By Peggy Tartaro,
Executive Editor

Since all four seasons are the same length of time-about 3 months-I'm not sure why it is that Summer seems the shortest, but it may be because we try to do as much as possible in those three months.

We're sort of conditioned from an early age to start looking forward to Summer about the time the Spring Break is over-possibly sooner depending on how your academic career was going.

And so, when it does arrive, sometimes early, sometimes late, we revert to kids, even though, for most of us, Summer "vacation" is only a week or two.

No matter, most of us find our schedules packed from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and most of us are happy to have it that way. All the extra activity, even when it reaches a frenzied crescendo, seems to be part of Summer, too.

For gunowners, summer usually means a chance to get outdoors and do some range work, possibly even to try a new shooting sport, like Sporting Clays or Cowboy Action Shooting. Randi Rogers, our newest contributor, shares some of her insights on the latter game in this issue. Modesty prevents her from telling you what I will: "Holy Terror," Randi's Cowboy alias, is one of the best women shooters in the sport, having started tearing things up early in the Junior matches.

This Summer we can watch the best of the best shooters compete in the XXIX Summer Olympics. While I'm pleased to note that NBC which owns the broadcast rights to the Games has hired W&G Contributing Editor Shari LeGate to do commentary on the shooting events, I'll be even more pleased if they actually show any of the action!

Although the shooting events are generally (as they are this year) among the first to be held, and although US Shooters are quite often on the medal stand, you often had to hunt for results or wait for the fleeting mention on the late-night wrap-up show.

Where I live, we are in the viewing area of the Canadian Broadcasting Company, which, while it packages prime time around "prestige" events and ones in which our neighbors to the North have a good shot at medals, also runs quite a bit of live coverage-even in the wee hours of the night.

Given the global nature of the Games and the fact that they are often held far outside of any US time zone, the viewership at say, four in the morning is likely to be fairly light for, as an example, an air gun match.

But, given that all of the television networks and their related offshoots tout their "24/7" nature these days, and given that even a small audience is, in fact, an audience, it would be nice to see NBC follow the CBC's lead in this fashion.

Because Summer is also about relaxing a bit, we've inaugurated a Summer Reading List with this issue. I hope to make it an annual event in the July/August issue. One of the books on the list is about gun politics, one is about women gunowners and one is aboutcooking? After you see the feature, which starts on Page 36, you'll see why it was included.

A couple of months prior to putting this issue together I ambled over to womenandguns.com, went to the Message Board section and posted a query: "What books would you recommend?" The always lively crowd over in Cyberspace posted a number of suggestions, which are also included in the Reading List feature.

But that reminds me, if you are one of those folks who take their wireless laptop to the beach-and I make no judgment of you!-you can keep up with the sorority of women gunowners on the site. You'll find a number of surprising and interesting topic threads.

But while you are taking it easy on the veranda, keep in mind that the world marches on, Summer or not. A decision is imminent in the Heller case. Decisions, too, will come from both John McCain and Barack Obama on running mates, now that the 18+ month "primary campaign season" is over. And you should not be at all surprised to start seeing lawn signs for other candidates-Federal, state and local-appearing about your neighborhood.

I've already chatted with a couple of petition-pushers and Summer usually means candidates appearing at Block Parties, Festivals, Farmer's Markets and the like.

There's lots to do this Summer-and it's up to you to do it.

Peggy Tartaro

Photo © Copyright 1998 Nancy Floyd, used with permission.