In the wake of Omar Mateen’s killing spree at the Pulse night club in Orlando, a growing number of gays are exercising their Second Amendment rights.
Whether Mateen’s outrage was spurred by a desire to be a terrorist or an insane act of homophobia, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community’s interest in firearms and firearm training is on the rise.
To be sure, the numbers represent a very small percentage of LGBT persons. In an Associated Press article appearing in the Japan TImes, Matt Schlentz, president of the Utah Chapter of Pink Pistols, noted that membership has grown from 1,500 to 4,000. (Yes, that’s very small but remember that NRA members constitute perhaps 5% of American gun owners.)
While Houston is slightly more progressive than the rest of Texas (excluding Austin, of course), I was surprised and more than a little gratified to see the owners of a gun store and shooting range reach out to the LGBT community and offer the state-required training for a License To Carry (LTC) for free. The cost for the 8-hour course is normally about $125-$150 per person.
The following is a letter from Jeff Sanford, general manager of the Shiloh Shooting Range in Northwest Houston, to Alice Tripp, the legislative executive director of the Texas State Rifle Association (TSRA):
Thank you for reaching out to us here at Shiloh Shooting Range about our offer to the local LGBT community. After the slaughter in Orlando, my family put our heads together to do something for the LGBT community here in town. We decided to offer free LTC classes to the friends of our friend and customer, Ryan Thomas. We asked him to spread the word among his friends and let the LGBT folks know that we were here to help and empower them. Americans helping Americans, Texans helping Texans. Ryan was very appreciative of the offer, and told us he would do his best to spread the word.
We thought we might have a couple of classes with 30-40 people total. When I was contacted by Channel 2 news the next day, I had a feeling that number would grow. And grow it certainly did! We are now at 13 classes with over 550 people signed up. I admit that around 200 students, as GM of our family owned and operated small business, I began getting nervous about the number of students we were racking up. I convened a family meeting and asked my folks "how many more of these can we possibly do?" To which my mom responded with a smile "all of them." And our calling to empower this historically vulnerable community plowed full steam ahead…
As gun owners and gun advocates, this is truly a golden opportunity to gain a very passionate group of 2nd Amendment advocates with open arms. This community’s response tells me they have been waiting for an invitation from us. The opportunity to take a class with like-minded folks, free of judgement, is what has appealed so greatly to so many of them. In the past, we've offered free classes to veterans, LE (law enforcement), faculty, clergy, animal rescue advocates, etc. Out of all of those free classes, we would be lucky to have maybe 20% who signed up actually show up. After 3 LGBT classes, we've had 94% attendance. This is a movement among these folks, and this is our opportunity to welcome them to OUR community...
Incidentally, the TSRA sent Sanford’s letter to every member.
Shiloh is not a big business with a huge facility. These classes mean that the entire range will have to be closed to paying customers while class is in session — and an indoor range in Houston can be very popular in the summer (actually late spring to darn near Thanksgiving).
I have met Jeff Sanford. While I think he is good people, I can promise you that he isn’t liberal: I’m not even sure he could be described as moderate. But he and his family are giving up literally thousands of dollars in lost range rentals, LTC class fees and other revenue to do something positive for a group that all to often gets the door shut in its face.
Nobody is talking about carrying guns in night clubs or bars. Even the NRA says that’s a bad idea and both Texas and Florida make it illegal (not sure about Florida, but in Texas, it’s a felony). Only employees of the establishment, security guards hired to protect the business or sworn law enforcement officers (on-duty or off-duty) can carry a firearm in a bar.
I am sure that there will be comments about how Sanford is doing the devil’s work and snarky comments about guns, gun owners and Texans in general but I wonder if any of you will appreciate what has happened here.