A compassionate, persuasive, and wise piece of the type I always know I can count on you for, James.
I run in a lot of left (and especially anarchist-leaning) circles, where the discussion of armed resistance against the state comes up often. A number of people within these communities have argued that marginalized people are well within their rights to defend themselves and their autonomy using guns, and some have even actively encouraged others to get trained in gun safety and get armed. But even within such spaces, an equally vocal and principled faction argues that under a police regime that is as militarized as our current one, possession of a weapon is far more of a liability than it is an asset, that guns present a real risk to our personal wellbeing if we experience a domestic violence or mental health crisis, and that it is folly to amass weaponry when we lack an organized-enough resistance movement to do anything of real, lasting impact with it.
Like you, I can see why queer individuals want to carry guns. I have seen how marginalized groups of people (including the Black Panthers and Indigenous resistance groups across the planet) have used guns for positive political and social ends. I have some friends & partners who know how to shoot and handle a gun expertly and have chosen to be armed, and I respect their decisions. But I don't think our way out of systemic oppression comes at the end of a rifle. At this point in history it seems risky and unrealistic. I think it's through establishing networks of mutual aid and community care that we can begin to build a better world.
A lot of times this discussion erupts into a very intense fight, because people understandably have strong reactions to guns and to violence as a political tactic. I appreciate your writing here so much because it so carefully honors the reasons why queer people and other marginalized groups have chosen at times to be armed, while not romanticizing that choice or acting as if more lethal violence is a tidy solution. Killing someone is a heavy act, and one that I wouldn't ever wish for my LGBTQ siblings to ever have to do. If someone must use violence to defend themselves and their communities, I certainly understand and respect that. But I think we must conceive of a better future for us than one where we are fighting off bands of Proud Boys and drawing police fire everywhere we go. An arms race is not one we can win. But we can outnumber and outmaneuver a state that is turned against us if we are more socially minded, compassionate, and canny.
