What Shooting Rifles with the Girls Taught Me about True Trans Safety
What Shooting Rifles with the Girls Taught Me about True Trans Safety
“Weapons can never give us total safety, because they will never give us peace.”
“Weapons can never give us total safety, because they will never give us peace.”
By this framing, there can never be safety, because there are always going to be violent bigots.
Safety is about a state of mind, as they say in the article, but it has to be informed by physical reality on some level, and that will necessarily have to include the ability to not be physically victimized by bigots.
I also have a lot of issues with their choice to give a first-time shooter a machinegun (in the article they both call it a machinegun and semiautomatic, which is contradictory, but they make it sound like it had a 3-round burst, which if true would make it a machinegun, not semiautomatic), because that's like putting a first-time driver in a supercar; it's dangerous and non-representative of 99.9% of cars and driving. Of course you would walk away frightened/intimidated by it.As pointed out by another commenter, they were handling a semiauto AR-15, not a machinegun as they stated.
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Those are some nice platitudes, and having rights is important, but the government isn't going to protect you if someone is trying to murder you for being trans. You're going to have to live through that situation before you can do anything else. That might mean using violence to defend yourself, it might not, but when you're especially likely to be a target of violence it's better to be prepared for that outcome.
That preparation could be a weapon, it could be a plan, it could be anonymity or a fortified home. But whatever it is, if you have something to go on when that moment comes you'll be a lot better off than trying to think on your feet.
No one said anything in this context about securing legal rights through violence, we're talking about protecting yourself from individual or community-level acts of aggression. That's literally what the ranch was created for, and what most LGBT+ mutual-defense groups form around.
But since you brought it up...
Until democracy literally collapses, a gun is not ultimately the means by which a right or safety should be secured
Violence is always the ultimate (i.e. final or most fundamental) means to protect your life and rights, whether it's a society promising that violence in the form of laws and the police that enforce them, or via your own personal defense against an attacker.
if someone thinks that then they don’t actually believe in the rule of law
Laws always only exists through the promise of violence (against body, possessions, liberty, etc) against people violating them.
or the democratic process. They believe in rule through violence.
All modern nation-states operate this way. Democracy doesn't change that, unless it's a fully consensus-based or consent-based-participation system.
Rights are about being free and protected by society.
And what means do you think society uses to protect the rights it decides to grant or deny?
I have a lot of thoughts on the strategy of rhetorically censoring yourself in order to attempt to avoid right-wing accusations of left-wing revolutionism, but I will leave that for another time and place (like c/socialism).
This is about where I'm at. I don't want to personally own a gun because, well, being black, the threat of being targeted as a violent leftist is even more of a risk. Owning a gun gives the cops a reason to investigate me or even just make up a reason to arrest me. That's just the way it is. Add to that being trans and trying to defend myself... It's not looking good. Me having a gun would just stoke the violence. Better to leave that to the white trans people for whom it's "safer," but that's just my opinion.
This isn't to say I don't wanna know how to use a gun. I do think, worst case civil war type scenario, we'll need to know. Just in case someone comes to the door and you gotta show steel to get em to go away. Or something. Because again, being black, the cops are not on our side. I'm sure some of yall saw that post earlier today about 3 of them being outed as Oath Keepers. Common knowledge that they got Klan hoods at home. So calling the cops is out of the question.
It's complex.
I watched the vice video segment a few weeks ago. I found it rather well put together, and I think it is well timed. Guns are divisive among the community, for valid and justified reasons. I grew up around them, but ive kept a lot of distance in the last decade. I've been feeling more and more the need to become familiar again. If not for myself, at least to be a resource for others if things go really bad. In some ways, becoming more in tune with my identity has made it more... obvious(?) that safety is not guaranteed, and being more public and true to myself, at least for the time being in the US, does increase chances of encounters with bigots. The perspective of the ranch members that training and aiding fellow community members for the possibility is (unfortunately) increasingly necessary for safety as a state of mind. They made the choice to move there. It was probably ill-advised. But there are also many who have little to no choice in their living situation, so i think the point stands.
Re: the rifle. If you watch the vice video accompanying the article, its a lot more clear that the trainer asked her to fire three times quickly, not that it had a burst or auto fire control option. In their context of training for an actual, ever-present threat, I do think it makes some sense to reach for the AR-15. It is designed to be ergonomic and, at least in my experience, the assumption that a wood-stocked rifle, something lower caliber, or a pistol is less-dangerous or even easier is not representative of reality, nor is it really a fair comparison to say its a supercar vs a normal car. Part of the danger AR-15 and similar firearms represent in the hands of bigots is due to the ease of use and reliability, not that it is inherently more powerful or demanding of training. All firearms are dangerous, no matter the caliber, size, or public opinion. (If your experience is different, I respect that)
I do think it makes some sense to reach for the AR-15. It is designed to be ergonomic
100% agree.
nor is it really a fair comparison to say its a supercar vs a normal car.
This was only in reference to handing someone a ATF-defined machinegun, not about AR-15s. I completely missed the video embed (I think my tired brain just registered it as an image), and I was going off the picture where they are holding the open-bolt smg-like gun, which I assumed was a transferrable mg given the rest of what they said.
Good on anybody who is willing to go get training.
Worth pointing out it's gonna be harder than it needs to be to get a good trigger press and do other manual of arms tasks with those excessively long nails (fake or otherwise).
I have mixed feeling about more people being armed. But it's great that people that do have weapons get trained to safely handle weapons.
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Reminder that women who buy guns to defend against DV more often end up being killed by that gun specifically than successfully defending against future DV.
I pulled — three shots in quick succession, the gun backing into me like a freight train.
My dude (gender neutral), there is literally a recoil mitigation system with the buffer tube/spring/weight, it is literally the least recoil you can get barring .22 lr, try a 12ga, 45-70gov, or 700 Nitro Express.
If you're LGBTQ+, and live in north Georgia or Eastern Alabama (and I feel extra sorry for you if you live in Alabama), Osprey Shooting Solutions in Rome is happy to offer a place to learn. Edgar is one person that I know of that firmly believes that 2A rights are for everyone, regardless of race, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Otherwise, you should be able to find a good place to learn through Operation Blazing Sword or the Pink Pistols. Finding a gun store that isn't loaded with Trump bullshit or Fudd nonsense tends to be a challenge; gun stores in more urban areas, or large chains (Cabelas, etc.) tend to be better than mom-and-pop gun stores in very rural areas. If you're new to shooting, I would suggest going to an indoor shooting range that has rental firearms, and try renting a few different 9mm or .380ACP firearms to try, and see what you like, and what you don't.
Guns are not magical talismans; just having one isn't going to protect you from violent, shitty people. You have to train, and and train regularly. A really good instructor can get you started right so you don't have to unlearn bad habits later. Dry firing will help you turn fundamentals into automatic abilities that you don't need to think about. A shot timer will let you objectively measure how quickly you're moving. Competing (IDPA, USPSA, Gun Run, Brutality matches, 2 Gun Action Challenge, Steel Challenge, 3 Gun, etc.) forces you to demonstrate skill in a stressful environment, which is what you will need to be able to do to defend yourself.
Risk management is hard.