Inside the Pink Pistols, the 'gay NRA' protecting themselves against hate crimes

They are everything you probably wouldn't expect from gun-loving Americans.

Loud and proud this group has one aim - and it's not spending their days at a firing range.

Instead they're using the  weapons to fight back against what they as violent homophobia and rising gay hate crime.

Known as the Pink Pistols, the group are using their constitutional right to bear arms to deal with a surge murders against the LGBTIQ community.

Speaking to The Feed's Patrick Abboud, one woman, Leia, recently joined the Pink Pistols' San Diego  branch and gave an honest account of why she signed up.

"I don't want to die. I don't want to get beaten to death and stabbed and burnt alive. I want a gun to feel equal,” she said on Gays and Guns which went to air on The Feed on Viceland last night.

The documentary goes inside what some people call the 'gay NRA' and speaks to those who have been on the receiving end of hate crime, and those who want to arm themselves against it.

The Pink Pistols has more than 45 chapters across the US and at least 10,000 shooters and formed in response to the more than 50 gay-hate related murders against which took place in 2017.

"That’s one person killed every week because they're gay," Abboud said.

The documentary looks at a group which doesn't necessarily want tighter gun control but who simply want to protect themselves.

Jeff Bloovman, Gay firearms instructor and member of The Pink Pistols Philadelphia, said his community was desperate.

"The gun control debate might be out of control in this country right now but so are gay hate crimes," he said.

"Armed gays don't get bashed or, worse, even killed. We're not just going to sit back and allow people to impose their will upon us."

Gays and Guns also delves into the lives of people who have lost partners and loved ones to gay hate crime.