One of the country’s largest statewide LGBT
(lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) advocacy
organizations recently announced its support at Los
Angeles City Hall for a gun control package proposed
by state lawmakers, and vowed to push for
national gun legislation, following the recent mass
shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality
California, promised that over the next few
months, the group will lobby members of Congress
and the state Legislature, and put the “full weight”
of the organization’s “legislative electoral and education
programs behind the lifesaving gun safety
and violence prevention laws.”
“We will work to mobilize our 800,000 members
and organization’s leaders, and leaders of the
LGBT community and our allies, to make gun safety
a key LGBT community priority,” Zbur said. “We
must act now to make sure another Orlando cannot
occur again anywhere, ever.”
Zbur characterized the Orlando shooting as “an
act of hate directed toward the LGBT community”
and pointed to statistics that indicate people who
identify as LGBT are “disproportionately harmed
by gun violence.”
Zbur said the Los Angeles-based organization,
which has primarily focused on state legislation
around LGBT issues, is launching a “Safe and
Equal” initiative to push for stronger gun control
laws. The group is also known for its endorsements
of candidates for local, state and federal offices, and
puts out scorecards grading state elected officials’
stances on LGBT rights issues.
The group will be pushing Congress to pass
laws that include banning military-style assault
weapons and large-capacity magazines, closing
background check loopholes at gun shows and
requiring stricter background checks and wait periods
for gun purchases.
Equality California was joined by a bevy of
state and city leaders, including Mayor Eric
Garcetti, Police Chief Charlie Beck and state Senate
President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon, who is leading
an effort to pass stronger gun control measures
for California.
De Leon noted that “the deadliest mass shooting
in our nation’s history was a hate crime,” with
members of the LGBT community “once again a
target of a murderous attack.”
But he made a connection to other communities,
saying “this was an attack against Latinos,
against African Americans, against immigrants,
against Puerto Ricans and Dominicans and other
shades of brown at the Pulse club that evening.”
Zbur told City News Service that Equality
California had already been tackling the gun issue
“in a more modest way … but really what happened
in Orlando was a call to action for us.”
“Our community has been grieving over what
happened in Orlando,” he said. “It’s really important
to direct that energy to things that are positive
and that are really going to address what’s going to
happen, and that’s one of the things we are trying
to do today.”
Forty-nine people were killed and another 53
were wounded in the shooting this month at the
Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the deadliest mass
shooting in U.S. history. The gunman, Omar
Mateen, was killed by SWAT officers.
Equality California’s announcement comes after
some at Los Angeles City Hall speculated that the
shooting would motivate LGBT activists to throw
their organizing power behind gun control efforts.
Councilman Mike Bonin said that “the LGBT
community, I am absolutely confident, is going to
be the biggest ally and the biggest shot of adrenaline
into the gun control movement this country
has ever seen.”
The activists who “chain themselves to the
White House and disrupt Congressional hearings
because of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and because of
DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act), are going to
work on this issue” by joining with others who have
been calling for gun control laws, Bonin said.
Councilman Mitch O’Farrell echoed the organizing
call, saying that “if the NRA, if the National
Shooting Sports Foundation, if the California Rifle
and Pistol Association and the gun lobby in general
does not think that we’re going to start going after
them and those who aid and abet terrorism across
the country by supporting mass killing machines
and automatic weaponry and the ammunition that
feeds them, then they’ve got another thing coming.”
“Orlando is this generation’s Stonewall and it is
time once and for all to do all that we can to make
sure this carnage gets under control in this great
country of ours,” O’Farrell said.
In a response to the council members’ statements,
Chuck Michel, president of the California
Rifle and Pistol Association, said the Orlando
shooting should not be used as a springboard for
politicians to seek over-reaching gun-control laws.
“The response to the violence should be to support
legislation and policies that allow for every
American to have the chance to protect themselves,”
he said. “We cannot continue to let the gungrabbers
use tragedies to push their own agenda
without pointing out that it does nothing to
increase safety.
“This is why CRPA will not be bullied into giving
up the fight to defend our Second Amendment
rights,” he said.