MICHIGAN CHAPTER
Sisters Push Women To Shop and Shoot
By DEE-ANN DURBIN
.c The Associated Press
FRANKENMUTH, Mich. (AP) - On Saturday, Dianne
Szostak clutched a shopping
bag, pleased to have found a fairy sculpture for her
herb garden. On Sunday,
she clutched a .38-caliber revolver.
Welcome to Michigan Shop & Shoot, a two-day retreat
sponsored by the Second
Amendment Sisters to encourage women to eat, shop
and shoot together.
``It's just a sport, like soccer or softball,'' said
13-year-old Sara Nutt.
``There's nothing dangerous about it, unless you
treat it dangerously.''
Nutt, who started shooting BB guns at 10, attended
the weekend Shop & Shoot
with her mother.
``We're allowing women to learn about firearms and
lose their fear in a
non-threatening atmosphere,'' said Pat Alzady, who
helped organize the
meeting at a Bavarian-themed tourist town, about 80
miles north of Detroit.
The Sisters, which has 25 chapters and several
thousand members in Michigan,
Pennsylvania and Texas, formed last year in response
to the pro-gun-control
Million Mom March. A second Shop & Shoot is planned
for Pennsylvania later
this year.
National director Juli Bednarzyk, a Chicago software
consultant, denied being
a ``gun nut'' and compared gun ownership to
disability insurance: Everyone
should have it, although they hope never to use it.
"I used to think the issue was so cut and dried.
How could anyone be against
gun control?'' said Bednarnyk, 34. ``But if you ever
need a gun, it's too
late to go back and get one.''
Szostak, 50, was among some 70 women at the
Frankenmuth Conservation Club
rifle range who signed up for Sunday weapons
instruction from the National
Rifle Association.
Szostak, who owns two pistols and several shotguns,
picked up her first gun
two years ago after Internet discussions convinced
her the government was
threatening her right to bear arms.
``The more I thought they were going to take our
guns away, the more I wanted
to get a gun and protect my right to have it,'' said
Szostak, who owns a
manufacturing business.
Szostak said she'll also be among those applying for
a concealed weapon
permit this summer, when a new Michigan law will
require county gun boards to
give concealed weapons permits to anyone who
applies, as long as they are
over 21 and have no felony record.
Gun-control activists are collecting signatures in
an attempt to block the
legislation, but say their aim is not to stop
activities like Shop & Shoot.
``We don't want to infringe on the rights of
responsible gun owners. But we
do want everybody to keep in mind that we're talking
about firearms here and
firearms kill,'' said Carolynne Jarvis, director of
the Michigan Partnership
to Prevent Gun Violence.
State Rep. Sue Tabor said she wishes more women and
children would learn
about the safe use of weapons.
``We need to help women overcome the fear and the
misconception that guns are
the cause of all the violence, the school
shootings,'' Tabor said.
Delaine Burden, 38, who bought a .22-caliber rifle
last year, admitted she
may never overcome her anxiety.
``There's always going to be fear there. There
should be,'' said Burden, a
finance executive.
Burden, who joined her sisters-in-arms in
Washington, D.C., last summer, said
she was moved to tears by the story of Lynda
Boudreau who watched a gunman
kill her parents in a 1991 cafe shooting. Boudreau
had a gun, but Texas law
required her to keep it in her car.
``Her kids will never know their grandparents
because of a law,'' Burden
said. ``Whether I ever become a person who does a
lot of shooting or not, I
believe in the right and I'll fight for it.''
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. The information
contained in the AP news
report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
otherwise distributed
without the prior written authority of The
Associated Press. All active
hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
Gun group targets women
Females from all walks of life gather to shoot, talk, shop
March 19,2001
BY TAMARA AUDI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
FRANKENMUTH -- The school nurse, with pictures of her grandsons pinned to her jacket below another pin that said "hockey grandma," leveled the .38 Smith & Wesson revolver, paused and fired. Then she smiled.
"Hey, that's pretty good for my first time," Theresa Hull said, beaming. The 59-year-old Nashville, Mich., woman hit the center on her paper target three times early Sunday afternoon. "I love this."
And with that, a state and national pro-gun movement aiming to attract female members had also hit its mark. Bull's-eye.
The Shop & Shoot Weekend, hosted by the Michigan Chapter of the Second Amendment Sisters -- gun rights advocates' answer to the female-run gun-control movement Million Mom March -- brought all kinds of women and girls to Frankenmuth for a weekend of outlet shopping, chicken dinners, girl talk, shooting lessons and competition.
The Second Amendment Sisters has about 2,500 members nationally, according to national President Juli Bednarzyk. Most of those members are in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Texas, she said.
About 60 women signed up for the event, including state Rep. Susan Tabor, R-Delta Township, a 53-year-old candle saleswoman from Grand Rapids, a 62-year-old Grand Rapids widow, a 38-year-old Warren social worker, the executive director of Michigan Rabbit Rescue and a Dearborn homemaker.
"I'm surprised at how many different women there are here. I'm definitely the only one with an eyebrow ring, though," said Erin Reeser, a 25-year-old Web site sales consultant for a motorcycle dealership.
Reeser came with two aunts not much older than she is. The three women left Frankenmuth in a minivan filled to the windows with shoes, clothes and target sheets "to prove to our husbands that we did some shooting, too," said Reeser.
For four pairs of women and teenage girls, it was a special mother-daughter weekend -- a shopping spree combined with a lesson in personal safety.
"This is our girls' weekend," said Sandy Nutt, a 36-year-old administrative assistant who came from Greenville with her 13-year-old daughter, Sara. On Saturday, the two shopped for swimsuits and sweatshirts at the Birch Run outlet mall. On Sunday, they practiced shotgun and rifle shooting. Sport shooting is a family event, Sandy Nutt said.
Soft-spoken and almost shy, Sandy Nutt said she understands that the image of a 13-year-old girl taking aim with a rifle may be unsettling to some, but "I'd rather that Sara know how to shoot and handle a gun safely than to find something and not know what to do with it."
"It's a really good hobby," Sara Nutt said of the target practice. "It's a challenge."
At least half of the women were first-time or novice shooters. Others were more experienced, and long-time NRA supporters. Many have husbands, fathers and brothers who were hunters. A few said they were there to please their husbands, who wanted to be able to take them target shooting.
Some of those men showed up to help teach and offer moral support.
While SAS organizers proclaimed the weekend a victory, many of the women who attended were afraid to be photographed or give their full names because of the stigma they say is associated with owning a gun.
"I'm afraid if people know I have a gun, it'll hurt my business," said a Grand Rapids grandmother, while showing her new Ladysmith .38. For her and some of the other older women in the crowd, owning a gun is primarily a matter of personal safety. "I refuse to be a victim. And I'm too old to learn karate."
SAS organizers hope more weekends like this one will change the perception of gun owners. "We're everyday working people. We're mothers. We don't love our kids any less because we carry a firearm," said SAS state organizer June Fellows.
The day was almost over, and shooting prizes were being handed out: gun cases and cleaners, but also bath crystals, quilts and chocolate.
The women exchanged phone numbers, compared weekend shopping notes (a good sale on lace curtains; a clearance on kids shorts), tucked target sheets into their purses, fixed lipsticks, found their husbands and put their guns away.
Contact TAMARA AUDI at 313-222-6582.