The term "sex workers" isn't a term that I used to hear. When it first surfaced, it meant anyone engaged in sex-related work, from prostitutes and porn stars to strippers and cam girls.
You know, the people who put themselves out there for creepy dudes and end up at murder scenes more often than most other groups.
So, it's not surprising to come across a story about sex workers starting to carry firearms. What's weird is why they say they're doing it.
CN is afraid of guns. She’s never imagined herself with a weapon, but on this day she’s holding an unloaded gun as part of a ‘dry fire’ class at the Sex Workers Outreach Project office in Minneapolis, better known as SWOP. She and others in the class are learning how to hold and point a handgun.
She says she has felt more nervous after Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by federal agents last month. Pretti was legally carrying a firearm, which led to conversations around second amendment rights during the surge.
CN’s story is similar to other Minnesotans with immigrant roots. CN asked MPR News not to use her full name out of fear for her safety. Her uncle is an immigrant and was recently detained by agents when they were looking for someone else. She worries her dad and grandma who don’t speak much English will be racially profiled.
She feels hopeless. This disempowerment has led her to consider learning gun safety.
“It’s scary, I don’t even know how to put it into words. I feel like I have to protect me and my family and everyone that I love,” she said. “I’ve never been interested in it before. I haven’t been to a range before, but I think knowing the safety behind it is really important. Especially if I come across handling a gun in any situation.”
Now, CN here isn't an illegal alien. She's an American citizen, apparently, and she's lawfully purchasing a firearm, which makes sense. Sure, her family are immigrants, but as they're here legally, they likely won't have much problem in the long run.
So why does ICE's presence make her feel like she needs a gun?
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As Cam Edwards noted over at our sister site, Bearing Arms:
I say good for them, though I can't really understand why ICE and Border Patrol coming to town has sparked their interest in the Second Amendment. To me, just working as a stripper is reason enough to want to carry a firearm for self-defense, given the odds of a creepy customer deciding to take an unhealthy interest in them.
Right?
I mean, maybe it's because I've been binge-watching Criminal Minds, but sex workers seem particularly vulnerable to stalkers and other whack jobs who want to hurt women. They're generally attractive, they put themselves out there for men to look at, they have to at least pretend to find a guy interesting if they want to make any money, and that's more than enough for some crazy people to think they're justified to do horrible things to them.
Every sex worker who lawfully can should be carrying a firearm should, if you ask me, and I won't blink at some carrying them illegally, under the circumstances.
But because ICE might question someone whose an immigrant or doesn't speak much English? Seems like someone's priorities are drastically out of whack.
Then again, most intellectuals don't end up as sex workers, and that's for a reason.
