Comment by kasey_junk
4 years ago
The mass attacks on gay groups we’ve seen to date resemble hate crimes more than politically motivated terror attacks, so “political tension” isn’t really the right term.
The issue is that the right wing has steered very hard into anti-gay rhetoric in the last couple of cycles which convinces the sort of deranged people who commit mass hate attacks that they are doing something for a cause.
Combine that with the fetishization and availability of military style weapons and it’s pretty easy for a lone miscreant to kill a lot of people fast.
ARs are quite common which is why I predict someone with a GAYR-15 will stop one of these attacks in its tracks and people will stop associating them with right wingers exclusively.
It would be pretty out of vibe for someone to open carry an ar at a pride parade. In lots of jurisdictions it would incite violent police response.
It has definitely happened though. Not everyone who is socially anti-authoritarian is anti-self defense.