Wary of anti-LGBTQ+ violence, Christine Joyce Brown sees guns as vital protection

In her retirement, Christine Joyce Brown has become a student of guns, equally familiar with their operation as their history.

Brown recounts how Samuel Colt was inspired to invent the revolver after seeing a ship’s capstan, a circular apparatus used to fasten ropes, on an ocean voyage in 1830.

Once in mass production, Brown boasts, Colt had an assembly line decades before Henry Ford.

And then she casually notes the type of handgun George C. Scott used to fire at German planes in the film “Patton.” It was a 1903 Browning .32.

Brown doesn't have one of those, but she has many others. She owns more than 50 other handguns.

“I study all guns and I can take all my guns apart,” she said. “I wouldn't say I am an expert but I can talk a lot about guns."

But Brown is more than just keenly interested in firearms. She appreciates the protection they provide.

Brown, 67, who lives in Milwaukee with her sister, transitioned four years ago. It took time, she said, but most people she knows now have become accustomed to her as a transgender woman.

She also knows the transgender community faces discrimination and sometimes violent danger. Studies show people in the LGBTQ+ community are four times more likely to be victims of violence. That's part of the reason Brown carries a gun.

It is especially reassuring to carry when she is in the northern part of Wisconsin, she said

“I'm there by myself and you never know who you're going to come across,” Brown said. “I am never without a gun.”

Interest in guns sparked by hunting

Growing up in Fox Point, Brown didn’t shoot much. Her dad didn’t own a gun, but she had an uncle who was in the 32nd Infantry, the “Red Arrow Division,” fighting in the Pacific in World War II. She would hear the stories.

Sometimes she got to shoot her grandfather’s .22 rifle, at a family cabin north of Waupaca.

In 1977, Brown married into a family that hunted. It was a natural fit.

“That kind of got me triggered into it and mentally excited about the Northwoods and hunting, especially bird hunting,” she said. “It was a traditional family get-together.”

Brown especially enjoyed grouse hunting. Finding time to hunt, however, was not easy while raising a family on Milwaukee’s north shore.

Brown ran a family car repair business for three decades. She went golfing and fishing when she could and coached Little League, but longer trips for hunting were rare.

Brown divorced about a decade ago, left behind the car repair business, and retired early. Contending with alcoholism and gender dysphoria, Brown said she had suicidal thoughts before she transitioned. Those thoughts have passed.

"I am pretty content now," she said. 

Brown can’t explain how she dived so deeply into firearms. But once in, she was hooked. Even though she owns nearly every caliber of handgun made, she does not consider herself a collector.

One of her noteworthy guns is a .500 Smith and Wesson Magnum, the most powerful production revolver in the world. But she doesn’t shoot it much.

“The bullets cost about five, six bucks apiece,” she said. 

Searching for acceptance as trans gun owner

Today, Brown drives a coach bus, mostly at the airport, and lives near the German Immersion School of West Capitol Drive on Milwaukee’s northwest side.

She also has 120 acres west of Tomahawk where she has built an elaborate shooting range and installed fancy hunting blinds and stands.

Every year she welcomes a half-dozen hunters, including a few disabled veterans, she has gotten to know over the years who hunt there. They know she is transgender and accept her. She feels comfortable around them.

But Brown also feels on edge up north because of other incidents. In the past year, a man followed her as she was leaving Stevens Point and heading to her cottage. The man made several of the same turns Brown did. 

Her .38 Special revolver was under her seat, within reach.

“He didn't follow me all the way there,” she said, “but I made sure I knew where my gun was.” 

Brown said she also has a firearm when she is away from her car. Her purse gun is a “Seecamp,” a small German pre-World War II .32 revolver.

“It doesn't have any sharp edges on it,” she said. “So it won't get stuck if you want to pull it out.” 

At home in Milwaukee, she keeps several guns ready in the event of a break-in — even when she is in the shower.

“That might sound weird to you," she said, "but you never know when that situation is going to occur.”

At the range, where she shoots often, Brown said at least some clerks and instructors know she is transgender, but they don’t raise the issue. It’s not a big deal, for which she is grateful.

She is aware of the homicides that have occurred in Milwaukee and other cities because the victim was transgender.

There were at least four identified transgender women to die by homicide in Milwaukee between June 2022 and October 2023. Brown notes she doesn’t know what happened in each case but the risk is real.

“Some people don't like trans people, you know?” she said. “I'm always going to have to deal with that. There are those people out there, you know, that are just against you.”

About this project

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter John Diedrich examined the full extent of gun deaths in Wisconsin during a nine-month O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University.

The project reveals the full picture of gun deaths in the state and tells the stories of people affected by gun deaths and those trying to find solutions.

Diedrich was assisted in the project by Marquette student researchers Alex Rivera Grant and Ben Schultz.

Marquette University and administrators of the program played no role in the reporting, editing or presentation of this project.