Gun stores are in the business to make money.
There is a LGBT shooting organization called the Pink Pistols that shoots handguns at various ranges across the US. The organization has also worked with the NRA on legal matters.
From their webpage:
About The Pink Pistols
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...There are now over 45 Pink Pistols chapters nationwide, and more are starting up every day. We are dedicated to the legal, safe, and responsible use of firearms for self-defense of the sexual-minority community. We no longer believe it is the right of those who hate and fear gay, lesbian, bi, trans, or polyamorous persons to use us as targets for their rage. Self-defense is our RIGHT.
The Pink Pistols get together at least once a month at local firing ranges to practice shooting, and to acquaint people new to firearms with them. We will help you select a firearm, acquire a permit, and receive proper training in its safe and legal use for self-defense. The more people know that members of our community may be armed, the less likely they will be to single us out for attack. Join us today. It is your RIGHT.
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We teach queers to shoot. Then we teach others that we have done so. Armed queers don’t get bashed. We change the public perception of the sexual minorities, such that those who have in the past perceived them as safe targets for violence and hateful acts — beatings, assaults, rapes, murders — will realize that that now, a segment of the sexual minority population is now armed and effective with those arms. Those arms are also concealed, so they do not know which ones are safe to attack, and which are not…which they can harm as they have in the past, and which may draw a weapon and fight back.
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Are you part of the NRA?
No. Although we do work with the NRA. For example, in California the NRA-ILA contacted us and asked us to take a look at some legislation before the State Assembly and submit written testimony with our take on the bills. We also worked with the NRA when we submitted our amicus brief on the D.C. v Heller case before the Supreme Court. On the other hand, many of our members dislike the NRA due to the positions they have taken, such as helping push through “Instant Background Checks” on a federal level. But as to whether we are an “associate” group of the NRA, no, we are not. We can’t be, because we do not have an elected Board of Directors and other necessary structural elements the NRA requires for associated groups.
http://www.pinkpistols.org/about-the-pink-pistols/
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