By Peggy Tartaro,
Executive Editor

If Women & Guns were a person, she would be getting ready to vote in her first presidential election in 2008, having just turned 19.

For anyone keeping meticulous records, the "birthday" is in February, since February 1989 saw Volume I, Issue 1. But since we began publishing bi-monthly in 1999, this issue serves as the milestone.

Truth to tell, I'm a little hazy on the details of 1989-in the life of a magazine the decades went by in a rather orderly fashion; in the life of a person, however, it was another story.

I'm pretty sure my hair was different.

I'm fairly good at remembering in which issue a specific article or cover appeared, even if it was long ago. It's not much of a talent, but it comes in handy occasionally.

I'm pretty sure that when the Second Amendment Foundation took over W&G in October, 1989, we didn't spend a lot of time crafting a mission statement. Sonny Jones, foundress and original editor, was pretty clear in her objectives, and, even before taking ownership of the publication, the Foundation was one of its biggest boosters.

In fact, Sonny got the idea for it at the one of the first Gun Rights Policy Conferences, held in Dallas, in 1988.

This year's GRPC was our best-attended ever and there were plenty of active, energetic, creative women in attendance; including Genie Jennings who writes about it a bit in this issue's Second Amendment Sisters' column on Page 13.
(I owe Genie a drink, which I didn't get to treat her to in Cincinnati, but this shout out will have to suffice until we next meet.)

Reading her copy for this issue I could almost see her enthusiastic and smiling face. She "couldn't wait" to get to GRPC she told me in an email a month or two before it happened.
That kind of enthusiasm-by an ever-expanding group of women-is what has kept W&G going all these years.

Oh, sure, the usual blood, sweat, tears and tantrums, but even without the mission statement, we always knew where the magazine was going, and had a pretty good idea how to get there.

For our 10th anniversary issue I wrote a long column about our history and I quoted the British writer Virginia Woolfe's famous comment about women needing "a room of their own."

I still think that is as apt a descriptor as exists about Women & Guns. There are plenty of places-rooms if you will-for women gunowners to get information. There are even more now in which they can share that type of information, including our own on-line Women's Firearms Network, part of womenandguns.com.

But it's always nice to have the room you started with available. Thomas Wolfe, no relation to Virginia, had it wrong. You can go home again. And you probably should.
Women & Guns will continue to be that "home room," for a lot of women, a place to go, every other month, a place to test new ideas as well as products and a place to meet other like-minded (and sometimes not) women.

Sonny wrote most of the first issue herself. But not long after Sheila Link started contributing to its pages and shortly after Karen MacNutt. We're lucky to have the counsel of both Sheila and Karen still, as well as their writing.

Sonny met Gila Hayes when she moved out to the Pacific Nothwest and Gila has been a steadfast supporter of the magazine ever since. I'm sorry to report she'll be taking leave of our pages with this issue to pursue both the growing Firearms Academy of Seattle and another project. But she has promised to "visit" us and she recently introduced me to a student of hers, Diane Walls, who makes her debut in this issue, writing about one of Kimber's new offerings.

At some point in the proceedings I was visiting friends in Massachusetts and set up a lunch with some of the founders of Arming Women Against Rape and Endangerment (AWARE). I remember, through no fault of my own, being terribly late for lunch, and interviewing then-President Nancy Bittle and Vice President Lyn Bates in something of a hurry. But Lyn decided to try some writing for us shortly thereafter, and continues to be one of our sorority of knowledgeable, creative contributors.

An old friend introduced me to Susan Laws about 10 years ago and she tried her hand at writing about Cowboy Action Shooting for us. She's gone on to other things, but remains a close friend, and an invaluable behind-the-scenes sounding board for me. Susan introduced me to Kate Ferraro-Creigh, who took over the CAS beat for us, when she can find time away from an award-winning teaching career and her many Single Action Shooting Society duties.

So it goes. One friend introduces you to another and the rooms keeping expanding.

But home is still home, richer for all who pass through.

So, happy birthday to us all!

Peggy Tartaro

Photo © Copyright 1998 Nancy Floyd, used with permission.