Guns better protection for gays than 'hate crime' laws

November 20, 10:48 AMSt. Louis Gun Rights ExaminerKurt Hofmann

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     Oleg Volk photo

In late October, President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, making it  a federal crime to assault people based on their sexual orientation.

President Obama on Wednesday signed a law that makes it a federal crime to assault an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.

The expanded federal hate crimes law, hailed by supporters as the first major federal gay rights legislation, was added to a $680 billion defense authorization bill that Obama signed at a packed White House ceremony.

The law was named after Matthew Shepard, who was brutally tortured and murdered in 1998, because his killers couldn't stand his sexual preferences; and James Byrd, Jr., a black man horribly murdered the same year by white supremacists in Texas, which had no hate crime laws at the time.  While what was done to these men is indisputably heinous, I am a little unclear about what proponents of this law expect it to accomplish.

Even without "hate crime" laws, the killers could be charged with murder, and all the other crimes associated with their atrocities.  Would what they did have been any less horrible if not motivated by bigotry?  Do killers who don't hate their victims somehow deserve more mercy from the courts than those who do?

Even the title of the bill is misleading: " . . . Hate Crimes Prevention Act"?  Laws don't "prevent" crimes; they punish them, after the fact.  Sure, it's to be hoped that laws, and the negative consequences of breaking them, will act as a deterrent, but if that deterrence were very reliably effective, we would presumably not have a prison population of over 2 million.

Will the family and friends of the next Matthew Shepard or James Byrd, Jr. take much comfort in the fact that the killers will now face these new, federal penalties?  Would they not instead vastly prefer that the "hate criminals" were stopped in their tracks?

Pink Pistols is a group with just that as its purpose.

There are now over 45 Pink Pistols chapters nationwide, and more are starting up every day. We are dedicated to the legal, safe, and responsible use of firearms for self-defense of the sexual-minority community. We no longer believe it is the right of those who hate and fear gay, lesbian, bi, trans, or polyamorous persons to use us as targets for their rage. Self-defense is our RIGHT.

The Pink Pistols get together at least once a month at local firing ranges to practice shooting, and to acquaint people new to firearms with them. We will help you select a firearm, acquire a permit, and receive proper training in its safe and legal use for self-defense. The more people know that members of our community may be armed, the less likely they will be to single us out for attack. Join us today. It is your RIGHT.

No assortment of laws will ever end hatred, or even the violent expression of that hatred.  What will is the ability on the part of the targets to fight back.  The Pink Pistols chapters are helping to provide those targets with that ability.  That's "hate crime prevention."

Incidentally, the new law also extends its "protection" to the disabled, and being paraplegic, I would thus be one of the supposed beneficiaries of this legislation.  Thanks, but I've made other arrangements.

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