Maryland LGBT Community Arming Up Over Fears

If you think you’re likely to face some kind of violent attack, it’s perfectly reasonable to take steps to protect yourself. What those steps might be are up for interpretation, but people do all sorts of things. They get alarm systems, install cameras, or hire bodyguards.

A lot of them also buy guns, and for good reason. Despite the fearmongering throughout academia and anti-gun circles, there’s no better way to deal with a violent threat than with a firearm. Much of the time, you won’t even need to pull the trigger, but if you do, it’s a lot more trustworthy than harsh language and a call to 9-1-1 that might result in the police getting there just soon enough to draw a chalk outline around your body.

In the LGBT community, there are a lot of people who have fears. After all, while some don’t care how others live their lives or are outright supportive, and others are satisfied with quiet disapproval, there are always a few people who aren’t so quiet about it.

And even if there aren’t a lot of them, and even if the threats presented by the media aren’t quite what’s presented in many cases, some of these folks are legitimately afraid they might be attacked.

So, they’re buying guns, even in anti-gun Maryland.

David Phillips, part of the national training team for The Liberal Gun Club, said prior to Trump’s second election, his organization received about 20 inquiries a month. It’s now about 500 — a jump he attributed to an increase in political division and violence.

The trend doesn’t surprise academics. Kate Drabinski teaches about gender and sexuality at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She said that “the logic is, we have to stand up for ourselves, and if we see our communities facing violent attack, it makes sense to get armed and trained to protect ourselves and our communities.”

The state of Maryland does not track the number of registered gun owners who identify as queer, but there are several indications of increased interest. A dozen people who talked to The Banner said they’ve explored firearm training because of fears triggered by recent violence against LGBTQIA+ people and conservative groups’ attacks on them.

Byron Macfarlane said he’s felt a “simmering revolutionary attitude settling in” over the last two years.

“Even for someone like me, unabashedly anti-gun and a supporter of repealing the Second Amendment, I don’t feel safe, and I have seriously considered training and becoming a firearm owner,” said Macfarlane, Howard County’s elected register of wills.

Solidarity Firearms Training, an LGBTQIA+-led firearm training company based in Westminster, has reported a bump in website traffic and inquiries, especially after reports of violence against the community.

“I can say with certainty that the majority of the students” attend because they believe their personal security is at risk, said Robert Roys, one of the company’s founders.

“We will get batches of folks who are very worried about this,” added co-founder Erik Shilling.

Now, much of the fear is chalked up to Trump’s second term, and while we can debate if that’s warranted or not, it doesn’t really matter all that much, does it? After all, how many of us have guns in case we find ourselves attacked for some reason, even if we know that the odds of being the victim of a violent crime are ridiculously low?

A low chance of a threat and zero chance of a threat aren’t remotely the same thing.

Frankly, I’m thrilled to see so many people taking their personal protection seriously. I’m not fond of anyone wanting to repeal the Second Amendment, especially as they’re also considering getting a firearm and getting training on how to use it as that feels more than a little hypocritical, but people have a right to be hypocrites if they want.

Still, most of the people who are taking this step may well recognize that the Second Amendment doesn’t just protect us middle-aged white dudes, but everyone. It’s for everyone. It’s to be used by everyone to keep themselves, their families, and our nation safe.

However, I also want to point out something that many of these folks aren’t going to like. 

If you want to keep your ability to defend yourself, especially from someone who is a president that you don’t like, then you’d better start voting like it. You can’t just keep supporting anti-gun candidates and hope they’ll leave you alone. You can’t just decide that the Second Amendment doesn’t matter as much as everything else unless you’re prepared to see it restricted even more.

I’m not saying you have to vote for the other guys, because I know that’s not going to happen, but you need to start holding your candidates to a standard of respecting gun rights on top of the other issues you support. It’s just that simple. If you don’t, they’re going to recognize that they don’t have to take your desire for gun rights seriously because you’ll still vote for them no matter what.

Vote for pro-gun Democrats in primaries. Recruit them to run against anti-gun Democrats. Step up and start protecting that right, because if you don’t, you might not like where things go in the future when someone you see was worse than Trump takes office, but guns aren’t really an option anymore.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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