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| TOP 10 MYTHS |
MYTH 1: GAY PEOPLE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE NONVIOLENT, RIGHT? FACT: Tell that to the veterans of the 1969 Gay Liberation Rebellion at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. An estimated 200 homosexual men and women, students, cross-dressers, and homeless street kids fought back, heckled law-enforcement officers, threw fistfuls of loose coins and beer bottles and cans, tackled an officer and beat him with a spiked-heeled shoe, freed their arrested friends, battered the tavern door and windows with uprooted cobblestones, pieces of sidewalk concrete, rocks, a parking meter, glass shards, lighter fluid, improvised Molotov cocktails and burning trash cans. Even the Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama wrote that armed self defense is reasonable. MYTH 2: DON'T CRIME-PREVENTION AND HATE-CRIME LAWS STOP VIOLENT CRIMES? FACT: Crime prevention helps people avoid violent crime BEFORE a crime happens. Hate-crime laws help punish violent criminals AFTER a crime happens. It's irresponsible to promote these ideas but ignore the most important information about how people can protect themselves WHEN a crime happens. Becoming familiar with weapons including firearms for self defense is just one way to protect against violent crime. Some people combine this familiarity with owning and possessing weapons, and practicing martial arts. Law-enforcement officers aren't obligated to protect people from crime, according to U.S. Supreme Court opinions. MYTH 3: BUT, ISN'T IT ILLEGAL TO OWN WEAPONS? FACT: Nazi Germany expanded in 1938 that nation's ban of all privately owned weapons including firearms. Millions of homosexuals and others were later arrested, confined to death camps and executed. "The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms," Nazi leader Adolf Hitler wrote in 1942. "History teaches that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so. So, let's not have any native militia or police. German troops alone will bear the sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order." Some nations continue this kind of ban and claim it's for public safety. In the United States, however, owning and possessing weapons is your choice guaranteed by the federal Constitution. U.S. Supreme Court opinions have supported our national founders who wrote that the Second Amendment is an individual right. Court justices agreed in 2007 to consider that right in their review of District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290). Their opinion is expected to be published before June 23, 2008. In Utah, you may generally own and possess weapons -- concealed or unconcealed -- unless you're 1) younger than 18 years of age, 2) not a Utah Concealed Firearm Permit holder and your weapon is concealed, or 3) not a permit holder and your weapon is a firearm which is ready to fire (an unfired round is chambered). In a free nation, shouldn't its citizens be able to own the same weapons as its law enforcers? MYTH 4: WOULDN'T OUR WORLD BE SAFER IF WE JUST BANNED ALL WEAPONS? FACT: Safer for whom? As we've seen, banning weapons including firearms always makes dictators safer, but it almost never makes people at risk of victimization safer. In fact, you're up to 2.5 times more likely to survive a violent crime with a firearm than without one, according to FBI and U.S. Department of Justice evidence. Nations which have banned firearms have experienced an increase in other violent crimes. The United Nations ranked Scotland in 2005 as the "most violent" developed nation, for example, which banned firearms in 1997. Banning more than 228 million privately owned firearms in the United States would be unconstitutional and practically impossible. The idea to ban weapons is simply wrong, as New Orleans leaders learned in 2005 when they banned all, and confiscated thousands of, privately owned firearms after Hurricane Katrina. A federal judge ruled that the ban and confiscation were illegal. MYTH 5: DON'T MOST PLACES BAN WEAPONS, ANYWAY? FACT: In the United States, the possession of weapons including firearms is protected except at: 1) any public-education "school zone," 2) any "Federal facility" or "Federal court facility" where notice of such prohibition is "posted conspicuously at each public entrance to each … facility," 3) any "aircraft in, or intended for operation in, air transportation or intrastate air transportation," 4) any government-designated secure "airport area that serves an air carrier or foreign air carrier," 5) any national "park area" (but planned to be amended in April 2008 to allow with a permit), or 6) any "national wildlife refuge" except while hunting (but planned to be amended in April 2008 to allow with a permit). In Utah, the possession of weapons is protected except at: 1) any church, court facility, correctional facility or mental-health facility if notice of such prohibition is posted or published. The possession of weapons is protected also at any bar, private club or business which serves alcoholic beverages except at any place when the possessor is impaired by alcohol or drugs, or with a blood- or breath-alcohol concentration of 0.08 grams or more (the same level as a driving-under-the-influence violation). In counties and cities, local laws which govern weapons differently than state laws are prohibited, and law-enforcement officers are prohibited specifically from enforcing the local laws. Private-property owners may prohibit the possession of weapons at the properties, but state-court judges haven't considered whether businesses including public accommodations which prohibit such possession violate the equal protection of constitutional rights. MYTH 6: AREN'T MOST WEAPON OWNERS ANTI-GAY? FACT: All stereotypes are unfair and usually inaccurate. More than 40 percent of U.S. citizens own weapons including firearms. Nontraditional groups of weapon owners include those who are antiquarians, athletes, bisexual, black, celebrities, collectors, Communists, crime victims, Democrats, disabled, environmentalists, feminists, gay, hunters and fishers, Jewish, law-enforcement officers, lawyers, lesbians, liberals, Libertarians, military staffers and veterans, miniaturists, Pagan, physicians, reenactors, seniors, small-business owners, students, transgender, women, young, and others. These and other owners appreciate the fight to protect the equal rights of gay Americans; they understand it's similar to their fight to protect weapons rights. The National Rifle Association of America Inc. recognizes gay firearms owners as one of the constituencies of their work. MYTH 7: WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO TAKE MY WEAPONS EVERYWHERE WITH ME? FACT: Most owners of weapons including firearms, even those with Utah Concealed Firearm Permits, choose when and where to possess their concealed or unconcealed weapons. Many gay permit holders take their weapons with them to places where violent crime happens more often: Large groups of people, gay-identified events, and unknown areas. But, the choice is always yours. There's even a benefit to those without weapons; criminals are never sure who might have weapons or not and avoid people who they believe might have them. MYTH 8: DO I HAVE TO LIKE HUNTING IF I OWN WEAPONS? FACT: No. Most owners of weapons including firearms in the United States don't hunt. More than 120 million U.S. citizens own firearms, but only 13 million of them hunt. Despite their decreasing numbers, hunters spend almost $21 billion a year pursuing their sport, and join with conservation groups including the National Wildlife Federation, the National Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, the Izaak Walton League, the Wilderness Society and the World Wildlife Fund to protect our wilderness by developing public policy and buying millions of acres for private conservation. The many kinds of weapon ownership include collecting, gunsmithing, self defense, sport competition and simple target practice, as well as hunting. MYTH 9: IS IT TRUE THAT WEAPON OWNERS CAN'T BE GOOD DEMOCRATS OR LIBERALS? FACT: A Gallup Poll showed in 2005 that more than 33 percent of Democrats said they owned weapons including firearms. Presidents Jefferson and Kennedy, vice presidents Humphrey and Mondale, Democratic National Chairman Gov. Howard Dean, U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, Amendment II Democrats and Democrats for the Second Amendment among many others were and are firearms owners. They prove that many Democratic Party leaders support protecting weapons rights as well as the equal rights of gay Americans. The Libertarian and Personal Choice parties also support these rights. MYTH 10: AREN'T GAY PEOPLE WITH WEAPONS A SMALL MINORITY? FACT: Far from it. There are many gay- and weapons-friendly groups worldwide. Stonewall Shooting Sports of Utah is just one of these groups, but it's also the largest with hundreds of members. From Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde to Camille Paglia and Tammy Bruce, hundreds of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender leaders have argued for weapons rights. Weapons are like abortions. Don't like them? Don't get one, but it's wrong to make that choice for someone else. BONUS ROUND: ISN'T IT TRUE THAT FILMMAKER MICHAEL MOORE PROVED THESE FACTS WERE WRONG? FACT: No. Moore claimed only to be an entertainer with an opinion. Many documentarians criticized his film "Bowling for Columbine" and showed that he faked much of it by piecing together statements made by those he interviewed. He even reedited the home-video version of the film differently from its theatrical version when it was proved he tampered with archived and copyrighted source film. From Sarah Michelle Geller and Bruce Willis to Madonna and Ben Affleck, hundreds of Hollywood celebrities own weapons including firearms and argue for their rights. They belie the fakery of gun-control advocates like Moore.
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