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Potomac Watch: Women's gun lobby is a growing political force
Posted by: Admin on Sunday, May 09, 2004 - 09:45 PM |
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By WYATT BUCHANAN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Mrs. Nugent came to Washington yesterday, but she left her .38-caliber revolver and her rock star husband, Ted, at home.
He would have been out of place anyway at the Conservative Women's Network luncheon, where a roomful of Washington's elite ladies heard the mantra of empowerment through firepower.
"The Second Amendment is a commandment we must defend," Shemane Nugent told those gathered for the lecture. "I like to think of a firearm as an equalizer."
Her speech coincides with tomorrow's Million Mom March, which organizers hope will persuade Congress to renew the ban on assault weapons. Puget Sound police officials, including Seattle police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, have asked Congress to extend the ban past its Sept. 13 expiration date.
Whether owning guns deters crime against women has been a contentious issue in the larger gun debate, with both sides referring to studies that give conflicting answers. Either way, the female gun lobby is a growing force.
Groups such as the Second Amendment Sisters have formed to represent female gun owners, a population the Sisters number at 17 million. They view self-defense as a basic human right enshrined in the Constitution.
The Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty has trained more than 200 "Patriettes" in the Washington, D.C., area to fire handguns. The National Rifle Association launched a magazine for female gun enthusiasts last year.
And now, in Nugent, the lobby has an emerging celebrity to champion the cause.
She has written two books -- "Kill It and Grill It," a cookbook co-authored with her husband, and "Married to a Rock Star," which she wrote while sitting next to her guitar-shaped swimming pool.
She has spoken for female gun owners on cable news programs and also makes the rounds on the conservative lecture circuit, like yesterday's talk at the Heritage Foundation.
"You should be very suspicious of anyone who wants to make you defenseless," she said.
She told her audience that she uses a type of makeup called Too Face, which inspired her to think of women as being two-faced.
"It's our nature to be nurturing and caring," she said. But when it comes to threats to their families, women are like mother bears protecting their young.
Nugent has never used her stainless steel, wooden-handled Smith & Wesson Ladysmith pistol for defense and she did not grow up around guns, hunting and rock 'n' roll.
Those pursuits came after she married 15 years ago and she now shares her knowledge in forums such as her weeklong outdoor clinic for women called "Queen of the Forest."
Women at the lecture said the message resonates, saying they feared guns until they learned to handle them.
"I learned to shoot and I learned how to be empowered," said Michelle Easton, president of the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute. The bullet-riddled target from her training course hangs on her office wall.
Ashley Varner organizes Patriettes training exercises and, along with the women who learn to shoot in skirts and high heels, has developed a natural feel for the Glock 9mm.
And Lisa De Pasquale has developed a line of handbags that have a pouch for concealed weapons. She plans to buy a Glock after she sells 10 bags, which range from $75 to $120 on her heatbags.com Web site. She has sold one so far.
For women in the District of Columbia, much of this knowledge is moot. Handguns are banned here.
In Washington state, concealed weapons are allowed by permit.
And in Nugent's home state of Texas -- the family moved from Michigan to a ranch in Crawford -- guns are allowed inside the state Capitol.
"The gun laws are better in Texas," Nugent said.
Potomac Watch is a weekly look at issues and personalities in Washington, D.C.
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