Gays & Guns
Tuesday 12 June at 7.30pm
Young, liberal, queer…and pro-guns – The Feed goes inside the ‘GAY NRA’.
The number of gay hate crime acts in the US has never been higher, but now there’s a growing legion of people who identify as LGBTIQ+ fighting back – with bullets. Some call them the ‘GAY NRA’; they call themselves ‘The Pink Pistols’.
Every week in America, someone is killed because they identify as LGBTIQ+. In 2017 alone, 52 LGBTIQ+[1] people were murdered, so The Pink Pistols explicitly advocates the exercise of Second Amendment rights for self-protection.
Two years since 49 people were shot and killed at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Walkley-nominated investigative journalist and host of SBS’s Mardi Gras broadcast, Patrick Abboud, gains unprecedented access to The Pink Pistols’ largest chapter in San Diego, in a special half-hour documentary. The Pink Pistols allow television cameras inside their national operation for the first time as Patrick travels across the US to meet the civilian legion you’d least expect to be fighting for more firearms.
With more than 45 chapters across the US and at least 10,000 shooters, the organisation – under the slogan ‘pick on someone your own calibre’ – say they are one of the most rapidly growing pro-gun groups in the US.
March for Our Lives put America’s gun problem in perspective like never before, when thousands of school students flooded the streets nationwide urging lawmakers to heed their calls and enact stricter gun laws. But The Pink Pistols don’t necessarily want tighter gun control. Their motivation to bear arms stems from the continued surge in hate crimes against LGBTIQ+ Americans.
The Pink Pistols are everything you wouldn’t typically associate with gun-toting Americans…
…On The Pink Pistols’ aims
“We are arming up to fight back against violent homophobia with serious firepower.” – Piper Smith, Leader of the largest chapter of The Pink Pistols in San Diego
…On why she joined The Pink Pistols
“I don’t want to die. I don’t want to get beaten to death and stabbed and burnt alive. I want a gun to feel equal.” – Leia, recent member of The Pink Pistols San Diego
…On violence against the LGBTIQ+ community
“What we are seeing is an absolute epidemic of violence against the LGBTIQ+I community and it will only get worse. This is the deadliest year yet for the community.” – Robin Maril, Associate Legal Director for the Human Rights Campaign
…On gun control
“The gun control debate might be out of control in this country right now but so are gay hate crimes. Armed gays don’t get bashed or, worse, even killed. We’re not just going to sit back and allow people to impose their will upon us.” – Jeff Bloovman, Gay firearms instructor and member of The Pink Pistols Philadelphia
Gays & Guns is produced by the award-winning team behind daily news and culture program, The Feed.
Gays & Guns premieres Tuesday 12 June at 7.30pm on SBS VICELAND and on SBS at 10pm. The program is available after broadcast anytime, on your favourite device via SBS On Demand.