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From the Chicago Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/women/):
Weapons of mass possession
As gun ownership among women grows, a faceoff heats up between those
on opposite sides of the firearms issue
By Lorna Collier
Special to the Tribune
May 5, 2004
Kelly Champlin grew up so opposed to guns that when her new husband, a
Marine, wanted to bring a shotgun into their home, she told him, "Over my
dead body."
But after her husband brought her to a shooting range, Champlin changed her
mind. She found she loved shooting. "I was hooked," she says.
Today, Champlin, 34, is a competitive shooter, a certified instructor and
president of the overwhelmingly male Pine Tree Pistol Club in Rockford,
where she teaches gun safety and skills, including "Ladies Only" classes,
begun three years ago in response to demand by local women. She and her
husband plan to give their 5-year-old son his own child-size rifle this
summer.
Champlin is one of an estimated 11 million to 17 million women in America
who own guns--a number that could be on the rise, as more women than ever
are taking up target shooting and hunting.
The National Rifle Association's target-shooting classes for women "have
been skyrocketing" in popularity, according to Stephanie Henson, manager of
the NRA's women's programs department. The number of women attending clinics
from 2000 to 2003 soared 788 percent, to 4,403 from 496, while the number of
clinics offered jumped 1,008 percent to 144 in 2003 from 13 in 2000.
In January 2003, the NRA began publishing a magazine for women, Women's
Outlook, which has been growing in circulation 15 to 22 percent each month,
says spokeswoman Kelly Hobbs. The magazine has 50,000 current subscribers.
The NRA doesn't track the gender of its 4 million members, Hobbs says.
This is happening as organizers get ready to hold the second Million Mom
March on Mother's Day in Washington D.C. The rally's purpose is to promote
gun-control legisltion, especially the assault-weapons ban, which is set to
expire in September.
A counterdemonstration in Washington on the same day is being organized by
the Second Amendment Sisters, a 5-year-old group with about 10,000 members
that opposes gun control.
Bill Jenkins, 46, of Northfield, is an author and frequent speaker on gun
issues. His 16-year-old son was fatally shot during a fast-food robbery in
1997. Jenkins will be speaking at the Million Mom March along with his wife,
Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins, whose pregnant sister and brother-in-law were
fatally shot Winnetka in 1990. The couple met at a conference for families
of murder victims.
Jenkins says that the rising interest in guns among women is the result of
manipulation by the gun industry, which has seen sales lag among men.
"The gun industry has tried to increase market share among women, because
they are desperately underrepresented in that population," he says. "It has
tried to increase fear among women, and has been making products that appeal
to women, making firearms lighter and more manageable, making designer guns
that are literally cute."
"It's propaganda," agrees Rose Woods, 47, executive director of Victims of
Violence, a Chicago-based support service for families and friends of
homicide victims. Woods' 16-year-old son, Nick Jaramillo, was killed in a
restaurant robbery in Chicago in 1996.
"They're using the old-boy mentality that women can't think on their own,
but ... we understand too much," says Woods, an organizer of the first
Million Mom March who will be attending this year's rally. "A gun is not a
security blanket. I wouldn't want it in my home, even locked up. Kids can
find it, kids can play with it. We're not living in Lone Ranger times."
Pro-gun groups
But even the National Sporting Goods Association says more women are
participating in target shooting and hunting. Gun manufacturers since the
mid-1980s have been designing lighter firearms for women, while gun-toting
purses and fanny packs are also on the market. With the advent of the
Internet, women's pro-gun groups--with names like the Second Amendment
Sisters, Armed Females of America, Liberty Belles and Women Against Gun
Control--have gained steam.
Many see women arming themselves as a sign of strength, self-determination,
even of feminism.
In her new book "Blown Away: American Women and Guns" (Pocket Books),
journalist Caitlin Kelly--herself a crime victim--points out that violence
against women remains a pervasive problem, affecting about 1 in 3 American
women in their lifetimes.
"Women living alone may say [having a gun] is my best choice; that's the
decision they've made to protect their families," says Kelly, 46, who does
not own a gun. "Power, to me, is not just, `I can be a lawyer or a doctor or
get into MBA school.' In the most profound sense, I want to feel safe in the
morning. To me, that's really a feminist issue."
Carol Oyster, psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin in
LaCrosse, co-wrote a book in 2000 called "Gun Women: Feminism and Firearms
in Contemporary America" (New York University Press). Oyster is a hunter,
NRA member and feminist.
"Feminism is about choice. To me, there's no difference in making an
informed decision about firearms or reproductive rights," says Oyster, who,
along with her 17-year-old daughter, Katherine, teaches hunting safety. "My
daughter talks to her peers about it as a feminist thing to do. In our
hunter-education classes, we are seeing more and more girls all the time, 12
years old even, girls and moms together."
"I don't think a woman should have to depend on a man to protect her. He
can't be there 24/7," says Linda Ward, 57, a gun-owning retiree in Evergreen
Park. "There are a lot of single women now. If the bad guy comes at you, you
can't just tell him, `Play nice.'"
Peggy Tartaro, executive editor of Women & Guns magazine, says the last 20
to 25 years have seen "a sea change" in women's attitudes about guns,
brought about by such societal shifts as the rise in single-parent
households and the women's movement.
Disputing both sides
But are women truly safer if they arm themselves, or are they trading a
hypothetical danger for a certain one?
Studies exist to bolster both sides, some claiming guns can stave off
attacks and reduce crime, others alleging guns can be more harmful in the
home than not having them, with disputes over which studies are reliable.
What is not in dispute is the number of annual gun-related deaths in the
United States, which in 2001 was 29,573, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
A little more than half the deaths were suicides (16,869); a small fraction
were accidents (802); and homicides (11,348) accounted for the bulk of the
rest, according to the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and
Control. (There were also 323 shootings by law enforcement and 231 that were
unclassified.)
Even gun-owning women don't believe merely possessing a firearm provides
fail-safe protection against criminals.
Jillian Galas, 25, a Waukegan computer consultant, owns about 15 guns and is
the Illinois state coordinator for the Second Amendment Sisters,
representing about 50 to 60 women in Illinois. She has been shooting since
age 5 but learned from a self-defense program in Texas that her guns might
not necessarily save her in the event of attack, especially against a
determined assailant.
Champlin warns against relying on a gun without proper training.
To author Kelly, some gun dangers are "specific and individual"--if there
are people in the home with substance abuse or emotional problems, such as
poor impulse control or depression, there should not be firearms in the
home.
But in a nation where women are frequently victims of violent crimes at the
hands of men in their lives, Kelly says, "I feel strongly that a woman who
is prepared to shoot to kill, who is well-trained in the use of her weapon
under stress--it's her choice to make."
Rallies, for and against
On Sunday, the second Million Mom March to protest gun violence will be held
in Washington, D.C., at the front of the U.S. Capitol. The first march took
place in 2000, with an estimated 750,000 women attending.
This year's rally is called the Mother's Day March to Halt the Assault, and
kicks off a campaign to renew and strengthen the assault-weapons ban, which
expires in September, says Jonathan Lackland, Great Lakes regional director
for the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence United With the Million Mom
March.
Meanwhile, the Second Amendment Sisters, an Internet-based group with
approximately 10,000 members, will be holding a counterdemonstration at
Washington's Freedom Plaza. During the first Million Mom March, the Second
Amendment Sisters drew about 4,500 people to its counterrally.
More information about the two rallies can be found at: and
www.2asisters.org/SAFER/index.html.
Weapons of mass possession
As gun ownership among women grows, a faceoff heats up between those
on opposite sides of the firearms issue
By Lorna Collier
Special to the Tribune
May 5, 2004
Kelly Champlin grew up so opposed to guns that when her new husband, a
Marine, wanted to bring a shotgun into their home, she told him, "Over my
dead body."
But after her husband brought her to a shooting range, Champlin changed her
mind. She found she loved shooting. "I was hooked," she says.
Today, Champlin, 34, is a competitive shooter, a certified instructor and
president of the overwhelmingly male Pine Tree Pistol Club in Rockford,
where she teaches gun safety and skills, including "Ladies Only" classes,
begun three years ago in response to demand by local women. She and her
husband plan to give their 5-year-old son his own child-size rifle this
summer.
Champlin is one of an estimated 11 million to 17 million women in America
who own guns--a number that could be on the rise, as more women than ever
are taking up target shooting and hunting.
The National Rifle Association's target-shooting classes for women "have
been skyrocketing" in popularity, according to Stephanie Henson, manager of
the NRA's women's programs department. The number of women attending clinics
from 2000 to 2003 soared 788 percent, to 4,403 from 496, while the number of
clinics offered jumped 1,008 percent to 144 in 2003 from 13 in 2000.
In January 2003, the NRA began publishing a magazine for women, Women's
Outlook, which has been growing in circulation 15 to 22 percent each month,
says spokeswoman Kelly Hobbs. The magazine has 50,000 current subscribers.
The NRA doesn't track the gender of its 4 million members, Hobbs says.
This is happening as organizers get ready to hold the second Million Mom
March on Mother's Day in Washington D.C. The rally's purpose is to promote
gun-control legisltion, especially the assault-weapons ban, which is set to
expire in September.
A counterdemonstration in Washington on the same day is being organized by
the Second Amendment Sisters, a 5-year-old group with about 10,000 members
that opposes gun control.
Bill Jenkins, 46, of Northfield, is an author and frequent speaker on gun
issues. His 16-year-old son was fatally shot during a fast-food robbery in
1997. Jenkins will be speaking at the Million Mom March along with his wife,
Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins, whose pregnant sister and brother-in-law were
fatally shot Winnetka in 1990. The couple met at a conference for families
of murder victims.
Jenkins says that the rising interest in guns among women is the result of
manipulation by the gun industry, which has seen sales lag among men.
"The gun industry has tried to increase market share among women, because
they are desperately underrepresented in that population," he says. "It has
tried to increase fear among women, and has been making products that appeal
to women, making firearms lighter and more manageable, making designer guns
that are literally cute."
"It's propaganda," agrees Rose Woods, 47, executive director of Victims of
Violence, a Chicago-based support service for families and friends of
homicide victims. Woods' 16-year-old son, Nick Jaramillo, was killed in a
restaurant robbery in Chicago in 1996.
"They're using the old-boy mentality that women can't think on their own,
but ... we understand too much," says Woods, an organizer of the first
Million Mom March who will be attending this year's rally. "A gun is not a
security blanket. I wouldn't want it in my home, even locked up. Kids can
find it, kids can play with it. We're not living in Lone Ranger times."
Pro-gun groups
But even the National Sporting Goods Association says more women are
participating in target shooting and hunting. Gun manufacturers since the
mid-1980s have been designing lighter firearms for women, while gun-toting
purses and fanny packs are also on the market. With the advent of the
Internet, women's pro-gun groups--with names like the Second Amendment
Sisters, Armed Females of America, Liberty Belles and Women Against Gun
Control--have gained steam.
Many see women arming themselves as a sign of strength, self-determination,
even of feminism.
In her new book "Blown Away: American Women and Guns" (Pocket Books),
journalist Caitlin Kelly--herself a crime victim--points out that violence
against women remains a pervasive problem, affecting about 1 in 3 American
women in their lifetimes.
"Women living alone may say [having a gun] is my best choice; that's the
decision they've made to protect their families," says Kelly, 46, who does
not own a gun. "Power, to me, is not just, `I can be a lawyer or a doctor or
get into MBA school.' In the most profound sense, I want to feel safe in the
morning. To me, that's really a feminist issue."
Carol Oyster, psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin in
LaCrosse, co-wrote a book in 2000 called "Gun Women: Feminism and Firearms
in Contemporary America" (New York University Press). Oyster is a hunter,
NRA member and feminist.
"Feminism is about choice. To me, there's no difference in making an
informed decision about firearms or reproductive rights," says Oyster, who,
along with her 17-year-old daughter, Katherine, teaches hunting safety. "My
daughter talks to her peers about it as a feminist thing to do. In our
hunter-education classes, we are seeing more and more girls all the time, 12
years old even, girls and moms together."
"I don't think a woman should have to depend on a man to protect her. He
can't be there 24/7," says Linda Ward, 57, a gun-owning retiree in Evergreen
Park. "There are a lot of single women now. If the bad guy comes at you, you
can't just tell him, `Play nice.'"
Peggy Tartaro, executive editor of Women & Guns magazine, says the last 20
to 25 years have seen "a sea change" in women's attitudes about guns,
brought about by such societal shifts as the rise in single-parent
households and the women's movement.
Disputing both sides
But are women truly safer if they arm themselves, or are they trading a
hypothetical danger for a certain one?
Studies exist to bolster both sides, some claiming guns can stave off
attacks and reduce crime, others alleging guns can be more harmful in the
home than not having them, with disputes over which studies are reliable.
What is not in dispute is the number of annual gun-related deaths in the
United States, which in 2001 was 29,573, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
A little more than half the deaths were suicides (16,869); a small fraction
were accidents (802); and homicides (11,348) accounted for the bulk of the
rest, according to the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and
Control. (There were also 323 shootings by law enforcement and 231 that were
unclassified.)
Even gun-owning women don't believe merely possessing a firearm provides
fail-safe protection against criminals.
Jillian Galas, 25, a Waukegan computer consultant, owns about 15 guns and is
the Illinois state coordinator for the Second Amendment Sisters,
representing about 50 to 60 women in Illinois. She has been shooting since
age 5 but learned from a self-defense program in Texas that her guns might
not necessarily save her in the event of attack, especially against a
determined assailant.
Champlin warns against relying on a gun without proper training.
To author Kelly, some gun dangers are "specific and individual"--if there
are people in the home with substance abuse or emotional problems, such as
poor impulse control or depression, there should not be firearms in the
home.
But in a nation where women are frequently victims of violent crimes at the
hands of men in their lives, Kelly says, "I feel strongly that a woman who
is prepared to shoot to kill, who is well-trained in the use of her weapon
under stress--it's her choice to make."
Rallies, for and against
On Sunday, the second Million Mom March to protest gun violence will be held
in Washington, D.C., at the front of the U.S. Capitol. The first march took
place in 2000, with an estimated 750,000 women attending.
This year's rally is called the Mother's Day March to Halt the Assault, and
kicks off a campaign to renew and strengthen the assault-weapons ban, which
expires in September, says Jonathan Lackland, Great Lakes regional director
for the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence United With the Million Mom
March.
Meanwhile, the Second Amendment Sisters, an Internet-based group with
approximately 10,000 members, will be holding a counterdemonstration at
Washington's Freedom Plaza. During the first Million Mom March, the Second
Amendment Sisters drew about 4,500 people to its counterrally.
More information about the two rallies can be found at: and
www.2asisters.org/SAFER/index.html.
