The closest Ive been to a gun is in the video gamePUBG, where my character a guy with a chiseled face and six-pack abs who dresses like a survivalist can carry up to three weapons as well as many Molotov cocktails and grenades as can fit in a backpack.My favorite gun in the game is the Lynx AMR, a slick black sniper rifle thatll knock out an opponent with one shot to the head and have four more bullets left before reloading.The characters not queer, but I am. And they remind me how, even as a queer cisgender dude, Im still vulnerable to hate crimes. In fact, the numbers of hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people continue to rise, according to theFBIs annual report released in September 2024.The report showed that for the second year in a row, more than one in five of any type of hate crime was motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ bias. According to the report, there were 2,402 recorded incidents relating to an alleged victims sexual orientation in 2023, up from 1,947 the year before, and 547 relating to an alleged victims gender identity, compared with 469 the year before.The gender identity category included 401 instances that were specifically anti-transgender and 146 that targeted someone who was gender nonconforming.Its clear,according to recent news articles,that more and more LGBTQ+ people are realizing how vulnerable they are, leading to more andmoreLGBTQ+ people having taken interestin firearms training since President Donald Trump was elected.LGBTQ+ people especially transgender people have been afrequent target for Trump. And within hours of his inauguration in January,Trump had begun issuing executive ordersrolling back their civil rights.The same claims, of course, were written about in 2020, 2022 and 2023. Because there is little conclusive data about LGBTQ+ gun owners, the stories make the sudden interest in firearms looks like a new phenomenon.Among the few studies on the subject is a 2020 study inthe journalViolence and Genderfocused on LGB peoples views on gun safety and ownership. (Survey respondents were not give the options of identifying as transgender or gender non-binary.) Researchers found more bisexual women and lesbians reported more likely to own guns than gay and bisexual men. But that only focuses on dangers to the LGBTQ+ community, while the current wave of news stories imply LGBTQ+ people who own guns are solely interested in self-defense.University of Texas sociologist and researcher Thatcher Combs established himself as a rockstar on the topic of LGBTQ+ gun ownership with his 2022 dissertationQueers Bash Back: LGBTQ Gun Owners and Queer(ing?) Politics in the United States.Combs, who is transgender, breaks through the idea that guns are just for self-defense and that those of a more liberal bent are always against gun ownership. He notes research shows three primary reasons for gun ownership: for recreation and hunting, collecting and self-defense. But at the same time, in response to attacks such as thePulse nightclub mass shootingin June 2016, the LGBTQ+ movements grassroots positioned itself in favor of stricter civilian gun access.We see a paradox: People who take the side associated with the right when it comes to guns but who are simultaneously enveloped within the larger political and social LGBT community, Combs writes, and a movement that tends to lean left on many sociopolitical issues, especially firearms.(He distinguishes LGBT, which is represented by mainstream organizations and beliefs, from LGBTQ, which excludes gender non-binary, queer and asexual people, among others.)Andy Nold, a gay man in Arlington, Texas, doesnt associate guns with sexual orientation but instead with family. He grew up in West Texas, where gun ownership is as embedded in culture as Friday night football. His family owns guns. Going to a gun range was a family outing.While he declined to say whether he owns guns himself, he said he knows plenty of LGBTQ gun owners.I know transgender people who carry, he said. Theyve gotten threatened and beat up.Pink Pistolsis a group of LGBTQ+ and allied gun owners with around 45 chapters across the United States, including in Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. They have two mottos: Pick on someone your own caliber, and Armed queers dont get bashed.The name comes froma 2000Salonarticle by libertarian Jonathan Rauch, who wrote homosexuals should embark on organized efforts to become comfortable with guns, learn to use them safely and carry them, suggesting they call themselves Pink Pistols task forces.Erin Palette, the organizations national coordinator, is a transgender lesbian who describes herself as pro-gun, pro-queer and libertarian. She also foundedOperation Blazing Sword, which connects anyone interested in firearms, primarily queer people, with licensed instructors. One of the goals is to demonstrate that gun owners do not hate LGBTQ people, and, in fact, want them able to protect themselves from violence.The Pink Pistols are the most explicitly LGBTQ+-aligned gun group. Others, like the leftistJohn Brown Gun Club (JBGC), a left-wing anti-fascist organization, and Socialist Rifle Association are LGBTQ-friendly.In 2023, members of theElm Fork chapterof the John Brown Gun Club stood outside ofTulips FTW, a music venue in the Near Southside neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas, because of a drag show. They werent there to protest the show but instead to counter far-right protestors, including Christian Nationalists, who had taken to bullying drag queens and alleging LGBTQ people are grooming kids.Each JBGC operates independently but share an ethos. As one JBGC membertoldRolling Stone, We are a response. We exist as a response to violence.Photo: Tanya Harper-ColucciTanya Harper-Colucci understands the need for self-defense. But she takes a different approach. Her wife wanted to get her concealed handgun license after a few uncomfortable experiences. She decided to accompany friend who was going to purchase a gun.But Harper-Colucci had no plan to get one.I wasnt anti-gun. I just didnt see the need for one, said the Bluffton, S.C., personal development coach and mindfulness expert.Then she got involved during training.I fell in love with shooting, she said. I found it meditative.Harper-Colucci eventually became a licensed instructor. Then she saw an opportunity to expand her practice. In February, she launchedSacred Warrior Movement, a business integrating her mindfulness practice, healing and firearms training for women and LGBTQ+ people new to shooting.The goal is to empower the community and take a holistic approach to firearms training, she said.She now owns five guns and regularly competes. And she hopes her students will eventually become like her: responsible gun owners who like to shoot, collect and compete.The post The rise of LGBTQ+ gun ownership: Safety, politics and identity appeared first on News Is Out.