Gay and transgender liberals around the country are arming themselves over perceived concerns they’ll be rounded up and placed in “concentration camps” under a second Trump administration, according to a report.
The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday profiled several members of the emerging gun-toting left, who belong to groups with names like the Liberal Gun Club, the Socialist Rifle Association and Pink Pistols.
Although precise figures regarding LGBTQ gun ownership are tough to ascertain given the small cohort, the Liberal Gun Club told the outlet that it’s received “thousands” of firearms training requests since the election — more than in all of 2023 combined — and that about a quarter of them were from those in the LGBTQ community.
Since the 2024 election, left-leaning gun owners have increased their ranks, joining groups like the Liberal Gun Club, the Socialist Rifle Association and Pink Pistols. semanita – stock.adobe.com
“Three months before the election, that’s when the alarm bells started to ring,” said a 24-year-old trans woman who recently decided to purchase a gun, identified by the outlet only as “A.”
Related video: Senators develop amendment to remove youth language that targets LGBTQ youth (WFXR Roanoke)“Minorities that are armed are more difficult to legally oppress,” she said, expressing relief that she’d be ready to fight back “in the event of hate crimes or terrorist attacks.”
The Philadelphia chapter of the Socialist Rifle Association — a left-wing take on the National Rifle Association — told the outlet it’s seen a “surge” of paid memberships, and that its gun safety classes have been filling up so fast it had to add more.
The Delaware Valley chapter of gay gun group Pink Pistols, which uses the slogan “Armed Gays Don’t Get Bashed,” similarly told the paper they’ve been inundated with inquiries from people seeking firearms training.
The group was founded in 2000 after an article was published in Salon by writer Jonathan Rauch in which he said “homosexuals should embark on organized efforts to become comfortable with guns, learn to use them safely and carry them.”
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to stop “transgender lunacy” on day one of his administration. REUTERS
Wake Forest University sociology professor David Yamane — author of “Gun Curious” — told the Inquirer that a cultural shift in gun ownership is underway in America and that minority groups including gay people have “led the way” among neophyte gun owners since 2020.
“It was a period of tremendous social unrest and social uncertainty. And a large number of people in the United States, under those conditions, look to firearms to reestablish some sense of safety and security,” he said.
Matthew Thompson, of Oakland, NJ, told the outlet he was inspired to buy his first gun after the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse — a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. — in which 49 people were killed.
Left-leaning gun-owner groups are seeing skyrocketing demand for gun safety classes in the wake of the 2024 election results. Roman – stock.adobe.com
The Pulse attack, which stands as the worst mass shooting in US history, was carried out by a homegrown Islamic terrorist sympathizer named Omar Mateen.
Both then-President Barack Obama and then-presidential candidate Donald Trump denounced the horrific slaughter as a direct attack on the LGBTQ community. However, evidence unearthed in the years that followed indicates Mateen had no idea Pulse was a gay nightclub when he started opening fire.
Thompson, who the outlet writes travels the country to attend “leather and bear events,” has been working to sharpen his gun skills at home, including wearing his gun around the house and quickly drawing it upon the completion of a timer on his phone.
“The people I’ve been seeing on the left and the gay people who are out purchasing guns for the first time, it’s all about self-defense and fear,” said Thompson, 36. “We’re not looking to arm up and storm the capital. We just don’t want to be put in concentration camps.”
Meanwhile, a recent Gallup poll shows the number of Republican women packing heat is also on the rise, with 33% saying they own a gun between 2019-2024 compared to just 19% in the period between 2007-2012.
At the same time, the proportion of Democratic men who own guns has declined in recent years, falling from 36% between 2007-2012 to just 29% between 2019-2024.
