From: [p--c--o] at [delphi.com]
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Serious Bodily Harm (fwd fm alt.homosexual)
Date: Sat, 11 Jun 94 22:59:43 -0500

From: [d--si--e] at [terapin.com] (Adrienne Davis)
Subject: Queers with Guns?
Newsgroups: alt.homosexual
Date: 9 Jun 94 22:08:22 PST

Okay, to give us something ELSE to talk about I thought I'd bring this up.
I was on a bus going to visit with my friend, Bubba (A leftist gay red-
neck) and I got harassed by four young 'brothers' in a sports car.  (I 
guess they got offended because I looked too much like a dyke for their 
tastes, but anyhows) I started talking with a young queer brother who 
told me he'd like to see all the gay/lesbian et.al. folk in this city 
start packing (as in heat!).  So I told him about Bubba.

Bubba bought a couple of revolvers a few years back, after some 'phobes
thought it might be fun to chase a gay guy on crutches into a convenience 
store below his apartment and beat the hell out of him.  Bubba only has
one good eye (and until recently that was hanging by a thread) and is 
HIV+  (along with other health problems totally unrelated to HIV that 
prevent him from moving at high speed).  Figuring that if he takes one
rightly placed hit to the head he's blind for the rest of his life (all
ten (or less) years of it) and that the WORST the criminal injustice (oops
did I say that) system can do to him is put in the can for the rest of 
his life (see earlier parenthetical expression) what did he have to lose?

Having been down South where most EVERYONE packs or at least OWNS a gun, I 
was relatively unphased.  However, when he has talked about this within 
our queer homeplaces a lot of people have gotten looks whiter than a Klan
robe. :)  He's been trying for three or so years to get ME to pack but I 
have so far refused (for ethical reasons, as well as I don't REALLY want
to have to deal with white cops dealing with a black woman w/gun, thanks
no.).  I support his reasoning.  If he is in a situation he CAN'T walk 
away from because one of Chuck's like minded comrades in baseball bats 
decides he (and five or six of his friends) just HAVE to take his head off
Bubba will be able to solve his problem. Additionally, OUR world will be 
made safer by a factor of AT LEAST one or two.  

So my question is this?  How do YOU feel about it?  I'm curious as to
what you think?  We live in a high threat environment.  CUAV  (Communities
United Against Violence...a local NPO serving victims of hate crimes/
domestic violence) reported that there have been 87 hate crimes this year
alone in San Francisco.  If SEVEN of those had been prevented through 'peace
through superior firepower' how many of the OTHER eighty would have occurred?
Please let me know.  (We were discussing this over dinner and I thought I'd
share it with the rest of you kinfolk.)

(Bubba just HAD to add a few things, so all following comments are coming 
from HIS fingers.  :)  

Hi, gang.  This is Bubba, Desire's friend.  As previously mentioned, I have one working eye and the MDs have put me on notice that, due to retinal damage, if I get hit in the head, it's LIGHTS OUT for keeps.  Not fun.  I also move slowly (at best) due to a
n old foot injury.  I mention these things because the legal standard for using a gun in self-defense is the prevention of death or grave bodily harm (blindness qualifies, and my eye doc knows about my .357 and is willing to get on the witness stand if ne
ed be).  I say this because if a normal healthy person lights somebody up to prevent a fistfight, he'll/she'll have MAJOR legal problems.  But if you light up the night in the face of a swarm of bashers, that's reasonable self-defense.  So don't blast away
 at everything that moves.  also, and this sounds like a contradiction in terms, you need to be a pacifist to pull off carrying a gun--if somebody walks up to you and snarls sweet nothings in your ear (I often hear FAGGOT and FATSO), just keep walking.  N
o verbal response, nothing that can be used in court to claim that you added fuel to the fire.  If the idiot follows you and starts to get physical, and you are outnumbered or he has a weapon, you drop him, just like that, period.  Desire started this out 
on the topic of queers with guns; another issue here is disabled people with guns; the bad guys love gimps.  One of my friends with a cane just got mugged, and the perps will be released on their own recognizance.  They'll walk.  The other day I saw a car
 with a handicapped placard on the dashboard and a license plate reading GLOCK 19 (for you nongunners, that's a brand name of a handgun).  Right on!  I'll leave you with the NRA version of a prayer that will be familiar to you 12-steppers: God, grant me th
e serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the firepower to make the difference.  Peace in our time, on our terms.  Y'all sleep well.

(Well that's all for the Aj and Bubba show.  Like he said, y'all sleep well.)

In sisterly spirit;
D.
[d--si--e] at [terapin.com]