A few weeks ago, there was a government effort to strip trans folks as mentally unstable, mainly to highlight that they shouldn’t own guns.
That is horrible. As well, it is scary, as there are a large number of people who actually condone such a thing.
WTF does being gay or trans have to do with owning firearms?
I am not trans or gay, nor do I support the movement. I don’t attend LGBT events, nor do I fly rainbow colors. I can be non-supportive of a lifestlye and still not want to infringe on the rights of those groups. That means that I believe that LGBT folks should own guns if that’s their option, knowing I don’t support the movement.
It’s really quite simple: if an argument can be made for LGBT people to NOT have certain rights, a similar argument can be made for blacks (I am Black American). The same argument can be made against Jews, or Hispanics, or other groups of people. We need to all stand together or we’re all going to be trodden upon.
Some folks (the general gun owning populace) believe what I said up above is double talk. I’ve no idea why. It’s plain-speak. You shouldn’t have to have certain beliefs to own guns. You shouldn’t have to be Conservative to own guns. 2A says nothing about how you should believe to exercise that right (no Amendment is modeled in that fashion).
Many folks believe that trans folks have mental deficiences, because the belief that you’re a different sex than what is biologically assigned is typically conscrued as a mental illness to many folks. The human condition is super complicated. Complicated issues should not be allowed to be explained away as mental deficiencies, especially if it affects a person’s rights.
I’m not saying every white and Conservative gun owner thinks in such a fashion – I’m generalizing, but there’s this overt notion in the gun community that gun owners should all think/act/feel as Conservatives (group think). That’s bullshit.
There are Leftist gun owners. I complain about anti-gunners and typically link them to Leftism (it’s actually not all that difficult to link the two). Anti-gunners, while they think the way they do, aren’t excluded from 2A. Leftists aren’t, either. No group is excluded in modern society, although there are several times in history where certain groups were not allowed to vote, for example. Blacks weren’t allowed to vote or own guns (Jim Crowe laws were specifically designed to impede the rights of Black gun owners).
If this mentality can be pushed to limit LGBT folks, it can be done to any group that doesn’t fit a certain mold.
We gun owners bitch and complain all the time about infringements (and rightly so), but why the hell are we being hypocritical about LGBT? Not every trans person is certified as mentally deficient. I’m all for infringing on the rights of folks that have broken laws that deem certain actions as criminal or felonious. Being trans alone isn’t criminal or felonious, just as being an immigrant isn’t a bad thing.
This type of thinking is why there are more than a few red states/localities that are flipping to purple or blue.
I don’t believe in penalizing a group due to them not having Conservative values. Why? Because I’m not a Conservative and I’m not White. There are some things that I believe in that are blue. There are some things that I believe in that are not red but not blue either. I also am not a single issue voter. I don’t just adopt one party’s position for the sake of supporting that party. I don’t blindly support one side or the other. Life isn’t that simple.
It’s sad that the gun community is allowing such hypocrisy.
No group of US citizen should every be excluded from excercising their rights. In fact, if you live here as an immigrant, you should have the same