GOP proposes Gays with Guns Amendment to the Shepard Hate Crimes Bill
God, Gay and Guns have long been a favorite wedge issues for the GOP.
However, in a new spin on this theme, The Washington Independent is reporting that…
One month after successfully tucking an amendment into the credit card reform bill that expanded gun rights, a small number of Senate Republicans are looking at the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act as another chance to score a victory for the Second Amendment. The possible plan — to add an amendment that would allow gun owners to carry their weapons from one state to another in accordance with concealed carry laws.
The rationale — to defend gay rights.
According to the WI article, one Republican Senate staffer has said, “It makes sense for a group of people who would be protected by hate crime legislation to support something that would let them defend themselves before or after the crime… It’s relevant, and we want to work together with gay groups to get the message out.”
This effort to arm gays is being seriously pushed by GOProud, a new gay rights group that broke away from the Log Cabin Republicans in April, and they are reportedly talking to staffers for Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) about how to make a gay civil rights case for conceal and carry reciprocity.
“We support this because we think it’s advantageous to make it legal and relatively easy for gay people to arm themselves so they can protect themselves,” said Jimmy LaSilva, the executive director of GOProud.
We contacted both Coburn’s and Thune’s offices to get their thoughts on this strategy, but at the time of publication neither office had returned our calls.
However, Gwen Patton, a spokesperson for Pink Pistols, a gay gun rights organization whose slogan is “Armed Gays Don’t Get Bashed,” told the Independent, “Self-defense with a firearm is a valid and viable method of self-defense and protection. Imagine that individuals follow you from a place known in the neighborhood as a GLBT gathering place. They follow you to your car, and when you try to open the door, they hold out pipes and yell – ‘Hey, faggot!’ You pull out a concealed weapon that you have a license to carry. They say, ‘He’s got a gun!’ They drop their pipes and run away. No shots were fired, but a beating was just averted.”
Now I am sure many in our community will say this amendment to the Hate Crimes Bill is a nothing but a contemptuous attempt to advance gun rights at the expense of a cherished piece of LGBT legislation.
But my feeling is the Shepard Hate Crimes Bill is at this point nothing more than feel good legislation anyway, and its passage will be used by the Dems to say that did something for our community and point to its passage when they come to the LGBT community looking for more money… all the while they continue blowing off far more significant LGBT issues like repealing Don’t Ask- Don’t Tell, and the Defense of Marriage Act, or passing the ENDA… Moreover, the more people know that members of our community may be armed, the less likely they will be to single us out for attack.
So as a Gay Girl in DC… who happens to own a Glock… and has a concealed carry permit from North Carolina… I could get on board with this…
By supporting this move we’d be working with folks we traditionally can’t find a lick of common ground with, showing them the LGBT community can indeed play well with others as well as demonstrating we understand how you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours Washington DC politics work… It would be bipartisanism at its finest.
Read the whole story: Washington Independent
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I didn’t know you couldn’t carry a gun state to state. If you have a permit, I don’t see what the problem is. Weird. I’m certainly pro second amendment, and it seems unconstitutional to say you can’t.
Then, by the same thinking, sex workers and other groups vulnerable to attacks should also have a bill to allow them to carry & conceal weapons! What is the world coming to?
Under this amendment anyone with a permit to carry concealed in one state… will have reciprocity to carry anyplace in the country…
But hey… don’t you think gays should carry guns?
The 2nd Ammendment is not a Democrat or Republican issue. I support the United States Constitution, it is what this country was founded on. I do not support Barack Obama expanding the war and sending 30,000 troops to Afghanistan and not ending the war like he promised to but instead left 1/3 of the troops in Iraq. .I do not have a problem with the United States Constitution’s 2nd ammendment. Whoever does not want a gun does not have to guy buy a gun. However, people who are against the 2nd ammendment should mind their manners and not target my rights as an American. This is an irrelevant and unuseful myopic view that does the gay community no good. Anti-gun sentiment is losing popularity. Instead of railing against Americans rights and the United States constitution why not rail against expansion of the War on Terror? Barack Obama sent 30,000 troops to Afghanistan and left over a 1/3 of the troops in Iraq after promising to end the Iraq war. By the end of the year there will be 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. Are we gung-ho for war but against the 2nd ammendment for citizens to be armed? Priorities for liberals should not speak for the gay community.
Well said.
The more guns, the more killings. England has a terribly strict law on handguns, and it is almost impossible to get a pistol permit there. Though you can have humting rifles and similar weapons
And their murder rate, population adjusted is one Eightieth of Americas.
The 2nd amendment says something about ” the need for a well regulated militia, the right to bear arms shall not be infringed. Well we have a well regulated militia now, it is called the police, with a backup of the National guard.
While I don’t deny hunters their rights, guns are one of those things that the more there are, the more killings there are, hence the need for more guns, ad inifinitum. The NRA is really just a group that puts profits of the gun mfrs and dealers ahead of human life. And they are supported by our party of God, the republicans, who talk about abortion, while ssupporting the mass murder of about 28000 people per year in this country.
And don’t let the guns protect people bs fool you. In 2006, lst year for which I have data, there were about 28000 illegal gun killings in the USA. And only about 100 legit self defense killings, and about 1000 legit police killings.
And if it wasn’t for the guns availability, most of these killings in all these items would not have happened.
So, just like on everything else, the repubs have sold their soul for the profits of the gun manufacturers and their pals. Criminal hardly comes close to describing it.
Perhaps if we can’t change the constitution, we could hold responsible civiliy and criminally EVERYONE who had anything to do with a gun ending up in the hands of a killer, we could cut down on these murders.
Only if they plan to use it if needed. You need to make the decision before you are attacked, not during. The last thing you want to do is pull a gun and then chicken out
about using it.