By Peggy Tartaro,
Executive Editor

Twenty years is a long time in the life of a magazine. Sure, there are many that have survived far longer, adapting to changes in technology, the marketplace and more, but there are also a number of titles-some of them quite worthy-that don't make it to the two decade marker.

So to celebrate our 20th anniversary, we decided to take a look back at the evolution of Women & Guns.

2000: Millennium Matters Whew! That whole Y2K thing was a bust! But we had other things on our minds, anyway. The explosion in compact guns continued, and Gila Hayes compared and contrasted 10 different models in one issue. Julie Goloski made her first (but not last) appearance on a W&G cover, as she was named Army Athlete of the Year. Lyn Bates took another close look at gun locks, rating and reviewing a number of the new designs, including the increasing-popular small lock boxes. In the 1990s, Lyn had won a prestigious writing award for her first look at locks-an innovative piece that featured a team of "junior safecrackers." In May of 2000, the whole "Million" Mom March movement took off, but once again, grassroots activists, in the form of the Second Amendment Sisters, took the field to challenge the public and media perception that "all" women were anti-gun. The Sisters formed around an Internet forum site, and when they appeared to counter-rally on Mother's Day in Washington, many of them had not yet met face-to-face.

2001: An Even Dozen It wasn't a space odyssey, but a dozen years in operation that marked 2001. Kim Rhode, making her second appearance on a W&G cover, was also celebrating her second Olympic victory. The compact handguns were shrinking into a number of sub-compacts, including an offering from Glock. Another growing industry was lights and sights-including lasers-for guns. We reviewed a number of them that year. Competitive shooting, with an emphasis on getting started and having fun, were themes throughout the year, as we covered bowling pin shoots, .50 cal. matches and more. Our May-June issue featured two of my favorite "personal" stories: Lyn Bates' graphic tale of the harrowing home invasion story of Floridian Susan Gonzalez and Susan Laws' profile of "The Taos Kid." In real life, this cowboy action shooter was celebrated pilot Wally Funk, who was a member of Mercury 13, a NASA testing program for female astronauts. Politics (both military and regular) doomed the program and would keep women out of space for another several decades, but Funk remains a sterling example of the "can-do" spirit of American women gunowners. Of course the singular event of the year 2001 was not reported in our pages until the November-December issue. The 9/11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania had an impact on everyone's life, including gunowners, although most of the consequences would not begin to appear until the following year. The 2001 Gun Rights Policy Conference was scheduled for the last weekend in September. SAF and CCRKBA sponsors of the event had no idea what turnout would be, because although registration for the event in suburban Cincinnati was high, it was unclear if anyone would be flying in, or if driving participants would opt to stay close to home. Although commercial air travel had only re-opened the week before, GRPC 2001 ended up being the best attended conference in the history of the program. Americans, again, especially gunowners, were beginning to rethink and regain their confidence.

2002: Leadership Ladies Although Americans were quickly becoming accustomed to-if not used to-the new post 9/11 order, one of the strange quirks was that there seemed to be a growing public, if not political, acceptance of the idea of gun ownership as a fundamental American right, and a force for good. Gunowners have long argued that the whole point is self-reliance; that we are responsible for our own destinies, and our own safety. The lessons of countries, especially Israel, with a long history of terrorism, were being brought home. The fight over arming commercial pilots was joined in earnest, and anti-gun groups and politicians were terrified of the subject. It got to the heart of the argument: were civilians, even if highly trained professionals in another line, responsible enough to be carrying guns? Did the argument that civilians, armed with handguns, could be the literal last line of defense for other civilians, have merit? While the program has continued to be plagued by under-funding and other problems, its eventual enactment by Congress was a positive step for all gunowners. Women & Guns underwent one more giant leap-albeit cosmetic-at the very end of 2002: issues were now full-color throughout all pages, allowing us to bring better quality images and more details to stories like "The Six Greatest Handguns" and "Leadership Roles for Women." This last article detailed a program, jointly sponsored by the Texas Starte Rifle Association and CCRKBA to train women grassroots activists in the media arts. The 2-day program, held in Dallas, was headed by TSRA's Sue King and I, with a major assist from the National Rifle Association.

2003: Odds & Evening Up Comfortably into the "aughts" decade, the politics of guns moved from the federal stage where it was getting little traction, to statehouses across the nation. The main battle in Congress had to do with the upcoming sunset of the 1994 ban on some semi-automatic guns and the high-capicity magazine ban, together known as the "assault weapons" ban. Gunowners were disappointed when the Bush Administration signaled it was willing to support re-authorization of the bill the following year. In the Supreme Court, the justices declined to take up the Bean case, one many thought would be a winner for gunowners. But in states across the country, concealed carry laws continued to find support across the legislative aisles. New Mexico's Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson signed a "shall issue" statue in April. Late the same month, after years and years of wrangling, Minnesota replaced "discretionary carry"-which left granting of gun permits up to local sheriffs-with a shall issue law of their own. Meanwhile, Colorado, Oklahoma and Virginia either adopted shall issue laws or reformed existing laws to reflect that approach. Alaska became the second state in the union to make it legal to carry concealed without a license. (Vermont is the other state where this is in effect, although there is no law there saying so.) By the end of the year, Missouri legislators had overridden a gubernatorial veto and the state became the 36th enacting a shall issue law. W&G issues that year reflected the growing number of women who were availing themselves of shall issue laws with features on a variety of handguns designed for the concealed carry market, as well as accessories and lockboxes.

2004: 15 and Counting States continued to take the concealed carry issue up in 2004, and it is important to note that women activists in many states considering changes were a key element of victories. Ohio, one of the most contentious states, finally got a bill passed, and, while not everyone was 100% happy with it, even its sponsor said it was a first step. The "assault weapons" ban did sunset-a huge victory and morale boost for gunowners going into a presidential, House and Senate election cycle. Despite growing dissatisfaction with George Bush, he was handily re-elected, despite his opponent, John Kerry's insistence that he was a gunowner and supporter of the Second Amendment. Another year, more guns to review, including Ruger's new polymer offering, CZ's little Rami and Bushmaster's Lady Rifle. We re-examined laser sights and also featured custom and aftermarket grips for smaller hands. CJ Songer took us to the world of stuntwomen, who, thanks to a program by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, were learning about real guns.

2005: Learning & Teaching It wasn't the first time we had taken up the subject, but outstanding features in 2005 included a 3-part series on kids and gun safety, with practical tips an d scenarios. Women in the military, celebrity charity shooting events and even how to choose a knife for a young girl were covered as well. I liked a short feature we had on Nicole McKibbin, a native of my home town. Now living and working in Texas, for Texas Fish & Game magazine, Nicole went on her first alligator hunt-bagged the critter with two shots from a Taurus .38 revolver. The meat was eaten and the hide tanned. While hunting has never been a primary focus of the magazine, we try to explore it several times during the year because there are a lot of women hunters. Gila had switched the focus of her column, which was now called Firearms Fundamentals, but she continued her solid, information-packed style of firearms writing.

2006: Romance & Reality In 2006, W&G reported on two different programs for women writers, mostly women, which we participated in and hosted via out parent, the Second Amendment Foundation. The Las Vegas mystery writers seminar, a 2-1/2 day affair in its fifth year, brings together published writers who want to learn more about guns. The program is a 2-way street. Writers get to pick the brains of experts and fire a variety of guns, from .22 handguns to .50 rifles, and those staffing the event get to impact popular cultural in a way we wouldn't otherwise. Out of the mystery writers seminar came a unique chance to stage an event for romance writers who concentrate on thrillers or mysteries. It was a big expansion of the program-and a big challenge. Instead of a class of 20, their would be 100 students; instead of 2-1/2 days, we'd have one, and, instead of gun-friendly Nevada, we'd stage it first in a downtown Atlanta ballroom and then move to a suburban gun range. Oh, and it was July! Political issues heating up included battles in various states over guns in the workplace, including employee parking lots and a rising new star in the anti-gun sky, New York City's mayor, the Napoleonesque Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg, using his own vast wealth, hired private investigators to make "straw man" purchases in other states and created the Mayors Against Gun Violence (MAGI), kicked off with a summit of mayors from large cities across the country, some of whom later dropped out when they discovered Bloomberg's full agenda.

2007: Young at Heart Although we were celebrating our 18th anniversary in 2007, young women seemed to be the focus of many features through the year, including the Young Eagles Rifle Team, an international competition group, and a generation-spanning trapshooting family. We went back to basics with more concealed carry gun and accessory options and Gila's column morphed once again, this time into "The Armed Lifestyle," focusing on the needs of the growing number of women who carry concealed most, if not all of the time. That year, Shari LeGate, champion shotgunner, television host and recipient of the prestigious Shooting Sports Industry "Person of the Year" Award came on board the masthead to delve into the intricacies of shotgunning. On the political front, the 2008 Presidential campaign was already in full swing, and a case upon which gunowners across the nation were pinning their hopes, DC v. Heller, first made headlines. Also in the news, the shootings at Virginia Tech, gave even some anti-gunners pause to consider the folly of "gun free zones" and bans on campus carry for even licensed instructors. Out of the VT shooting, a new group of committed, grassroots activists was born-Student for Concealed Carry on Campus.

2008: Good News, Bad News The good news (and it was really, really good news) of 2008 for gunowners was the 5-4 Supreme Court decision in the Heller case, affirming an individual right to keep and bear arms and forcing Washington, DC, to go back to the drawing board on its 30+-year-old ban on guns. Like dominos, other bans, including a clutch in suburban Chicago, were changed or rescinded outright in light of the Heller ruling. Chicago itself continued its ban, and SAF, NRA and individual plaintiffs filed suit. The champagne wasn't even polished off before the Presidential and Congressional races were joined in earnest. Barack Obama, a one-term senator from Illinois wrested the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton, and chose anti-gun Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware as his running mate. The Republicans had crowned their champion, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, earlier in the year, and gunowners were wondering if it would be another "hold-your-nose" election, as McCain was lukewarm to gun rights, at best. However, his surprising choice of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, energized many gunowners. Palin was proudly pro-gun, from one of the state with the best concealed carry law on the books, a hunter and a life member of NRA. It is interesting that the image of "gunowner," and specifically "woman gunowner" is so firmly planted in the Mainstream Media's and most of the Popular Culture's mind, that the ridiculing of Palin, in part because she was a woman gunowner, was considered fair game. I don't think I ever heard or read anyone refer to Alaska's long tradition of hunting-a tradition with deep roots in sustance and not sport. But economic jitters, which morphed into shudders, an unpopular war and a sense of change all propelled Obama-Biden to a wide victory, and came close to giving them a filibuster-proof Senate. We continued to report on new handguns, rifles and shotguns. And we also covered again the now well-established approach to learning handgunning skills-the women-only class-a novelty when the magazine was started.

2009: So It Goes It's never wise to make predictions. But it's fairly simple to state that the coming year, which marks Women & Guns' twentieth, will be full of challenges for gunowners. It's also a pretty safe bet that W&G issues will be filled with more news-good and bad-and with more useful new products, self-defense techniques and tips, profiles of women gunowners, famous and less well-known, and much more.