Information for Volunteers
If you wish to be added to or removed from our database, please contact us, sign up, or reach out to us on Facebook. Your expenses in taking an LGBTQ person shooting are now tax deductible; see our Donations page for more information.
We ask that you provide the following to the student:
- Eye protection
- Ear protection
- A firearm for their use, if they do not own one
- Ammunition for same (you are not expected to use more than one magazine’s worth of ammunition, although you may of course do so if you wish)
- Targets
- Range fees
Range fees (yours and theirs) and ammunition expended during education are considered a tax deductible expense.
What We Teach
Please note that we are offering firearms education, not professional training. This means the following:
- Col. Cooper’s Rules of Firearms Safety.
- How to recognize a loaded firearm from an unloaded one.
- How to load a firearm. (Theirs, if they want training with it; one of yours if they do not.)
- Proper stance, breathing, and aiming technique. (BRASS, etc.)
- How to hit a target effectively.
- How to unload a firearm and render it safe.
Anything further than this is advanced training (see below).
Please note: We are seeking volunteers to teach people for free! We are not interested in promoting your business just because you say you are LGBTQ-friendly. We are, however, perfectly happy with teachers referring students to professional trainers and businesses if they wish to learn more after their initial free session.
We also encourage our teachers and our students to seek out and join a local Pink Pistols chapter.
The Pink Pistols was formed in 2000 and incorporated into Operation Blazing Sword in 2018.
Embodying the concept “Armed queers don’t get bashed”, the Pink Pistols is part shooting club and part social group. We honor diversity and are open to all lawful shooters, regardless of their sexuality, gender, or politics. We advocate the use of lawfully-owned, lawfully-concealed firearms for the self-defense of the sexual minority community, and we work to build bridges between the shooting community and other communities, such as those based on alternative sexualities.
If there is a Pink Pistol chapter in your area (go here to learn more), we encourage you to join. If there isn’t, then please consider creating one after receiving training from a Blazing Sword instructor.