Opinion
Fayetteville, AR – -(AmmoLand.com)- A coalition of churches calling themselves the New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Movement held a conference in Orlando, Florida this month that coincided with Pride Week and the third anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting. Titled, Make America Straight Again, its purpose was to convince churches to preach against homosexuality and to advocate for the execution of LGBT people.
The idea that consenting adults whose sexual identity or behavior differs from the majority deserve to be killed is shocking to anyone who believes in human rights. One of the lessons that we in the gun community teach whenever asked is that if you mind your own business and if you’re not forcing anyone to be involved in that business, you should be left in peace. This principle must be broadly interpreted. It includes possession of AR-15s, the combined consumption of marijuana, Cheetos, and Pink Floyd records, and the sexual activity of same-sex partners. Whether I approve or not, and whether I am unhappy about not being invited or pleased to stay away, isn’t relevant to the decision of others to make their own private choices.
Calling for executions of LGBT people is disgusting. But I remain hopeful that Americans on the whole are decent enough never to adopt such a proposal. But one of the participants in the NIFB movement, Tommy McMurtry, raised a particular point that ties in directly to the general subject of interest of this magazine. Informing his audience that Florida is a Stand-Your-Ground state and if violence breaks out during any confrontations between Pride participants and Make America Straight Again attendees, members of his movement can fight back.
In Arkansas, carrying while participating in a demonstration that requires a permit is not legal. I haven’t found any such restriction in Florida law, but McMurtry does display a misunderstanding of what Stand Your Ground allows. While the law removes the duty to retreat from a potentially lethal attack, it does not allow people to set the incident in motion. If someone is the antagonist in a fight, that person then does have a duty to attempt a de-escalation and to withdraw if physical force becomes involved. This is the lesson that many learned in elementary school that if you shout threats at a classmate, you don’t get to whine when he gives you a bloody nose.
The NIFB is free to believe what they wish. They are even free to say in the abstract what policy choices we ought to adopt. But they are walking close to the line—one side or the other of it—and when they say that LGBT people should be killed and mention of Stand Your Ground while expressing such desires for violence, this is not what their attorneys would like to hear if any incidents arise from their bigotry.
But more broadly, those of us who value gun rights should stand up for our fellow minority groups who aren’t forcing the unwilling to join in and against attacks on the same.
As a political matter, I would be embarrassed to say to my fellow citizens that I want them to defend the rights that I exercise while refusing to return the courtesy. This would be morally repugnant as well. And in practical terms, if I want to win over enough people so that support for gun rights is no longer a minority thing, I’ll have to be on the side of other people of good will who are working for acceptance of their own favorite set of rights.
About Greg Camp
Greg Camp has taught English composition and literature since 1998 and is the author of six books, including a western, The Willing Spirit, and Each One, Teach One, with Ranjit Singh on gun politics in America. His books can be found on Amazon. He tweets @gregcampnc.
You may not be interested in the LGBT community, but they are interested in you. They cannot reproduce the way Nature intended. They must recruit. They are coming after your children. I saw it for years when I worked as a Peace Officer in SoCal. There are so many of them in the “entertainment industry” and they are very wealthy. Their wealth attracts politicians and their corrupt, syphilitic, sinful nature is then propagated to children through programs at “public schools”. Within the last week, these monsters held a “Drag Queen Story Hour” at the Spokane public library. The folks who… Read more »
Gay sexual relations are wrong and against the Scriptures see Leviticus Chapter 8 Verse 22 and Romans Chapter 1, Verse 27. However, as Christians we are suppose to hate the sin, not the sinners. For we are all sinners, but we are also all God’s children. Never compromise your Christian beliefs, for homosexuality is wrong. Never cease to speak out against it. What consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedroom should be of no concern to anyone. Its when they bring it out of the bedroom on to the public square, into the classroom, into popular culture we… Read more »
My friend, the whole concept of equal rights is skewed in this article. It’s not the fact that myself or any law abiding gun owner has set out to harm any person of different ideas of morality, it is the LGTBQs who have decided they need to put on an expose’ to declare their normalcy and then mandate that we all except it in a groveling manner. While I can understand your point of mixing protest with a means of harm is a bad idea, it appears your problematic with any opposing protest. The simple fact is that one group… Read more »
Its time to start talking about a peaceful revolution where all of the constitutional amendments are taken more seriously. The majority of americans are in the center of all these issues and talking about them like an extremist gives your argument zero credibility.
First, what has been wrong, illegal, immoral and an abomination before GOD ALMIGHTY for the past 6,000 years, still is. Most people have heard it said that history repeats itself. There are those who think what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah is just a bunch of fiction. There is ample evidence that the destruction of both of those cities actually happened. The same can be said of sacrificing one’s children to mullok, as in modern day abortion. Yes, there was and will be a response from the LORD about this also. I can’t speak for all Baptists but the hate… Read more »
This is probably the worst excuse for an article I’ve seen since starting to frequent the site. Truly embarrassing.
I’m surprised to see this thinly veiled anti-Christian screed posted on Ammoland. First, the MASA conference certainly was advocating that churches should preach the biblical doctrine of reprobates and against the sin of sodomy, but it was not directed at “advocat[ing] for the execution of LGBT people.” Obviously these preachers would rejoice if the USA adopted the death penalty for homosexuality as the bible commands, however, the point of the conference was not to get such laws passed. The author intentionally conflates the two. Next, the author misleads the reader by stating the MASA conference was a protest and thus… Read more »
I can assure everybody that forced “acceptance” of the perverts and their agenda will be delivered at the end of a bayonet at some point. Same with climate control ideology, same with “common-sense” gun legislation, etc.
At what point do the Traditional Americans say “Enough!” and fight back against the multi-pronged advancement of American-styled communism??
What’s wrong with the good old 17th century practice of burning queers at the stake?
By intent…….they did this to make Christianity the “problem” ……….The further we get away from God The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost….the quicker we lose this country…….if you think losing Our Faith is the way to turn our country back to Freedom you are sadly mistaken…..like the pope and a vast array of churches, many are paid out to proclaim the opposite of The True Word of God
Quit being gullible and get on your knees Americans
WE DO NEED CHRIST ….HE IS WHO I FIGHT FOR
Amen
Sincerely,
A Woman of God