Sarah Palin revives Annie Oakley Movement

The more the merrier! I've only seen one woman at the range I go to in the last 2 months, and she yelped at every shot she took. I would love to see many more COMPETENT female shooters out there. plus we need all the votes we can get...

This is definitely awesome news, while women have been getting into shooting sports and carrying steadily over the last few years, anything that increases the rate that they come in is a great thing.

A role model, such as Sarah Palin seems to be, is a great thing for many reasons - including making the shooting sports more palatable to some women that might not otherwise be interested. Her personal rise in politics, again, not the subject, but the incentive to pay attention to her interests (basketball, hockey, hunting, flying - to name the obvious ones), brings her into focus as a real person, with real abilities that other women just might be more interested in emulating. I haven't found anything wrong with that, yet.
sailortoo

This used to be America's pastime...

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1962/3/1962_3_26_print.shtml

http://www.dorchesterlibrary.org/library/aoakley.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=p7...&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result

http://www.traphof.org/carver-vs-bogardus.htm

Her personal rise in politics (...) brings her into focus as a real person, with real abilities that other women just might be more interested in emulating.

Click to expand...

I agree, and I find it heartening.

A Vice President who not only supports gun rights, but actively engages in the sport with great enthusiasm, could do more to bring new shooters into the fold than anything else I could think of.

The fact that it will swell the numbers of female shooters is even better.

Heller was one kind of win, but something like this is on a whole different level. Heller lays the legal groundwork, but Ms. Palin's presence can go a long way to winning the hearts and minds of the uncertain.

I saw a news item that stated the Obama camp sent a large contingency of lawyers and investigators to Alaska to try and dig dirt on Sarah Palin.

Perhaps they'll screama and shouta a warninga of her "terrible" ability to ah.. hit what she shoots at! This woman is dangerous!

I noted the same thing -- that Sarah Palin's candidacy may serve to "mainstream" shooting sports among women. It's even affecting the late night comics -- on Jay Leno the "Headlines" headline the other night was a picture of Sarah shooting an AR-15 from a bench, with the "Headline" "Sarah Palin rejects Secret Service Protection -- Says she's got it covered." One of Jay's jokes shows Sarah with a broken-open over-under shotgun over her shoulder, and he quipped that it was taken at the announcement of her pregnant daughter's bethrothal.

Both were, I thought, rather light-hearted jibes at her as a shooter, not implying guns=evil, etc. But both served to reinforce that here's a woman who enjoys shooting.

Borderline

If your post has disappeared, that would be because its content was solely political in nature.

Yeah, I know this thread is going to have political "lint," but keep it to RKBA and we'll be fine.

If it heads into the political ditch then I'll cap it.

Peckerwoods whacked my post -- some more.

"What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?"

-- one's a bitch. One's a dog.

Before this thread gets locked for being pertinent to our lives, Palin has brought guns, hunting, and shooting into the frontal lobes of a lot of Americans. In our house, it has peaked my wifes curiosity and I'm finding her a little more accepting of my "arsenal."

"Let me get a big H*** Yeah! from the redneck girls like me!"

*gigglesnort*

Dude, we've been here when Sarah Palin was *just* a hockey mom!!!!!

Springmom

I'm really happy to see this. It's one of the only good things I see coming out of this election, and even if McCain isn't elected Palin still serves as a reminder to all women that they can be a lot tougher than they think they are.

I'm headed off to Appleseed in the morning, and I wonder how many other women will be there. I'll report back on Monday.

I think she is great. Someone has got to be in the national political scene as a 2nd amendment supporter, and I think it's about time it was a woman.
I'm glad she's on the ticket, and she was actually the deciding factor for some of my fence sitting friends as to who to vote for.

I could not be happier. I have no girlfriends to go shooting with. All of them hate them or want nothing to do with them.

I've been shooting since I was 16 (a long time ago). I was actually grounded and the only place I could go and get out was with my dad to the range. I got my first o/u at 18 for graduation.

I just recently got back into shooting skeet. In Feb my hubby and I both bought a handgun, then 2 more handguns. I just got a new XD 9mm SC which is my carry gun. I LOVE going to the range. I'm not great yet but I'm getting better.

I'm going to try and get a few girls to go to the range. Maybe if they see me if will change their minds.

Palin still serves as a reminder to all women that they can be a lot tougher than they think they are.

Click to expand...

Well put.

I hate the way so many women exhibit a weird, learned helplessness so much of the time and I am trying hard to immunize my daughter against the culture of victimhood. Shooting sports are a good way to teach anyone, but especially girls and women, that they are capable, competent, and able to do what they set out to do.

I don't know if its Palin's influence, I've noticed this happening for a while longer than she has been in the spotlight. Take the Purdue Rifle/Pistol Club as an example: A few years ago when I started, there was one female member. She was married to one of the male members. Fast-forward to this year, our president is a woman, there's a woman on both the rifle and pistol teams, and there's three or four more that show up to shoot every week.

Also, the OSU pistol team has been 30 - 60 % women for as long as I've been competing.

I wonder if this is more a symptom of the gun culture gaining more mainstream acceptance in the past few years (more states with CCW, 50%ish favoring more gun control as opposed to over 70 15 years ago) that's just getting attributed to Palin.

I am under the impression Sarah is a Life Member of the NRA. Leading by example.

Our local Sheriff's office sponsored a Handgun Familiarization class for women today. They had 18 participants including my wife. They're hoping to get a group of them to keep getting together and continue shooting together too. I think that's great.

Once upon a time we were a fearful nation to invade, as everyone had a gun and as Yamamoto said "There would be a rifleman behind every blade of grass"

Now....

Annie was a very competent, capable LADY. Palin is a delightful contrast to the "learned helplessness" so prevalent.

Anyone trifling with the ladies in my family will see a muzzle flash as the last thing on their retinas.

Tigre,

What did you think of the Appleseed shoot?

Hawkhavn

Tigre,

What did you think of the Appleseed shoot?

Hawkhavn

Click to expand...

It was very, very cool. The whole experience was just really inspiring. I learned a heck of a lot, and my trigger control and follow through are immeasurably better already. There were six or seven women total out of about 50 shooters, though I think my friend and I were the only ones who weren't with a male of some sort. One of the women made Rifleman, which was pretty cool - she was one of four.

My highest score was 142, with a couple of others in the 130s, which I wasn't all that happy with, but probably isn't bad considering I've been shooting rifles for a grand total of about two months. I'm going to another one next month and I'll be dry firing and practicing at the range a lot until then. I've also decided I should start swimming again to work on breath control. More even than just wanting to make Rifleman for the sake of the skill, this is something I'd love to get involved with once I get to that level. I don't know how many female instructors there are in the project, but it would be cool if there were more.

Ok, are you R or A?

Glad you enjoyed yourself!

I don't know how many female instructors there are, but the answer is not enough! The Ohio State Coordinator is a hard charging lady who also attended my boot camp. There is a mother/daughter team getting started out in Wyoming. The shoot boss (Atticus' job last weekend) for the first Manatee Club shoot back in February was a lady as well.

You don't need to make Rifleman to help out with the program. PHenry desperately needs help in Florida right now. The program is growing so fast it needs a lot of folks pitching in. You can be a huge help if you'll step up. PM me or PHenry and we'll get you started. You have already shown you have what it takes. The Rifleman score will come, but I waited too long getting active with the program. I should have stepped forward when I was at your stage. I am making a difference now, but it would have better a year and a half ago.

If you haven't had a chance yet, drop by the Appleseed forum here:
http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=4072.msg39201;topicseen#msg39201
You can post a review yourself and see what the other attendeees have to say.

Hawkhavn
IN State Coordinator and RWVA Instructor