My choice for awarding the first “civil liberty hero of the week” is one I never would have anticipated: the Pink Pistols, an organization “dedicated to the legal, safe, and responsible use of firearms for self-defense of the sexual-minority community,” a community, they note, which suffers the second highest rate of hate crimes in the U.S.

Pink Pistols sued the District of Columbia over its “good reason” requirement for the issue of gun permits.  This week the federal District Court for the District of Columbia sided with them, granting an injunction against the requirement.

The so-called “good reason” requirement for the issue of gun permits, in place in several states and cities, is a flagrant violation of a fundamental civil liberty.  It is most often used to circumvent court decisions validating the 2^nd Amendment (DC uses it to flaunt the Supreme Court’s Heller decision).  I will write more about this soon.

I’ll let Pink Pistols speak to the court’s decision:

“This clause was a travesty of justice from its inception,” said Gwendolyn Patton, First Speaker of the Pink Pistols. “It left the free exercise of an inherent human right up to bureaucrats and police officials.”

“[We] maintain that nowhere in the Second Amendment is the concept of “good reason” enumerated, and a requirement to show such special need is fundamentally unconstitutional.

“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.”

I am not gay, and I’ve never suffered blatant discrimination or violence, but I stand with Pink Pistols and congratulate them for standing up for themselves and for all citizens.  I consider them brothers and sisters in the pursuit for freedom.  We share and defend common ground.  The rights and liberties of free people hold for all.