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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 24 OcTOber 2017

In response to far right, LGBTQ gun group hits firing line

By MICHAEL HILL fle snugly to their shoulders a house, it was of one of ville this summer. ened white supremacists,
Associated Press and how to aim slightly my friend’s, and I basically The National African- he said, and the threat is
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — The ahead of a moving target. jumped back. American Gun Association felt not just by the LGBTQ
former pacifist pumped a Members cheered when And that feels dangerous gained 500 new mem- community, but people
shotgun at the firing line. shooters shattered a pi- to me in a society where bers within two days after of color, immigrants, Jews
Lore McSpadden never geon or hit a bull’s-eye. there are so many guns.” Charlottesville. Association and Muslims.
touched a gun before the “Back then we were sit-
Trigger Warning Queer & ting in parks, twinkling our
Trans Gun Club started this fingers and talking about
past year. economic inequality,” he
Now McSpadden is among said. “Now we’re talking
the shooters routinely yell- about firearms and self-
ing, “Pull!” and blasting at defense.”
clay pigeons angling over Some other groups are
a mowed field near Roch- more provocative.
ester. Black-clad radicals af-
Trigger Warning members filiated with the anti-fascist
are anxious about armed movement have tangled
and organized extremists physically with conserva-
who seem increasingly em- tive demonstrators at some
boldened. Their response public events.
has a touch of symmetry In August, members of the
to it: They started a club anti-racist group Redneck
to teach members how to Revolt stood outside a rau-
take up arms. cous Trump rally with long
“It’s a way to assert our guns.
strength,” said Jake Allen, These more radical groups
27, who helped form the stand out in a movement
group. “Often, queer peo- with a long history of non-
ple are thought of as being violent protests. Still, even
weak, as being defense- In this Oct. 8, 2017, photo, Jon Falstaff, left, shows Emily Lynch how to properly stand and hold a the act of taking up arms
less, and I think in many shotgun during a training session for the Trigger Warning Queer & Trans Gun Club in Victor, N.Y. A for defense is enough to
ways this pushes back gay, lesbian and transgender group concerned that extremists have become more emboldened worry some veteran activ-
and dangerous have decided to take up arms. The gun club meets once a month to shoot long
against that. And I want guns in a field in upstate New York. ists.
white supremacists and (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus) “Is an arms race what we
neo-Nazis to know that The light mood belies the A dozen shooters in a field president Philip Smith said really want?” asked Scott
queer people are taking apprehension that led to in upstate New York does the group went from four Fearing, executive direc-
steps necessary to protect group’s creation this past not exactly represent chapters to 45 in the past tor of Rochester’s Out Alli-
themselves.” winter amid a year marked a vanguard of a newly year. The Liberal Gun Club, ance. “
Trigger Warning members by politically tinged vio- armed left. But the group is a national organization, What we know in any arms
meet once a month to lence ranging from scuf- not alone. Allen said there has seen its paid mem- race is that it’s never good
shoot still targets and sau- fles at protests to a violent is another Trigger Warning bership roughly double for anybody, and death
cer-shaped pigeons. The clash of white supremacists chapter in Atlanta and he since the election to about and destruction and harm
18 dues-paying members and counter-protesters in has received inquiries from 5,500, said Lara Smith of the and hurt can come when
are all LGBTQ, many just Charlottesville, Virginia. people in about 10 other group’s California chapter. so many people have arms
learning about guns. Zora Gussow recalls a dis- cities. So-called leftists see the and weapons.”
“I identified as a pacifist mal time earlier this year Membership in the Pitts- country differently now Trigger Warning members
really through most of my when she began talking to burgh chapter of the Pink than the days of Occupy stress they are about em-
life,” said McSpadden, 37, Allen about taking on “the Pistols, an LGBTQ-oriented Wall street six years ago, powerment and self-de-
who has attended a self- gaping hole in the knowl- gun group with chapters said Mark Bray, author of fense, not offense. Mem-
defense seminar and now edge of people on the nationwide, bumped up “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist bers say it also gives them
owns a 20-gauge shotgun. left” about firearms. after the presidential elec- Handbook” and a visiting a sense of community —
On a recent evening, their “I grew up afraid of guns,” tion and then after a white scholar at Dartmouth Col- even if it comes on a firing
instructor showed novices Gussow said. “The first supremacist killed a coun- lege. line in the middle of farm
how to pull a .22-caliber ri- time I was near a gun in ter-protester in Charlottes- Trump’s victory embold- country.q