For decades now mainstream media outlets have regularly bemoaned and demonized gun owners, especially those of a conservative bent. We're inevitably portrayed as either unwitting tools of the gun lobby, anti-government extremists, or weirdos who love our firearms more than our family, but however we're characterized it all leads to the same conclusion: gun owners (and gun ownership) is icky and unusual, if not downright dangerous.
Since the election of Donald Trump, however, media outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post have treated some new gun owners with newfound respect... so long as they're on the Left. Earlier this month I highlighted the fair and balanced reporting from the Times that highlighted several recent gun owners, the vast majority of whom are Democrats. Now it's the Washington Post's turn, with a downright positive portrayal of trans gun owners who've embraced their Second Amendment rights after Trump's election.
Until recently, May Alejandro Rodriguez was a big supporter of gun control.
A 21-year-old Mexican American trans woman who is a student at Western Washington University, she was interested in producing music and snapping photos of her friends on Fuji 400 film.
But Rodriguez, who voted for Kamala Harris, changed her view on guns when Donald Trump was reelected. She had heard the stories from her trans friends in red states: being forced to use bathrooms that didn’t match their gender identities; having gender markers switched on their drivers’ licenses. She saw kids losing access to hormones and feared adults would be next. She thought back to the trans high-schooler who was killed in her hometown and the trans teen who was attacked in Bellingham last year.
“Trans people have every reason to be afraid because we are being attacked,” Rodriguez said. “Every single day, another right is lost.”
She believed Republicans were playing on fear to stoke transphobia, so she thought trans people should play the game back. “They’re going to fear us no matter what,” she said. “So let the fear come from a place of reality.”
I have no issue whatsoever with Rodriguez deciding to become a gun owner, but do you think for a second that the Washington Post wouldn't editorialize if a straight, white, conservative dude told a reporter that they picked up a gun because the Left is going to "fear us no matter what, so let that fear come from a place of reality"? If so, can I interest you in a lovely bridge available for sale near Brooklyn?
Look, self-defense is a human right, and the right to keep and bear arms is a right of the people. All the people. Trans people have the same Second Amendment rights as non-trans Americans as far as I'm concerned, and honestly, as much as the WaPo reporters wanted to portray 2A activists in a negative light when it comes to this group of new gun owners, they found that most gun owners feel the same way I do.
“With personal protection being the top motivating factor, an increasing number of Americans are choosing to exercise their right to self-defense, as evidenced by the recent explosion of new gun owners from all demographics,” the NRA said in response to whether it had seen a rise in trans gun ownership.
Trans gun owners are part of a larger American tradition of minorities purchasing guns for safety, [sociologist and gun owner David] Yamane said, citing the Black Panthers in the 1960s and women seeking self-defense options in the 1970s and 1980s.
“What’s happening today among trans people is in the tradition of people demanding their rights and saying that they’re willing to defend those rights with force if necessary,” Yamane said.
Even when the WaPo reporters followed Rodriguez and several friends to a range in Washington State, they failed to find anyone eager to give the group a hard time. The story mentions a shooter in the adjacent stall who "wore a sweatshirt emblazoned with ;Jesus is My Savior/Trump For President' in large letters", but acknowledged that "if he noticed the shooters next to him, he didn’t let on."
My guess is he just didn't care.
There is no such thing as a stereotypical gun owner anymore, and I'm sure that there are some folks who would be upset about sharing a range with a group of trans shooters. For the most part, though, I truly believe that those of us who support and defend the Second Amendment understand that it's not just a right for people who look like us, think like us, or even vote like us.
What the Washington Post reporters either fail to understand or willfully choose to ignore is that gun ownership can be a great equalizer, not only in terms of self-defense, but in helping us find our commonalities and common ground. My involvement in Second Amendment issues has led to me becoming friends with folks from all walks of life who I would never have met were it not for my gun ownership, including several trans gun owners, and I'm far from unique in that regard. The Washington Post is missing a bigger story here, and I think it's because they're unwilling to let go of their contempt and distaste for those of us who embraced our Second Amendment rights long before Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term. Even if they now find some gun owners acceptable, at the end of the day they're still fundamentally opposed to the Second Amendment itself.
