Ray Carter: In Memorium

My friend Ray Carter died last night.

I actually felt a little guilty typing that. We hadn't seen each other in a few years but he was somebody who I liked a LOT...we worked together on a cool project a bit over a decade ago. And I'm damn sorry to see him gone. Ray had been fighting cancer for some time and his prognosis suddenly became VERY bad last week. I had hoped to take some movies to him today and join him at his life celebration next weekend. Sadly, those opportunities are now gone and instead there are only happy memories of having known him.

I first met Ray in 1999 or 2000, when I was trying to get a political group for pro-gun Democrats off the ground. I don't remember how we met but the Pink Pistols movement (Motto: pick on someone your own caliber") was starting then. I guess someone introduced us because the bizarre politics in this country have the Democratic "leadership" hating gun owners and taking gay folks for granted....while Republicans often do the exact opposite.

Still, the success of the Pink Pistols and their intention of taking responsibility for their own safety was refreshing. They are still around and doing well today. Our local Seattle area group named itself CeaseFear with the intention of twitting the state's anti-gun group, CeaseFire. I remember being at a hearing in Olympia and one of CeaseFire's minions giving a startled doubletake at the sound of our name. That alone was worth the price of admission.

I think it was Ray himself who coined the name CeaseFear. Most of our creative ideas and a great deal of the energy behind the organization came from him. Ray had been an early organizer for Seattle Pride events and saw no conflict between that and his self defense and gun rights activism. Would that more voters out there had the insight to see that!

During the time that CeaseFear was most active, our activities were concentrated on having shooting events that were LGBT-friendly, a few safety classes, political outreach at Pride events and offering testimony in Olympia. The orientation for safety minions like myself was to join a tour of gay bars in Seattle's Capitol Hill area, the intention being to make sure we were comfortable and friendly with LGBT folks. Actually, it was a blast and the camaraderie in our organization was excellent...again, thanks to Ray.


After a few years, a lot of us found ourselves focusing on staying employed in one economic downturn after another. I was connected to Ray on Facebook and we stayed in touch that way. I occasionally saw him at the Second Amendment Foundation table at gun shows...SAF and local NRA leaders gave our organization tremendous support and Ray ended up working there.  And now, unfortunately, he's gone. Ray was a wonderful person and we don't get to see people of his quality and intelligence nearly often enough. We WILL miss Ray Carter!