JO MARTIN: We all believe that everyone should
have the right of self-defence.
JO MARTIN: And Pink Pistols is involved in
trying to help people in the LGBT community
to achieve that.
MARIA RODRIGUEZ: We couldn’t find my friend,
we didn’t know where he was at, until the
following day when we were all searching for
him and we got the news from Orlando Regional
Hospital and that’s how we found out that
he deceased.
COMM: Last year, the world watched in horror
as a gunman opened fire at a gay night club
in Orlando.
MARIA RODRIGUEZ: The evening, something woke
me up in the middle of the night, like about
2am. My heart was racing. I turned on the
TV and all of a sudden the first news that
came up was Pulse. I immediately started calling
all my friends.
COMM: Maria Rodriguez tragically lost her
close friend and house mate Frankie during
the massacre.
MARIA RODRIGUEZ: He went there with a couple
of friends. I wasn’t able to make it that
day, the rest of our friends were able to
get out. The last time that they saw him was
that he was being shot while he was in a foetal
position on the floor. That’s it. That’s
all we know.
COMM: Since the shootings last June, the Orlando
community has come together in unity, and
now they are fighting back against hate crime.
JO MARTIN: Pink Pistols was formed in the
year 2000, and it’s a non-profit organisation,
it was set-up after a series of attacks on
the LGBT community, and we figured that if
they had a gay gun rights advocacy group that
they could help train people in the gay community
to be able to safely defend themselves using
a firearm.
COMM: Pink Pistols has chapters across the
United States, but didn’t have one in Florida.
JO MARTIN: Actually put them all in.
JO MARTIN: Make sure you don’t put your
finger on that part because that’s a moving
part. So, you take your shot and your finger
is anywhere close to here, it’s going to
move. So, you want it to be just right there,
that’s perfect.
COMM: Jo Martin was asked to set one up in
August 2016 and since the Pulse shootings,
Pink Pistols membership has soared.
JO MARTIN: After Pulse, the LGBT community,
in addition to the non-LGBT community in this
area, was pretty badly affected because it
happened right here and people that we knew
were affected by it directly. So, it did have
a major impact. So, the one positive thing
to come from such a negative event was that
people really pull together. And the Pink
Pistol is not just for LGBT people. Really,
the only criteria is that we all believe that
everyone should have the right of self-defence.
COMM: It’s legal to carry a concealed weapon
in Florida, and many anti-gun campaigners
have called for firearms to be banned completely
after Pulse and other atrocities. But the
Pink Pistols firmly believe in the Second Amendment.
JO MARTIN: I pray every night that I never
need to, but I do have that knowledge if I
do need to, and that’s one of the reasons
I’m involved in Pink Pistols, because we
want to share that knowledge, so that other
people have that level of confidence as well.
MARIA RODRIGUEZ: I will not go against banning
guns even after what happened at Pulse. Although,
it touched me deeply, but I think that you
should be able to protect yourself.
MARIA RODRIGUEZ: I think it would have helped
him, if more of the people that were in Pulse
would have had a gun. Because the more people
that had gun, it would have been more protection
for themselves.
JEREMY WILLIAMS: I don’t know if America
would be safer if bans, if guns were banned
altogether, because they are out there. So,
that would have been a question to propose
back when the nation was first starting and
guns at their infancy, but I think there is
just too many guns out there to look at that
as a viable way of keeping America safe.
RICK CLAGGETT: The events at Pulse affected
me personally, because it took me back to
a time where I didn’t feel safe. I don’t
know if America would be safer if we didn’t
have guns, necessarily. I think the training
is to be into the people who use them. If
people wanted to kill people, they will find
a way to do it. So, I don’t necessarily
think that getting rid of the guns is going
to be the answer for that.
JO MARTIN: The answer to the question, ‘Will
the world be a better place without guns?”,
is absolutely. But as a caveat to that, only
if nobody had them and quite honestly, realistically,
I don’t see that happening.
COMM: Now the community in Orlando is re-building
itself, looking forward to a future without
hate crime. But for Maria and many others,
June 12th 2016 will be a day that will stay
with them forever.
MARIA RODRIGUEZ: He was a very happy person,
spectacular human being, always caring. We
remember him constantly. My hope for the future
is that everyone accepts everyone without
judgment, without discrimination, without
racism. Who cares who you love, you know.
You love who you love and love is universal.
