Program teaches women to handle guns
Brian Gomez
Aug. 21, 2003 12:00 AM
When most women stare down the barrel of a gun at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility, they are totally fixated on the centers of paper targets mounted on a large slab of cardboard.
When Scottsdale resident Pat Sylvester follows a routine similar to that of her peers, she, too, stands before the same targets, hoping to hit the bull's eye.
"The difference, though, is that Sylvester also uses those couple of hours each week to reflect on the good times shared with her late husband, Robert, an avid sportsman who died last year after losing his battle with brain cancer.
"My husband taught me everything I knew," said Sylvester, a member of the Annie Oakley Sure Shots women's shooting program. "It's my way of showing him that I can keep doing this."
Sylvester is joined from 7 to 9 p.m. every Thursday by dozens of other Valley women who take target practice with pistols, rifles and shotguns.
Participants in the year-old program are loaned used guns and given enough free ammunition (about 500 rounds) to last two months.
Having supervised the program since its formation last August, Don Turner, chief rangemaster at Ben Avery Shooting Facility, says more than 500 women have learned not only how to shoot guns, but also how to use them safely.
"A lot of ladies learn to shoot from their boyfriends, then they come out and they don't have the patience to deal with (guns) and they're intimidated by them," Turner said.
"We want to reduce ignorance by teaching people about firearm safety. It's a low-threat level, it's a friendly environment and people are learning at the same time."
Copyright 2003, azcentral.com.
