In the so-called “gunshine state,” LGBTQ+ Floridians are taking steps to learn gun safety and training due to rising tension towards minorities and marginalized people.
As the first openly LGBTQ+ owned and operated firearms education and safety organization in Florida, Equality in Arms trains people who may have never considered firearm ownership before.
EIA is a firearms and armed self-defense education organization that is run by civilian instructors and designed for regular people with safety concerns. EIA chooses to focus on beginner shooters interested in learning the principles of legal and ethical self-defense.
Christopher Fernandez, owner and lead instructor of EIA, says he is teaching people ethical firearm ownership through his classes. He has over a decade of experience in training and curriculum development, and five years of accumulated knowledge of firearms and self-defense law. The course he leads is around nine hours of instruction, split into three separate classes.
“When you’re carrying a firearm, you’re carrying a huge responsibility,” Fernandez says. “You almost literally have the power of life and death in your hands. I teach people how to walk through the world being a good, sane, thoughtful, principled person who happens to carry a firearm. That’s a huge focus of my concealed carry class.”
As the state moves through its 2026 legislative session, firearms in Florida have once again come into focus. The Florida House has already passed legislation to drop the minimum age to purchase rifles and other long guns from 21 to 18.
For the fourth year in a row, however, it is unlikely the state will repeal the 2018 law raising the purchasing age. That’s because a companion bill in the Florida Senate hasn’t been filed; a similar situation has played out in the past three legislative sessions.
In 2018, Florida changed the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 and also passed the Red Flag Law which allows temporary seizure of guns from people posing a danger to themselves or others. This was passed in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting in Parkland that resulted in the deaths of 17 people.
Citizens and advocates fought for gun violence prevention measures before then as well, particularly after the shooting at Pulse in 2016. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history and it remains the largest targeted attack against the LGBTQ+ community to date. The victims and survivors were predominantly Latin LGBTQ+ people.
Since enacting the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, however, state lawmakers have eliminated the requirement to have a permit to conceal carry. They did so in 2023. Two years later, the courts ruled that open carry is legal in Florida.
The effort to raise the legal age, which has been supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis, gained momentum this spring. That’s when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced he would not defend the law after a federal appeals court again upheld its constitutionality after it was challenged in federal court by the National Rifle Association.
“If the NRA decides to seek further review at SCOTUS, I am directing my office not to defend this law,” Uthmeier said in March, not long after DeSantis appointed him to his office. “Men and women old enough to fight and die for our country should be able to purchase firearms to defend themselves and their families.”
Over the years, Fernandez notices there’s been liberalization of gun laws and access to firearms. He says he hears that Florida is a “shoot first, ask questions later” state.
Fernandez knows guns aren’t common for everyone, as many people have never shot a firearm or may have little experience. But he wants his students to learn gun safety in a safe space where they are free from judgment.
At EIA, participants learn about legal instruction, scenario-based training and extensive basic pistol training. Fernandez says there are no egos in the room and he doesn’t tolerate comments directed politically, negatively or socially toward another person as it is written into his terms.
There is fear in gun ownership, Fernandez adds, as there is stigma associated with being a firearm owner. However, he notes that “you do not have to love guns, you don’t even have to believe that they’re inherently good.”
His goal is to teach gun safety and responsibility but more importantly he teaches how not to use a firearm.
Along those lines, Divas in Dialogue — Central Florida’s “sisterhood of trans women of color empowering, building and strengthening each other” — has hosted personal defense workshops in partnership between several trans-led organizations. They include TransUnited in Elevation, Gender Advancement Project, Unspoken Treasure Society and LIPS of Tampa.
The workshops are called Arm the Divas and focus on situational awareness, de-escalation techniques, self-defense basics and more. Mulan Montrese Williams, founder of Divas in Dialogue, says the workshops provide practical safety tools and important conversations centered on empowerment and community safety.
In an average year, more than 25,000 hate crimes in the U.S. involve a firearm — 69 a day, according to Everytown Research. The vast majority of reported hate crimes are directed against communities of color, religious minorities and LGBTQ+ people.
In 2023, there were 35 homicides of transgender or gender-expansive people. 80% of these were with a gun. That same year, 50% of gun homicides were of Black trans women.
“We are living in unpredictable times, and taking personal safety seriously is an act of self-care and survival,” Williams says.
Over in Tampa Bay, the local chapter of the Pink Pistols is a pro-gun organization that advocates for the Second Amendment rights of the LGBTQ+ community. The group aims to empower individuals within the LGBTQ+ community to exercise their right to self-defense through responsible firearm ownership and training.
Armando Santana, chapter member of the Tampa Bay Pink Pistols, says the group gives members a safe, inclusive and judgment-free zone to learn how to use guns.
Santana explains that he purchased his first gun in the spring of 2025 because of rhetoric from Donald Trump’s administration. He advises people who are liberal may not feel comfortable owning a gun, which can be seen as “a right-wing characteristic.”
“We’re just trying to break that mold and also put out there that the gays have guns too,” Santana says. “We’ve also got Second Amendment rights and we’re going to use them.”
Harrison Roberts, chapter member of the Tampa Bay Pink Pistols, says he hears that members are thankful for a safe space where they can learn about firearms in a red state. Roberts was certified by the NRA to be an instructor.
“You see a bunch of people with equality flags, some transgender members pull up to a range and you get a lot of funny looks,” Roberts shares. “But being there in numbers has definitely helped plenty.”
There are over 45 Pink Pistols chapters nationwide. Each one provides basic instruction and range trips. On formal range trips, the chapter will start with handguns and demonstrate how to hold, aim, load and unload them. Depending on the day there may be various rifles, shotguns or pistols.
Roberts says even if Floridians don’t want to own a gun because they are afraid or don’t have an interest, everyone should at least know the basics of gun safety, how to operate one and how to render one safe. He cites the prevalence of firearms in American society.
He thinks minorities should exercise their rights safely and legally because everyone should know how to defend themselves if needed.
“Armed minorities are harder to address,” Roberts says. “…It’s been made clear we have a target painted on our backs.”
If there are LGBTQ+ community members considering buying a gun, Santana says he wants them to find the Tampa Bay Pink Pistols and ask questions. Even if they aren’t located in Tampa Bay, both Santana and Roberts encourage people to start their own chapters.
“The second amendment is either for everyone or no one and I prefer the ‘for everyone’ part,” Santana explains. “I think that given the political climate right now, there are a lot of people who are very justifiably afraid for their own personal well-being.”
In January, a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old man who worked as an ICU nurse. It was the second fatal shooting by immigration agents.
Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman, was shot and killed earlier that same month by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Becca Good, her widow, said her wife “was made of sunshine” in her first public statement.
Pretti was a U.S. citizen with no known criminal record. U.S. Department of Homeland Security says he was armed, and the city’s police chief confirmed he had a lawful permit to carry. Minnesota is an open carry state, but it requires a valid permit to carry a handgun in public.
One video appears to show an officer take away his gun just before another shoots him multiple times.
Fernandez says that the vast majority of people who saw the video are in agreement that the officers did not handle that situation well.
He says the average officer is trained to fire until the threat has stopped and that could make the number of shots be reasonable if the circumstances that started that string of shots were justified. That can only be determined through an investigation.
Many firearms that are carried by law enforcement don’t tend to have external safeties. Fernandez says one of the number one models used by police departments are Glock branded firearms. Those do not have external safeties on them. They have internal safeties that make it so that that firearm will not go off on its own.
“It was an intentional shot,” Fernandez shares. “The real question we need to focus on is why the officer felt the need to shoot.”
When it comes to situations that could possibly escalate, Fernandez teaches six different principles to help his students avoid conflict. One being not to ask, “can I shoot?” but instead, “should I shoot?”
“We can walk through the world understanding that we have a huge responsibility while carrying a firearm,” Fernandez explains. “… We are in unprecedented times where our institutions have taken actions that are clearly not in line with our democratic principles that are causing a lot of people in marginalized communities to be fearful.”
He notes that there is a difference of being motivated by fear instead of being guided by principle. Fernandez knows there are members of the LGBTQ+, Latino and other marginalized communities that are looking to arm themselves of fear.
“There are legitimate things to be fearful of but we have to be in control of that fear as well,” Fernandez says.
For more information on Equality in Arms or the Tampa Bay Pink Pistols, visit EqualityInArms.com and Facebook.com/Groups/TampaBayPinkPistols. Learn more about Divas and Dialogue at MiracleOfLoveInc.org/DID.
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