Posted on 11/06/2001 1:55:07 PM PST by ldakers
Are these average gun enthusiasts? Are they simply curious? Or is it that in these uncertain times holding a still-smoking Uzi against your patriotic breast after having unloaded 150 rounds into a rotting gourd is therapeutic?
It was curiosity that led this cat to Saturday's Machine Gun Blast, an event sponsored by the Connecticut chapter of the Second Amendment Sisters at the Metacon Gun Club, just a hop, skip and a jump down the road from Tower Ridge Golf Course.
The sisters are a group of women who are pro-gun and who want women to experience the same liberating effects of owning and firing guns that men are more likely to enjoy.
Throughout the afternoon, Simsbury's Talcott Mountain was alive with the reverberating sound of round-spewing M60s. Anyone with the dough and the desire to fire off a few rounds could purchase ammunition at a booth, located near the range. Guns available for a test shoot included Glock 18s, M-14s, Colt M16s, as well as larger caliber machine guns. After a wait of an hour or so, shooters were escorted inside the fenced firing range to let rip at pumpkins and metal targets set up in a field.
And I'll admit that after firing off 30 rounds, and completely decimating a defenseless little pumpkin with an MP5--a lightweight, fully automatic submachine gun used by military and law enforcement units in more than 50 nations, and adored for its accuracy and controllability--a sense of release washed over my trembling body.
This reporter wasn't the only one to experience that release. True, the majority of those in attendance were of the pro-gun, "Yay, NRA" variety. Yet, there were several others who wouldn't ordinarily be interested in guns who stood in long lines just so they could pop off a few rounds and get a little of that post-Sept. 11 wartime aggression out of their systems.
"It feels unbelievably good," said one ecstatic newcomer to automatic weaponry as he left the range with a friend. He asked that his name not be published in this article. "It was fucking awesome. I've gotta do this shit more often. Whew!"
Talk in the crowd revolved around the terrorist attacks. Now, more than ever, people were heard to say, our constitutional right to bear arms is of crucial importance. But then many there held these principles and opinions before the Sept. 11 attacks as well.
Take Evelyn Logan, who lives in Rochester, N.H. She's been a Second Amendment advocate for years, ever since she was grabbed by two men in a California airport who dragged her into a public bathroom where they brutally raped and stabbed her.
Ideally, Logan says, "You own a gun your whole life and never have to use it. The worst thing would be needing a gun and not having it." She says she would have used a gun to ward off her attackers 26 years ago--if she had owned a gun and known how to use it.
Logan says her captors, who stabbed her in the vagina, lacerating her cervix, were eventually arrested and tried for more than 20 rapes in the San Francisco area. If she were to happen upon them today, she'd be ready this time.
"I would shoot those motherfuckers," says Logan, so adamant in her beliefs that she bought her then-15-year-old daughter a gun for protection, despite the fact that it was illegal. She hopes the Sisters will encourage other women to consider packing heat.
"Knowing every other female out there may be carrying a gun will stop [rape] from ever happening to another woman again," says Logan.
Christie Caywood, another gun advocate, is a junior at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She founded the first on-campus Second Amendment Sisters chapter, because she "felt women's voices in the guns rights movement were not as loud as they could be." The group at Mount Holyoke has 40 active members thus far, she says.
"We feel as women we should know how to handle guns, and do it right," Caywood says.
Organizers concede that the terrorist attacks here in the U.S. likely augmented registration for the event (two weeks ago, a mere 100 signed up; the morning of the event, that number grew by 200).
Saturday's event was the first of many future machine gun blasts, says Lisa Akers, a Second Amendment Sisters coordinator, who says the turnout caught organizers off-guard. Nearly 100 others were turned away to avoid overcrowding.
The group, now in its second year, has an almost exclusively X-chromosomed membership and strives to promote "the basic human right to self-defense." The Sisters were formed in direct response to the Million Mom March, a gun-control demonstration in Washington, D.C., that didn't attract nearly as large a crowd as its name suggests.
LeeAnn Tarducci, a gun enthusiast from Wallingford, says she hopes more women become involved in the group, because it could change their lives.
"I've watched women who had no self-esteem, who always walked with their heads down, who were introduced to shooting, and I've watched how they've grown," says Tarducci. "They're more self-confident, have more of a direction, it gives them empowerment. There's no more of that 'victim' mentality. They have more self-assurance. More women are realizing that we're vulnerable, and that we need to take responsibility for our own safety."
Where? Was that the Zodiac killer?
I've never liked guns, although my husband is a shotgun/rifle enthusiast. He bought me a hand gun last year, and I want to take lessons this winter. I think we should all be encouraged to own and gun and take training like the Swiss and the Israelis. This is a new concept for me -- a complete change.
Congrats Lisa - sounds like you had a very successful event!
Pumpkin killin' doesn't require a fully automatic weapon. Our little group celebrated our 2nd Annual Pumpkin Palooza this past weekend, with nothing but semi-auto rifles, handguns, and a shotgun. My favorite pumpkin killer is the 12 guage shotgun. It'll render pumpkin pie in a single shot!
NOTE: Try spraying some black paint on the pumpkins. When a round penetrates the black paint, a bright orange dot becomes visible. It makes shot groups very easy to see at long range.
TC99, you wanna help this lady out?
TC99, you wanna help this lady out?
It was a utility closet, not a bathroom, and I was already a gun owner and 2A advocate, but couldn't carry in SFO when I took my Granny there for her return flight to TX. My daughter was 4 when it happened, not 15 ... I'm not THAT old! The rest stop assault was the one I actually prevented by using a gun, btw, several years later. My daughter may have been around 15 then, so that may be where that confusion came in.
Some other things were kinda rearranged or "slipped", too - I said that women carrying would HELP prevent rapes from happening, for instance. Altogether, though, it's a good article, I'm pretty much the only pottymouth, and the Machine Gun Blast was a total success! The CT State Coord rocks! ~ el
Nuff said.
BTW, there is nothing sexier than a woman shooting a gun.
This system works for the Smithsonian, it should work for you too.
Now that I think about it, the Peacemaker has the best feel.
Second Amendment Sisters Bump
Self Defense is a basic human right.
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