Women & Guns

From The Editor...

By Peggy Tartaro,
Executive Editor

Thank goodness for retailers, or I would feel foolish working on my year-end remarks while it's still warm enough to get by with a jacket and there are still two boxes of bulbs to be planted.

In the retail world, "Back to School" starts the day after July Fourth, followed almost immediately by Halloween (now the country's second biggest retail holiday after Christmas), and, while today you can still buy pumpkin shaped marshmallow Peeps, you can also get them in the shape of Santas.

As I get ready to wrap up another year's worth of Women & Guns, I'm really just back from this year's Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) and have one more business trip yet to go before I even think about tree buying, let alone trimming.

This year's GRPC was themed "Victory in Sight," and while that was certainly true for most of 2006, with a high profile victory in Congress with the passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, the sunsetting of the so-called assault weapons ban federally and significant victories in many states.

Kansas and Nebraska passed right to carry bills-leaving only two states, Wisconsin and Illinois-without any provision in state law for concealed carry. Wisconsin came as close as you can get-one vote, in the form of the governor's veto- leaving Illinois as the lone holdout.

A slew of states followed Florida's lead with "Stand Your Ground," or "Castle Doctrine" laws which allow for the lawful use of force in repelling criminals in a person's home and anywhere you have the right to be. The law also provides significant protection from both criminal prosecution and civil litigation.

Like right to carry laws, Castle Doctrine statues have been the subject of much teeth gnashing by the anti-gunners-and just like right to carry laws, the implementation has not brought the predicted, and probably hoped for, "blood in the streets."

There was good news for gunowners internationally in Brazil, a battleground for the global gun banners, where voters rejected a gun ban referendum, despite careful orchestration to make sure it became the poster country for "enlightenment."

And the international good news didn't stop in South America. The UN, which has been wrestling with the so-called small arms issue, didn't get anywhere either, despite a two-week summer conference in New York City, home to Mayor Michael "Just Do What I Say" Bloomberg.

So while there was plenty to celebrate at GRPC, and a host of distinguished panelists did, there were also a few storm clouds to be discussed, including the Nov. 7 mid-term election, still a few weeks away as I write this column.

Some would argue that politics are an unnatural man-made creation, but politics have a natural cycle as well.

Sometimes a cranky electorate (that is those who actually bother to vote) wants to "throw the rascals out." And, sometimes a complacent electorate doesn't want any change, while other times, complacency leads to seemingly bizarre voter fascination with goofy ideas spouted by even goofier candidates (see also Ross Perot and Jesse Ventura).

And, every once in awhile, it seems, everyone decides that Election Day is the perfect start to hibernation season.

Americans have a woeful turnout record compared to other countries-even countries where it literally becomes death-defying to vote, like Haiti and Iraq.

And the "turnout" issue doesn't just appear on the first Tuesday in November.

Attendance was down at this year's GRPC, just as attendance has been low at other gun rights event around the country this year. Membership in organizations-national, state and local-is down, largely due to complacency and a feeling that "all's right with the world," at least as far as "the world" is made up of gunowners.

But things change fast, so that Edmund Burke remarked in the 18th Century: "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom."

In the 20th Century, thriller writer Len Deighton had one of his Cold Warrior characters amend Burke thusly: "Eternal vigilance isn't enough. Eternal paranoia is the price of liberty."

So while this is the season to give thanks for bounty and to count blessings, it should also be the season to renew our commitments and to stand our ground on what we believe in.

Peggy Tartaro