the side of the democrats as they’d like you to believe. Many democrats/liberals evolve into republicans/conservatives as they get older and wiser, and more fiscally responsible. This is true across all races and sexes. Also, when pointing to demographics, democrats often rave about the future Latino population as if they’re already a solid liberal base. They are not. Trumps stance against illegals has actually boosted his numbers of legal Latino supporters. Trump also received a higher percentage of both the black and Latino vote then soft establishment Mitt Romney did. If the GOP plays its cards right, it could easily swing Latino votes out of the democrats hands.

          • Yeah right. That’s why Mexico just elected a communist. They only vote for the person that promises more government handouts.

        • Moshe, I take it you didn’t actually follow the election in Mexico. It was more about anti-corruption and narco-violence than government handouts.

          As far as New Continental Army’s discussion on demographics and voting, he’s right on. Decades of data back him up. We’ve certainly seen that in Texas, especially when it comes to 2nd Amendment rights. We haven’t elected a single Democrat to any statewide office in 20 years, and our firearm rights have never been better protected. And that’s with more Hispanics living here than anytime since we were our own country. We have become more conservative with a higher Hispanic population, not less. The facts are out, the longer they stay here, the more likely they are to vote Republican.

        • It isn’t about an overall political party affiliation. It’s about an ideology of individuality. The vast majority of the gay community (I don’t abide the endless appellations of initials. “Gay” is sufficient) regard themselves as, well, part of a community first. Same with most minorities. These are collectivist cultures and subcultures. They may like to shoot their guns, but they don’t know what it means. Their politics are incompatible with what for them is just a hobby.

          We have as much chance of recruiting them into authentic firearms freedom advocacy as they would of recruiting most of us into their lifestyle.

        • I agree and would paraphrase your position as:

          We need to make guns a thing for all political groups, not try to make everybody part of our political group that happens to like guns.

          But then, I’m a filthy gun-owning LGBT libertarian, so what do I know?

        • @Jonathan-Houston i am a gay woman as is my partner of course. we are both fiercely liberty minded and individual Rights/Responsibilities oriented. we dont have a lot to do with the gay community due to some of the BS they go on with. i have been shooting since my early teens and always wanted to do a trade in fitting turning and machining, go on from that to toolmaker and then gunsmithing. never been able to get a start in the trade however soon i plan to get my own lathe and mill and start teaching myself. screw what others think. the recent postal vote for gay marriage here in australia we did not vote in because the way it was done was unlawful and because we knew the legislation that our govt actually wanted to introduce was straight from the UN and contains loopholes that allow pedophilia we were dead against it. we were also actively telling others all these facts about it too trying to get them to not vote or vote against it.

          how does that fit with your gays are all voting for who gives the best handouts

      • I’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with anyone who supports the 2A.

        While I understand your sentiment about democrat gun owners voting for democrats, as a Libertarian, I also wonder about that other party. Full of members who claim to understand the purpose and history of the 2A, who then turn around and support a military police state with a standing army.

        In the words of Madison in Federalist 46:
        “that the traitors should, throughout this period, uniformly and systematically pursue some fixed plan for the extension of the military establishment”.

        In my view, voting for democrats who take the guns is no different than voting for republicans who support the people who will be enforcing those bans.

        • strongly agree with you mate. i hate “conservatives” that create a police state just as much as i do communists/socalists/fascists. they are all dictators of the same stripe no matter which doctrine they follow.

        • Republicans have true conservatives such as Paul and Cruz; and then they have RINOs like the Bush dynasty and Mittens.
          Demoncraps are just about all anti-gun. At least the Republicans usually pay a little bit better lip service to gun rights

        • “……….support a military police state with a standing army.”

          Do I interpret that correctly to mean that you do not believe in the military and would support the disbanding of the United States military? That you do not believe in standing militaries?

          • look at how the early FF’s set up the Constitutional Republic of the United States. they did not want a standing army but rather a citizen militia that could rise and disband as needed. standing armies are very costly to run and they put the power directly back into the hands of the govt which the Founding Fathers distrusted greatly. they also did not particularly like police forces run by the govt hence sheriffs having to be elected. i know of nowhere else in the world where the local police are elected

      • there are plenty of Democrat gun owners as well…
        and plenty of Independents, too
        Yeah, keep voting for the big Demoncraps and watch your gun rights evaporate.
        A government that can give you ll sorts of free sh^t, will take away from you all sort of your hard earned sh^t. You cannot have it both ways.

        • Keep using childish, made up words like “demoncraps” and continue to watch no one take you seriously.

    • No, there USED to be lots of democrat gun owners. Now there is only a few. Most gun democrat gun owners flipped during Obama’s second term.

    • Democrat gun owners in Chicago/cook county?? Only the gang members and the politicians (who have body guards). They’re still anti-gun for everyone else. (Yea, they know who the gang members are.They slap them on the wrist every time they get caught.)

  2. “Follow Operation Blazing Sword on Facebook”?
    I’ll bet not for long. FB will pull this offline just as soon as they can think up an excuse. This is an “uphill battle”, against well funded and entrenched, wholly prejudiced, opposition. They “plug their ears and go la la la la la.”, do they?? How well we know that! Some of us have been fighting against such childish bias since the 1970s.
    Still, we are winning. Amazing, isn’t it? I always thought we would, even though I didn’t think it would take my entire lifetime. But much better late, than never.

    • Anyone want to bet that the FB employees who pull it down aren’t democrats? I’ll take your money…

      • I’ll bet that everyone in positions of censorship at FB are either democrats or RINOs. Every. Single. One. I bet 9 out of 10 are straight up, registered, democrats. Mostly with no idea who is even running in whatever. Just enough gray matter to check a box marked with a “D”. Except for Killary,
        OFC. They all know who she is. God, naturally.

    • OBS has been on facebook for a long while now. I think gay beats guns in the facebook algorithm.

      • No, that was deliberate. When I first started this thing I needed a word for it, and so I started calling it Blazing Sword because I had planned to fold it into Pink Pistols — merging to become Voltron, if you will.

        That didn’t happen because OBS took on a life of its own, but the name stuck because people liked it and I couldn’t think of anything else to call it.

        • Nice! That makes it more awesome!

          Voltron did have the message of uniting differences to achieve the strength to overcome obstacles.

    • People, please don’t taint this excellent post with nasty and unnecessary comments.
      Jimmy Carter, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, UN, Bilderbergers, CFR, TriLateralists, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Illuminati.

  7. It’s great gay people are deciding to arm up for protection. But stop voting for anti gun people or you’re defeating the purpose.

    • First they become gun owners. Then they become friends with other gun owners.

      And then they start to learn and hear about the ways that Democrats hate gun owners.

      It’s a process. It takes time.

      • Anon in CT
        It was San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, an openly gay man, who said in the 1970s that he had a gun and he thought everyone should have a gun. Unfortunately he was assassinated in a gun-free zone in San Francisco California. And to this day the vast majority of homosexuals ignore this very sound advice.

        It will take a very long time before homosexuals change because they are socialist Progressive in their political orientation. In their current state the vast majority of homosexuals are the enemies of Liberty. This of course does not prevent them from getting a gun for self-defense.

    • What makes you think pro gun vite democrat in the lgtb comminity. Might be surprised how many are gop voters. Never assume all of any group fit in “x” category.

  8. Growing up in Northern Virginia, I certainly can see the honesty in, “Coming out’ as a gun owner in a liberal state is very similar to ‘coming out’ as queer in a conservative state,” Erin observes.” It’s a good analogy.

    The looks and open shock/disappointment you get from family and friends who grew up in the sub/urban bubble and the self-doubt you get from independently feeling that guns actually AREN’T a bad thing turns over a lifetime of what you’re indoctrinated with not purely out of malice, but out of sheer ignorance of what they can/cannot do. I’ve literally lost a friend at university when I described how the ’86 full-auto ban was pretty shady and that the ATF shouldn’t be able independently legislate guns as they do (this wasn’t even a full conversation; I mentioned it as a fact in passing about government corruption being the topic, and they gave me a look like I was awful and they stalked off and we never really talked again despite me knowing this person since high school).

    If you’re both LGBT and pro-gun, it must be even weirder (I imagine, since I only fulfill the latter) since there’s assholes on both sides who will project onto you as some sort of philosophical traitor to the cause despite them being independent of each other.

    • Nothing to do about gays but definitely about gun owners in anti-gun areas “coming out.” Many moons ago we had a relative obtain a NJ CCW permit (!) after becoming an auxiliary policeman as a side job. I was but a kid at the time. You should have heard the suburban relatives freaking out. So scandalous! How could ____ own a gun???? As a kid of the male persuasion I was very curious. How indeed could he own a gun? And what did he own? And how could I? Did not pursue the question at the time because I would have been smacked up the side of the head for asking and that was before my mother would have starting hitting, but it was a meaningful experience for a kid who grew up in an otherwise gun-hating climate.

    • Does it need to be more? I mean, it could have some links to general gun information and have “The Four Rules” posted to get people started but it’s purpose is to help the fence-sitters we so desperately need on our side find people who can help them learn and even experience a day as a POTG. A simple map with contact info seems adequate as a start at least.

  10. The hypocrisy of the LGBT community shunning this group when they find out it involves responsible gun ownership is extremely telling of what their agenda really is.

    • The organized “LGBT Lobby” is very much a subsidiary of the Democrat Party. But that doesn’t mean that all LGBT folks have to stay on that plantation.

  11. We had a good eight year run TTAG. As the new ownership attempts to “diversify” the target audience, I hope your added numbers outweigh your departing numbers.

    • If they can add women and minorities to their fan base then yes, the numbers will be greater.

      All they risk losing is a few of the stormfront crowd that hangs around here making the rest of us look bad.

      Win-win for ttag and the people of the gun.

      • The problem is that the storm front fans are a large part of the audience. You can tell by the comments. Hopefully, we can flush those turds away and have better readership.

        Just look at the ads here. They’re all ads for various scams. Tells you a lot about the quality of the current readership here.

        • “You can tell by the comments”
          Comments don’t reflect overall readership at all. I get to see the data behind the site, and the stormfront crowd is infinitesimal. Every one of them could drop off and it would barely be a rounding error in the readership numbers.

        • The problem is that the storm front fans are a large part of the audience.
          Yeah, we are all Nazis, love Storm Front, and support gun rights!
          Adolf ist wunderbar!
          Since when do real Nazis support private citizen gun rights?
          Get a grip people!

        • Well then, they sure are loud, JWT.

          But… how are you parsing the political leanings of readers and commenters?

        • Swarf,
          They aren’t particularly loud, they are just the ones you are paying attention to.
          For many readers, we can see what sites they came from as well as other standard track-able information.

    • When Farago ran this website he was very much at a similar stance with gay rights and gun rights. It’s actually been a pretty common theme around here. He openly supported and donated to the pink pistols long before anyone else knew they were a thing. This isn’t news.

      • If Dear Robert was telling people he was donating to the Pink Pistols, AUDIT HIM.

        We have never taken donations. Whenever someone has asked me about donating, I tell them to take someone shooting who has never fired a gun before. If they don’t want to do that, I tell them to use the money to take a class, or go to the range and practice. If they can’t help with outreach, then help by getting better.

        Erin is one of my bestest ever friends in the whole world. I’m proud of her like I invented her or something. (I didn’t.) She came to my rescue when I was inundated here at the Pink Pistols by gallons and gallons of people offering to help out by giving GLBT people training. I appreciated the offers, but I was buried under hundreds of requests for interviews about Orlando at the time and simply didn’t have the minutes-in-a-row necessary to handle them all. Enter Erin, who answered my querulous cry for help and took over those offers of services and turned it into Operation Blazing Sword.

        But back to Robert. I did one article for him. ONE. That was all. If he did anything else with the Pink Pistols, I’m not aware of it. And any claims of “donating” to us were just that. Claims.

        Gwen Patton
        First Speaker, Pink Pistols

  12. I was wrong. The “new” TTAG has an agenda. I’m not leaving but my support IS.

    • Isn’t he agenda making sure the second amendment is for everyone? Why do you have a problem with that?

    • There are only two agendas for TTAG:

      1. No matter what, tell the truth about guns to as many people as you can.
      2. Try and make a profit doing so.

      That’s all I’ve ever experienced. What else do you think it is? What else do you see?

    • Huh? I say again. Since when is what this article is about news? RF had the exact same stance.

  13. Maybe it’s just me. But (with this too) it doesn’t seem like people are jumping to the end of the argument (the ‘end state’ in the argument).

    We’re talking about ‘equality’. How’s about you hold yourselves out to be the ‘equal’ that you are and I will see what parts of that I want to equate myself to, and what I find myself equal-to. You’re (LGBT) finally doing that (and it comes at the price of what? not “demanding” equality [which cannot be given or granted (J.M.Thomas R., TERMS, 2012, Pg. 109)]) and you found that people [oooh, even Conservative people] equate themselves with you as “people”. That’s a backhanded compliment because projection, and you’re not paying attention. The whole OP comes off, to me, like you’re pitching the request for support of a group of handicapped people. I don’t get it.

    Anyway.
    You’ve got only one ally in this game, and it’s Conservatives. Yeah, there are liberal gun-owners out there, but they cannot be your true ally until they wake up and become Conservative. Want proof? Just ask the Civil Rights movement (the ones that are paying attention).

  14. Let’s not bring any of that outside labeling into the 2A community. You either like the 2A or you don’t. We don’t need any outside political nonsense also distracting from our goals…

    • If your goals don’t include getting new people interested in your goals, you’ve already failed.

    • That’s just not possible. The goals of the 2nd Amendment community are inherently political.

      Note that there are only a few nutjobs saying “I don’t like you because you are gay.”
      Most are saying “I don’t care if you are gay but I still don’t like you because you continually support candidates and officeholders who are attempting to deny me my natural, civil, and constitutional rights.”
      That last one is fair. There is absolutely no reason to welcome people who are doing their level best to disenfranchise and impoverish us.

      • +

        “When forming interactive societies one maxim maintains the balance of individuals when
        commingled pairs form larger groups.
        That maxim is simply:
        ‘I WILL NOT PAY TO RAISE-UP AN
        ARMY AGAINST MYSELF’.

        . . . Although human interaction is full of compromise [one frequently may have to support the personally distasteful to obtain that which is personally acceptable or required] an individual cannot be expected to compromise to the point at which they become compromised. Meaning, that it is ignorance of human nature to assume that a person will, without great twist of truth or physical compulsion, surrender their personal objectives sought in forming a societal agreement [4].” [J.M. Thomas R., TERMS, 2012, Pg. 35]

      • Most are saying “I don’t care if you are gay but I still don’t like you because you continually support candidates and officeholders who are attempting to deny me my natural, civil, and constitutional rights.”
        That last one is fair. There is absolutely no reason to welcome people who are doing their level best to disenfranchise and impoverish us.
        Personally, I really do not care if people want to be fudge packers, just quit voting for the Nazi and Commie Demoncraps!
        Hey, Mussolini proves you can be both.

  15. Every human has the right to exist. Every human has the right to defend itself. It does not matter what they think, feel, look like, or who they are. If ‘human = Y, then self defense is a right’.

    It is really that simple.

    • Gotta love math.
      Tells no lies.
      Pure logic.

      That’s why most don’t get it.
      About math.
      There is no logic to culturalism.

      Human=y
      Culture=x
      Logic=L
      Y+x= 0(L)

  18. Regardless if their core focus is on a specific demographic you don’t care for or not, the underlying purpose of this organization is something the gun owning community has needed desperately for a long time now. Most of us POTG grew up around other POTG. People who are interested, curious or even driven to join our ranks who do not have our background are presented with a massive barrier to entry. If as an adult they are not already a gun owner they almost universally have these things in common:
    1) Have been afraid of guns until something happened that caused this new curiosity
    2) KNOW that gun owners are OFWG’s who are bigoted nazi’s because that’s all they’ve ever heard
    3) Have to ask one of those OFWG’s who hate them for help getting started
    4) Have no idea what to ask the OFWG to get the conversation started
    5) Have no idea the cost they are about to encounter their first trip to the range
    6) They have no friends who they can ask without disrupting their social circle
    7) Likely very nervous about challenging their long held believes in addition to having to confront the conditions above

    Being able to reach out to somebody who you have a high likelihood will not be the OFWG that they have been indoctrinated to fear is putting their foot on the first rung of the ladder to get over that barrier to entry. Every friendly question answered, first round from a .22, first round from a scary black rifle, etc. is a step down the ladder on the other side of that barrier and another heart won. When they go home and they hear about how evil those gun people are . . . they have some idea how we feel because they are being lumped in with us all of a sudden and all they did was learn something safely.

    We have needed this in our community for a long time and none of us stepped up to the plate to make it happen. Not more than just those we could individually reach anyway. A way for people who have no gun owning friends to meet gun owning friends. I just hope they don’t have some ass-hat sign up to intentionally ruin what should be a very good thing.

    • That’s why I believe we should all keep a cheap, reliable 22lr pistol in our collections. That way when we teach that prospective new shooter and they finally decide they wanna go buy a gun, we have something we can sell them relatively cheap to get them up and running. Now I’m not saying go out and buy a brand spankin new Ruger or Taurus 22 semi auto for like 400 bucks, but rather a gently used or cheap pistol, something that we won’t lose a whole lot on when we sell it for like a hundred bucks. Examples would be a Heritage Rough Rider or a PT22 if the price is right.

      • I could not agree more. As a father of four, .22 rifles and pistols are as important a piece of my collection as my EDC, bird and bolt guns. In fact, my oldest just bought his first gun . . . a .22 rifle. I hate those videos of guys handing their girlfriends a 12 guage or large magnum revolver as the first thing they shoot. All they did was instantly add a person to the “why would anybody ever want one” camp.

        • Very much agree.

          Not only is that just a dick move in general, you’ve given someone a bad gun experience and locked in a shit version of what kind of person a gun owner is.

  20. Will you still be on board when they decide to include pedosexuals into the mix? That Is what they are trying to normalize next.

    “Check out that based pedo in a nra hat!” Smh

    • I would be very entertained by hearing how you came to that ridiculous conclusion that LGBT communities support pedophiles. Please, enlighten us.

      P.S. Your bigotry is showing.

      • “I would be very entertained by hearing how you came to that ridiculous conclusion that LGBT communities support pedophiles.”

        Not many, but there is a (thankfully) small sub-set that do believe adult men should be allowed to have consensual sexual relations with minor boys.

        Have you ever heard of ‘The North American Man/Boy Love Association’ (NAMBLA)?

        https://www.nambla.org/

        • yes i have heard of them. if i caught any of them they would wish the law had gotten to them first and busted them for every single act they had ever committed. ever heard of the indian torture where they tie them down over a meat ants nest…..

        • There is a much larger subset of people who not only think child rape is ok, but have done it and continue to do it with scant reprecussions.

          They call themselves the Catholic Church. They’ve been around for awhile.

          NAMBLA is universally shunned (except by a few, like rightwing all-star Milo Yiannopoulos) by polite and impolite society. The Catholic Church, not so much.

        • Just for the historical record the national man boy love Association has been allowed to march openly in gay pride parades with six and eight foot banners declaring who they are.

          Photographs of this have been on the internet for quite some time. But for some reason they have been taken down.
          I wonder why?????

    • So you’re advocating leaving the LGBT community unarmed and anti-2A and the gun community insular and smaller than it could be because of who MIGHT be included under the umbrella of ‘LGBT’ in the future?

      ‘Don’t eat that cake, son. It might go bad in a week or so.’

      • Less than 3% of the population identify as gay. Of that 3%, how many are into guns?
        Let’s stop kidding ourselves.
        Back to the cuckshed.

        • Let’s see if I can translate from the original Trollish.

          ‘A small percent of the population is a group not known for being firearm owners. This project to change that is therefore useless.’

          Tell me, how DOES one type in crayon?

    • Being gay is not a crime. Being a pedo, like being a murderer is a crime. This is a ludicrous stretch to try to cover for your bigotry.

    • Perhaps you should check out the gay community’s response to Kevin Spacey’s #METOO announcement. (Hint – they were furious he tried to connect his accused pedophilia behind his ‘coming out’ announcement)

    • Seriously? Most sexual offenders are straight and not part of the lgtb community. Grow the hell up.

  21. FWIW-I have taken a lot of liberals shooting when I lived in the PRC (People’s Republic of California). Most started off scared, and later became POTG. Along that path, some woke up to the lies being told by the Demoncrats and actually started thinking for themselves. I count those people as a win on two fronts.

  24. I am a Blazing Sword volunteer instructor. At the same time, I’ve noticed a number of other Blazing Sword Illinois instructors are among the very best in our state.

    A worthy organization with a great mission in my opinion.

    John

  25. I support gay people etc. (insert the whole alphabet here) arming themselves. And I agree that armed gays don’t get bashed. But what I find really disturbing is the self-destructiveness of the gay community, where left-wing gun-grabbing scum are elected and re-elected with monotonous regularity.

    Gay etc. people, if you really want to be safe, stop voting for those who want you to be totally vulnerable. It’s completely senseless.

    • They’ll figure it out. Just like Trump’s support among black voters has already doubled in just two years, and will likely continue to.

      Get em out of the bubble, and people can see for themselves what’s good for them and what isn’t.

    • I’ve stated pratically identical sentiments about black democrats. Get a gun. I’m all for it.Don’t expect me to throw a party. And YES 2 pro-LBGT articles in 2 days is an agenda. Hell I got “comment moderated” for an innocuous “L” word comment. Any idea who bought TTAG Ralph?!?

  26. Please excuse me for a moment. I need to puke…profoundly puke…like projectile vomiting puke. Anyone have a 55 gallon barrel to catch the stuff?

  27. wasnt the pistol caliber carbine initially primarily designed and marketed for sale to and use by the LGBTQ community

    seems like a perfect match

    • Citation please. Not challenging you. I have never heard this and am genuinely interested in where you got this idea. Or maybe I just missed your “pistol transitioning into a rifle” sarcasm.

  28. Well, I’ll remain hopeful but I seriously doubt ownership of firearms will convert anyone from a left-leaning statist into a Constitutional originalist. Might – but not likely. About the time all those supposedly innately conservative cultural Catholic Hispanic immigrants – legal and otherwise – do I guess…

  29. i’m all for everyone exercising their rights, but i’m starting to think maybe GLAAD or GLSEN took over this blog and we never noticed

  31. The homosexual community is a danger to our society. Their promiscuous behavior is unhealthy and dangerously unhygienic. In addition, up until very recently their behavior was ruled as a mental disorder. They have a suicide rate several times the national average. These unstable individuals need help, not access to firearms.

    • They’re American citizens and they already *have* access to firearms. They need positive experiences with gun owners and training so they can join the firearms community and defend themselves against homophobic bigots. Know any?

      • You seemed to have ignored all the well reasoned points I made. I stated that homosexual behavior is dangerous to society and to the individuals practicing. Instead of disputing that you just called me a bigot. Facts don’t care about your feelings.

        • Standard
          how is it more dangerous? from what i see it is no more dangerous than hetrosexuality. where the danger comes in is when there is promiscuity and that my friend is not limited to the LGBT community

        • “You seemed to have ignored all the well reasoned points I made.”

          Nope, didn’t ignore a thing.

          You made several wildly imaginitive (well, no, profoundly UN-imaginitively stereotyped) claims with no supporting evidence.

          Provide some evidence or FOAD.

  32. Don’t have the slightest interest in anyone’s sexual orientation – until they decide it’s a lever to power for the leftist/statist/totalitarians trying to abrogate my natural rights to the fruits of my labor, freedom to think and speak as I see fit, worship and associate as I like, and, most importantly, defend myself. If becoming an LGBT POTG means these folks start minding their own business and leaving me the heck alone then I’m all for it. But like I already said – doubt that it will.

    • John Bryan i am one of those lesbians who do strongly believe all that you have just mentioned as is my partner. there are others as well who believe the same. the few that are doing the pushing are on the hard left and like antifa are very vocal and will do whatever they can to divide and conquer. try talking to some LGBT people that are strong on gun rights for the individual and you will start seeing the difference. help bring more LGBT people to the gun rights side and there will be less that can be swayed by the leftists that want to enslave us all

      • I really hope you get the help you need. Up until very recently homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder. You have a serious heart issue, one that causes massive emotional and behavior problems. Homosexuals have a suicide rate higher then the rest of society. Giving access to firearms to a class of people like homosexual women with a domestic violence rate higher then any segment of society is questionable at best. Say nothing of the higher suicide rate… Facts don’t care about your feelings. People with mental disorders like yourself are prohibited persons. The only difference is the APA decided to drop your classification as sick when it no longer fit their political agenda.

        • really! i have been in many situations where i had a gun close to hand and there was violence. it was handled without the use of the gun in any way. sorry mate you are barking up the wrong damn tree there.

        • WOW. You’re a blithering moron.

          And clearly an anti-gun, anti-rights Fascist Dem.

          GTFOOH with that crap

  33. The National Rifle Association – America’s oldest civil rights organization. Protecting your right to keep and bear arms, for personal protection and protection against a tyrannical central government, since 1871. The 2nd Amendment applies to “the people” – that’s all of us.

  34. Some of you have yet to understand that being a Evangelical Christian does not conflict with being a Constitutional Conservative who believes that the right to self defense with a firearm is a right for all.
    See you at the range.

  35. The majority of Americans could care less about your skin color, your religion, who you date, who you voted for or your socioeconomic status. The wackos on both sides are the one that get in the news. This is a good program. I and most of my friends will lend advice to anyone that asks. To those on Twitter, start a new hashtag thing,,,,,,, #Just ask.

  36. “founded to help arm LGBTQ people in the aftermath of the devastating Orlando nightclub shooting”

    WTH. It was a Night Club. Arming them would make them Illegal within the Club.
    The Problem is Mainly the idea that the Club is a “Gun Free Zone” or Assholes Shooting Gallery if you prefer.

    I have no problem arming Law Abiding Citizens, Please Do, But Founded to help arm because of the shooting is not going to help if they are still going to leave their Guns Outside.

    • It’s a neccesary start to get more momentum to get the anti-gun laws CHANGED.

      Calm your tits.

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