(CA) At home on the range - A good article

Oatka · January 19, 2001, 12:53 PM

This says it all: "She said she’s seen women break down and cry after their first trip to the shooting range. 'For the first time,' she said, 'they realize they have the capacity to protect themselves.

Self-protection, safety motivate members of all-women's gun club
By Christine Akinaga Moran, Reno Gazette-Journal

The sound of a buzzer cut through the chill air at the outdoor Washoe County Shooting Facility north of Sparks.

Kelly Connolly whipped her Glock 9mm out of her hip holster and fired to her left at a steel target, knocking the heavy weight over. She ran to her right, long blonde ponytail flying, stopped, and shot at a paper target. She ran forward, past a bright orange sheet of plastic meant to simulate a wall, shot more paper targets, reloaded and ran forward again to shoot a total of 12 targets — 10 paper, two steel.
When Connolly stopped firing, a timer also stopped.

“Tape ’em up!” yelled Bill Mueller, president of the Western Nevada Pistol League, who had followed Connolly through the course.

Bystanders moved forward to tape up the holes in the paper targets and to pick up bullet casings, which can be reused.

Connolly — president of Women of High Caliber, a local women’s gun club — was playing a game developed by the International Practical Shooting Confederation. IPSC was founded in 1976 to promote shooting accuracy, among other things. Connolly’s score was derived by dividing her points — five points for shooting a target in the center, three for shooting around the center and one outside of that — by the time taken to complete the course.

“Now that more women are getting their concealed weapons permits, they need to shoot regularly,” Mueller said, “and this is the game.”

A matter of self-protection
Women of High Caliber was formed about a year ago by a group of women who had taken a course to carry a concealed weapon. The instructors were Connolly, an elementary school teacher and NRA-certified pistol instructor, and her husband, Neil, a former Southern California police officer and deputy sheriff. The students decided to get together for a once-a-month target practice at the Sparks range. In December, the informal 20-member group opted to try the IPSC course at the County range.

For Connolly, IPSC added another dimension to shooting. In an exuberant article written for The Nevada Marksman, the newsletter of Nevada State Rifle and Pistol Association, of which Connolly is a director, she said she loved shooting the IPSC course. Previously, she had been interested in shooting strictly as a means of self-defense.

Now it was getting fun.

But most women get involved with guns as a means of self-protection, according to Peggy Tartaro, executive editor of Women and Guns, a 12-year-old magazine produced in Buffalo, N.Y. Women of High Caliber members backed Tartaro’s assertion. Many said they took the class to carry a concealed weapon for reasons of self-protection. For others, it was a matter of safety — their husbands kept guns in the house, and they felt an obligation to know how to handle the weapons.

“We are not in a society that is safe for women,” said Magi Bird, owner/broker of Remcor Real Estate. “The only equalizer is for a woman to be armed.”

Bird began shooting about 15 months ago, after a friend gave her a .22-caliber handgun for self-protection.

“I was as afraid of it as I was of an intruder,” Bird said.

But she learned to shoot it, and went on to buy her own gun. She’s also become a fierce defender of the Second Amendment — “The Second Amendment is about protecting all the other (amendments and rights)” — and of women’s rights.

“I would choose to have every female in the country armed, provided they were sane,” she said. “Females conduct themselves differently if they understand they have the ability to protect themselves.”

She encourages women and men in her office to take a gun certification course for personal safety, saying that real estate agents are at high risk for violence.

She said she’s seen women break down and cry after their first trip to the shooting range.

“For the first time,” she said, “they realize they have the capacity to protect themselves.”

Politics drew Sandy Goff, a Reno-area martial arts instructor, to guns.

“I don’t want my rights to be taken away,” Goff said. So she learned to shoot a gun. And although she already had good self-defense skills from her martial arts training, she said that a gun “brought on a different level of confidence.”

She compared gun ownership to getting a driver’s license: it’s a responsibility that may be scary at first, and one that a person has to be willing to take.

Reno nurse Stephanie Collins took on that responsibility about a year ago. Her husband kept guns in the house; Collins said she didn’t want to be afraid of them.

“It was scary the first few times,” Collins said, about learning to shoot. Now she’s comfortable with guns — and knows that she would use one to protect herself.

About 20 years ago, Collins was mugged by a man wielding a six-inch knife and a gun that later turned out to be fake. He grabbed her from behind, but Collins, who had had some self-defense training, kicked and fought her way free. She considers herself lucky, but wouldn’t test her luck twice.

“If I could’ve gotten ahold of a gun,” she said, “I would’ve shot him.”

Are you really safer?

Right to Carry laws — meaning laws that allow people to carry firearms for protection — reduce crime, according to the National Rifle Association fact sheet “Right to Carry 2000.” The paper’s authors quote a 1996 study done by professor John R. Lott, Jr. and David B. Mustard of the University of Chicago, stating that right-to-carry states — of which Nevada is one — have 26 percent less total violent crime compared to the rest of the United States.

Handgun Control, a Washington, D.C., organization that promotes gun laws, has its own statistics in its paper “Concealed Weapons, Concealed Risk.” Out of 34,040 American firearms deaths in 1996, only 212 were justifiable homicides by private citizens with firearms. The paper also posits that states with strict laws on carrying a concealed weapon saw their violent crime rate drop by 24.8 percent between 1992 and 1997, more than the 11.4 percent drop seen in states with liberal laws on carrying a concealed weapon.

Washoe County Sheriff Dennis Balaam said he’s not sure whether women are safer or not when carrying a concealed weapon. To his knowledge, no one in this area with a permit to carry a concealed weapon ever has used deadly force.

But hundreds of local women are licensed to carry a concealed women. The Sheriff’s Office issued 276 of the permits to women — out of 900 total — last year.

Balaam said that number is up a little bit from previous years.

Since 1995, 7,000 permits — each of which is good for five years — have been issued in Washoe County. That’s about 2.1 percent of the county’s population, assuming a county population of 333,566. But whether or not those people actually carry their weapons is anyone’s guess.

“I would a venture a guess,” Balaam said. “A high percentage of those people who have these don’t carry them all the time.”

Mueller, the president of the Western Nevada Pistol League, guessed that one in 10 people in a grocery store is packing a weapon. Many gun supporters say this provides protection to everyone, claiming that criminals are less likely to attack when they know that anyone — even that little old lady with the poodle — could be packing.

Women of High Caliber

Thirteen women showed up to the Women of High Caliber Monday night meeting in a room at the Sparks range. Before heading next door to the shooting range, members discussed, among other things, the idea of setting up a fund to help pay for the cookies and other refreshments offered during the meetings.

Sitting at banquet tables, the women looked like members of any other women’s group. Included in the gathering was an older woman with silver hair and glasses and a soft-spoken mom who brought along her 10-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. What seemed unusual was that they all had guns and knew how to use them.

And many people do think it’s unusual, said Anne Cotter, a member whose husband, Eric, thought up the group’s name.

Cotter, who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, recalled getting some raised eyebrows when she told her needlepoint group at Stitch in Time that she had to leave early for target practice.

Cotter said people expect women who carry guns to be these “big macho gals.” She would be the antithesis of that, a woman whose hair falls in soft curls to her shoulders, whose lipstick is flawlessly applied and who wears jewelry to the range, except for earrings, which get in the way of the ear protection.

“I don’t shoot anything that bleeds,” she said. She
also doesn’t like loading automatic guns. “Nailbreakers,” she calls them.

But the joking ends when it comes to self-protection.
“Let me tell you,” Cotter said, “I’ll never be able to wrestle myself out of a situation.”

©2001 Reno Gazette-Journal

You can reach the paper(Moran doesn't have an email) at:
jsloan@rgj.com (city editor)

January 19, 2001, 12:53 PM	#1
Oatka Senior Member Join Date: February 28, 1999 Location: Nevada Posts: 3,119	This says it all: "She said she’s seen women break down and cry after their first trip to the shooting range. 'For the first time,' she said, 'they realize they have the capacity to protect themselves. Self-protection, safety motivate members of all-women's gun club By Christine Akinaga Moran, Reno Gazette-Journal The sound of a buzzer cut through the chill air at the outdoor Washoe County Shooting Facility north of Sparks. Kelly Connolly whipped her Glock 9mm out of her hip holster and fired to her left at a steel target, knocking the heavy weight over. She ran to her right, long blonde ponytail flying, stopped, and shot at a paper target. She ran forward, past a bright orange sheet of plastic meant to simulate a wall, shot more paper targets, reloaded and ran forward again to shoot a total of 12 targets — 10 paper, two steel. When Connolly stopped firing, a timer also stopped. “Tape ’em up!” yelled Bill Mueller, president of the Western Nevada Pistol League, who had followed Connolly through the course. Bystanders moved forward to tape up the holes in the paper targets and to pick up bullet casings, which can be reused. Connolly — president of Women of High Caliber, a local women’s gun club — was playing a game developed by the International Practical Shooting Confederation. IPSC was founded in 1976 to promote shooting accuracy, among other things. Connolly’s score was derived by dividing her points — five points for shooting a target in the center, three for shooting around the center and one outside of that — by the time taken to complete the course. “Now that more women are getting their concealed weapons permits, they need to shoot regularly,” Mueller said, “and this is the game.” A matter of self-protection Women of High Caliber was formed about a year ago by a group of women who had taken a course to carry a concealed weapon. The instructors were Connolly, an elementary school teacher and NRA-certified pistol instructor, and her husband, Neil, a former Southern California police officer and deputy sheriff. The students decided to get together for a once-a-month target practice at the Sparks range. In December, the informal 20-member group opted to try the IPSC course at the County range. For Connolly, IPSC added another dimension to shooting. In an exuberant article written for The Nevada Marksman, the newsletter of Nevada State Rifle and Pistol Association, of which Connolly is a director, she said she loved shooting the IPSC course. Previously, she had been interested in shooting strictly as a means of self-defense. Now it was getting fun. But most women get involved with guns as a means of self-protection, according to Peggy Tartaro, executive editor of Women and Guns, a 12-year-old magazine produced in Buffalo, N.Y. Women of High Caliber members backed Tartaro’s assertion. Many said they took the class to carry a concealed weapon for reasons of self-protection. For others, it was a matter of safety — their husbands kept guns in the house, and they felt an obligation to know how to handle the weapons. “We are not in a society that is safe for women,” said Magi Bird, owner/broker of Remcor Real Estate. “The only equalizer is for a woman to be armed.” Bird began shooting about 15 months ago, after a friend gave her a .22-caliber handgun for self-protection. “I was as afraid of it as I was of an intruder,” Bird said. But she learned to shoot it, and went on to buy her own gun. She’s also become a fierce defender of the Second Amendment — “The Second Amendment is about protecting all the other (amendments and rights)” — and of women’s rights. “I would choose to have every female in the country armed, provided they were sane,” she said. “Females conduct themselves differently if they understand they have the ability to protect themselves.” She encourages women and men in her office to take a gun certification course for personal safety, saying that real estate agents are at high risk for violence. She said she’s seen women break down and cry after their first trip to the shooting range. “For the first time,” she said, “they realize they have the capacity to protect themselves.” Politics drew Sandy Goff, a Reno-area martial arts instructor, to guns. “I don’t want my rights to be taken away,” Goff said. So she learned to shoot a gun. And although she already had good self-defense skills from her martial arts training, she said that a gun “brought on a different level of confidence.” She compared gun ownership to getting a driver’s license: it’s a responsibility that may be scary at first, and one that a person has to be willing to take. Reno nurse Stephanie Collins took on that responsibility about a year ago. Her husband kept guns in the house; Collins said she didn’t want to be afraid of them. “It was scary the first few times,” Collins said, about learning to shoot. Now she’s comfortable with guns — and knows that she would use one to protect herself. About 20 years ago, Collins was mugged by a man wielding a six-inch knife and a gun that later turned out to be fake. He grabbed her from behind, but Collins, who had had some self-defense training, kicked and fought her way free. She considers herself lucky, but wouldn’t test her luck twice. “If I could’ve gotten ahold of a gun,” she said, “I would’ve shot him.” Are you really safer? Right to Carry laws — meaning laws that allow people to carry firearms for protection — reduce crime, according to the National Rifle Association fact sheet “Right to Carry 2000.” The paper’s authors quote a 1996 study done by professor John R. Lott, Jr. and David B. Mustard of the University of Chicago, stating that right-to-carry states — of which Nevada is one — have 26 percent less total violent crime compared to the rest of the United States. Handgun Control, a Washington, D.C., organization that promotes gun laws, has its own statistics in its paper “Concealed Weapons, Concealed Risk.” Out of 34,040 American firearms deaths in 1996, only 212 were justifiable homicides by private citizens with firearms. The paper also posits that states with strict laws on carrying a concealed weapon saw their violent crime rate drop by 24.8 percent between 1992 and 1997, more than the 11.4 percent drop seen in states with liberal laws on carrying a concealed weapon. Washoe County Sheriff Dennis Balaam said he’s not sure whether women are safer or not when carrying a concealed weapon. To his knowledge, no one in this area with a permit to carry a concealed weapon ever has used deadly force. But hundreds of local women are licensed to carry a concealed women. The Sheriff’s Office issued 276 of the permits to women — out of 900 total — last year. Balaam said that number is up a little bit from previous years. Since 1995, 7,000 permits — each of which is good for five years — have been issued in Washoe County. That’s about 2.1 percent of the county’s population, assuming a county population of 333,566. But whether or not those people actually carry their weapons is anyone’s guess. “I would a venture a guess,” Balaam said. “A high percentage of those people who have these don’t carry them all the time.” Mueller, the president of the Western Nevada Pistol League, guessed that one in 10 people in a grocery store is packing a weapon. Many gun supporters say this provides protection to everyone, claiming that criminals are less likely to attack when they know that anyone — even that little old lady with the poodle — could be packing. Women of High Caliber Thirteen women showed up to the Women of High Caliber Monday night meeting in a room at the Sparks range. Before heading next door to the shooting range, members discussed, among other things, the idea of setting up a fund to help pay for the cookies and other refreshments offered during the meetings. Sitting at banquet tables, the women looked like members of any other women’s group. Included in the gathering was an older woman with silver hair and glasses and a soft-spoken mom who brought along her 10-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. What seemed unusual was that they all had guns and knew how to use them. And many people do think it’s unusual, said Anne Cotter, a member whose husband, Eric, thought up the group’s name. Cotter, who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, recalled getting some raised eyebrows when she told her needlepoint group at Stitch in Time that she had to leave early for target practice. Cotter said people expect women who carry guns to be these “big macho gals.” She would be the antithesis of that, a woman whose hair falls in soft curls to her shoulders, whose lipstick is flawlessly applied and who wears jewelry to the range, except for earrings, which get in the way of the ear protection. “I don’t shoot anything that bleeds,” she said. She also doesn’t like loading automatic guns. “Nailbreakers,” she calls them. But the joking ends when it comes to self-protection. “Let me tell you,” Cotter said, “I’ll never be able to wrestle myself out of a situation.” ©2001 Reno Gazette-Journal You can reach the paper(Moran doesn't have an email) at: jsloan@rgj.com (city editor)