-Caveat Lector- Group Unites Gays Who Use Guns
By MARYCLAIRE DALE .c The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Lisa Miner had just let her dogs out one afternoon when she noticed a stranger inside her enclosed front porch. ``I'm not afraid of you. I'm going to hurt you,'' she said the young man told her. She grabbed her handgun from a nearby television, loaded it and told him to leave. When he didn't, she shot him, she said. The alleged intruder survived the neck wound last March and was charged with breaking and entering. Miner said she doesn't know if she was targeted because she lives openly with her girlfriend in the Boston suburb of Arlington, Mass. But like other members of a burgeoning group called the Pink Pistols, she's challenging the notion that gays and guns don't mix. ``My gun rights are more important than my gay rights,'' said Miner. ``They're both important, but people shouldn't assume that just because I'm gay, I should buy into a certain political party, like the Democrats.'' Doug Krick, a bisexual Internet engineer from Boston who once ran for office as a Libertarian, started the Pink Pistols in July 2000. The club has no dues or registration rolls, but about 35 chapters have sprung up across the country, with a few thousand members who gather to target shoot and have dinner. Krick, an avid sportsman, envisioned the group as a social club, but it's taken on a political agenda. Members have lobbied against gun-control laws and even attacked an openly gay Massachusetts legislator who, like many gay civil rights groups, supports gun control. Others have vocally opposed hate-crime legislation, in keeping with their less-is-more philosophy of government. ``It once again speaks to the great and wonderful diversity in the gay community, but it's not something to build public policy around,'' said Clarence Patton, executive director of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, a coalition of gay, transgender and other groups that supports gun-control efforts. ``We just generally don't believe that more people carrying more guns is going to create more safety,'' Patton said. Andrew Greene would beg to differ. About eight years ago, the Philadelphian was leaving a gay bar when four drunk thugs leapt off a stoop to follow him, hurling anti-gay epithets. With a wave of his concealed handgun, the four fled, and the potential attack was averted, he said. ``There are far more people that would mug me just because I'm available, not because I'm gay,'' said Greene, noting ``traditionally,'' gay people are not armed. Greene once sold firearms for a sporting goods store. In 1999, there were 1,317 hate-crime incidents involving sexual orientation, according to the FBI. Some lawmakers who support gun-control measures, including Democratic Assemblyman Paul Koretz of California, have called the Pink Pistols a tool of the National Rifle Association. But Krick and other members actually fault the NRA for accepting compromise gun-control legislation. They're one of several groups that cater to specific groups of gun enthusiasts, such as Geeks with Guns and Jews for the Preservation of Gun Ownership. About a third of Pink Pistol members are heterosexual, including Brian Hepler, who took over the Northern Virginia chapter when a bisexual friend stepped down. He likes the idea that the club tweaks several stereotypes - that gun owners are mostly Christian right-wingers and that gays are victims. ``The idea is to try to show both stereotypes are wrong,'' said Hepler, who lives in Fairfax. ``It's kind of funny,'' he said. ``We have one or two gay members who haven't come out to their gay friends that they are gun owners yet.'' On the Net: Pink Pistols: http://www.pinkpistols.com/ National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs: http://www.avp.org/ncavp.htm <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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