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Email This Article Don't be fooled by the stereotype, said Aaron Thomas, a 30-year-old gay m an with ruddy cheeks, an open manner and a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. Gay, gun-loving San Franciscans exist, he said shortly before hunching hi s back, steadying himself and firing at a target. Not only do they exist , they are steamed up about the proposed law -- supported by five San Fr ancisco supervisors and set to go before voters next fall -- that would ban the ownership of handguns. The right to own guns may be even more important than the right to marry, Thomas said during the monthly shooting practice organized by the gay g un group the Pink Pistols. "I want to be liberated as a gay man, but I'm not willing to give up the rights I have," he said. "If they can take that away from you, what more can they do?" As the debate over the handgun ban proposal sharpens, the Pink Pistols, a national group with 38 chapters, is determinedly stepping into the fray . Organizers have posted their hearty objections to the proposed law on the group's Web site -- along with contact information for the five supe rvisors who voted for the ban -- and are weighing whether to join a laws uit challenging the ordinance that the National Rifle Association is exp ected to file, said spokeswoman Gwen Patton. Gay men and lesbians are at risk of becoming hate crime victims, the grou p's philosophy goes, and therefore community members should learn how to protect themselves -- with firearms. "We believe that first you need to stay alive, then you need to educate," Patton said. The Pink Pistols are likely to play a critical role in the developing San Francisco fight, said Chuck Michel, a spokesman for the California Rifl e and Pistol Association and a lawyer for the National Rifle Association . "They have a great deal of legitimacy because they recognize they are at great odds of becoming victims because of their sexual preference. I think people will understand that they should not be deprived of the ir rights." But San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, one of the ban's supporters, sa id he isn't swayed by that logic. "Gay bashing, name-calling, violence -- many of us in the gay community h ave experienced that but don't feel the same way about how to prevent it ," he said. On Tuesday evening, five Pink Pistol shooters who respectfully disagree e xercised their rights to own and shoot guns at Jackson Arms, a low-budge t indoor shooting range in South San Francisco. The group was headed by Thomas Boyer, the organizer of the San Francisco chapter of the Pink Pis tols, whose stepfather gave him his first gun when he was just 6 years o ld. Richard Newell, the marketing director at a high-tech company, showe d up to shoot in loafers and a striped shirt, a pager hooked to his belt . Brian DiCrocco, a Republican who formerly served in the US Air Force, h ad just recently learned how to shoot. Edward, a self-described "liberta rian, anarchist, socialist" with a "small arsenal" of guns at home, didn 't want to give his last name. In San Francisco, being out about gun own ership is in some ways more difficult than being out as gay, he said wit h a laugh. The group clapped on ear protection and spread out over three lanes in th e dingy shooting gallery. For the next hour and a half, it was all about the guns. Boyer bounced around offering tips as they tried out each oth er's guns and studied the paper targets that eventually grew lacy with b ullet holes. "When you have a gun," Thomas shouted over the din from the gunshots, "yo u have a lot of respect for the power of the instrument." By the end of their session, the floor was sprinkled with brass bullet ca sings. The men were ready with standard pro-gun arguments about their constituti onal right to protect themselves and how handgun bans had failed to redu ce crime in other cities. They also spoke about defending themselves fro m gay bashers and went out of their way to make the connection between g un rights and gay rights. "President Bush is trying to write prejudice into the Constitution, and t he liberals are trying to do the same thing," Thomas said. "Our city's s upervisors supporting this just freaks me out. I felt like they were for our civil rights, and now I realize they aren't." For his part, Boyer, a Democrat, has a complicated theory about how the l eft's stand on guns is hurting progressive politics and the fight for ga y rights. Many people in the middle of the country are neutral about sam e-sex marriage, he said, but refuse to vote for politicians who favor ga y rights if they are also against gun rights. Representatives of the California Rifle and Pistol Association and the NR A said they have an easy alliance with the Pink Pistols. "They (the California Rifle and Pistol Association ) are a single-issue advocacy group and as far as they're concerned, any one who agrees with them on that issue is a friend." In fact, around the country -- including in the Bay Area -- the Pink Pist ols tend to get a better response from firearms supporters than from hom osexuals, Patton said. Thomas said he rarely talks about owning a gun be cause of the attitudes toward guns here. Officially, gay groups and some antiviolence groups haven't lined up to t ake positions on the proposed ordinance. "I'm not going to tell someone what he should or shouldn't do," said Tina D'Elia, the hate violence survivor program director at the organization Community United Against Violence. At the same time, "I'm not going to say that anyone is going to avoid a gay bashing because they own a handg un," she said. Thom Lynch, the director of the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transg ender Community Center, also is refusing to take sides, but he did have a few thoughts on the matter of gays and guns. "It shows once again that we're not a monolithic group," he said. "It's amazing to me," he added, "how there's no issue in American politic s that isn't a gay and lesbian issue."
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