Pink Pistols Meeting Planned at Quickshot in Brookhaven

Brookhaven, GA — A gun advocacy group for the LGBT community is planning a Wednesday gathering at a Brookhaven gun range.

Atlanta Pink Pistols has chosen Quickshot on Buford Highway for its meeting and is even exploring the possibility of live streaming their discussion, according to its Facebook page.

Sales of the type of gun that Omar Mateen used in the deadliest mass shooting in American history in Orlando, Florida on June 12 are increasing in Atlanta and elsewhere in the U.S. Mateen is believed to have used a .223 caliber assault rifle to kill 49 people and wound another 53 at a gay nightclub.

Quickshot refers to its Buford Highway location as Buckhead, but the range is inside Brookhaven city limits. It is right next door to the Brookhaven Police Department, which does not use the range as its practice facility.

Nationally, the Pink Pistols' membership group has risen from about 1,500 before the Orlando shooting to more than 3,000, according to NBC News.

"We've had the greatest response in three areas, our Facebook page, which has tripled in size, our chapters, we have so many requests for information on starting new chapters I've lost count, and the sheer number of people offering services such as training to our members," said group spokesperson Gwendolyn Patton.

The group has 45 active chapters across 33 states.

In the meantime, one metro Atlanta gun store is seeing an increase in assault rifle sales. Last week, Adventure Outdoors told 11Alive that 35 AR-15s were sold within three hours, a rate of about 10 guns per hour.

“There’s one that’s buying them for an investment, and the other one is the person that’s buying them because they’re afraid they won’t be available; they’re afraid the government is going to take them away,” store owner Jay Wallace said.

Often called the most political gun in America, AR-15s range in price between $500 and $3,000.