Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Column

Arming ourselves with skill, confidence

By JENNIFER STEWART
Published February 9, 2006

	[Times photos: Zach Boyden-Holmes]
	Times staff writer Jennifer Stewart fires a pistol during the Women on Target program. The course is sponsored by Second Amendment Club of America's Tampa Bay chapter.
	Range Officer Roscoe Osbron of Hudson instructs first time shooter Kris Wisniewski of New Port Richey during the Women on Target program Saturday.

SHADY HILLS - A holler came from my gut each time I fired the AK-47 and the 16-gauge shotgun, each so tightly wedged into the soft tissue below my shoulder.

The fit felt tight, but an instructor kept emphasizing the importance of the snugness to minimize kickback. So I asked, "Am I not doing it right?"

"You'll know tomorrow," another instructor said.

Each of the massive blasts also pushed me backward, as if I had done something that you just don't do.

With the .22-caliber revolver, though, comfort came quickly. I practiced disengaging the cylinder and slipping my fingers through the space it left, and loading and unloading the gun. I first handled the gun because the instructors told me to. I continued because I could - I knew how.

But the three other novice female shooters and myself certainly didn't start out the day feeling the confidence I possessed at that point.

"I was very afraid of firearms," Elizabeth Wilson of New Port Richey said later. "We were very scared," the 60-year-old administrative assistant at First Baptist Church said of herself and her friend, 59-year-old Cameron Donovan of Holiday.

This past cold and rainy Saturday morning, the two women, 41-year-old Jeanene MacLean of New Port Richey and I huddled underneath a small white canopy on the outdoor range at Fairhaven Farms for the start of the Second Amendment Club of America's first Women on Target six-hour shooting program, which drew half-a-dozen or so more women later on.

I had shot before, but not in years. None of the other three women had ever fired a gun.

Wilson was terrified at first. But after shooting a few rounds with a revolver and sitting down to watch other women shoot, she declared: "There's nothing us gals can't do, is there?"

John DiGaetano is the brainchild behind the program and the president of the nearly 150-member Tampa Bay Chapter of the Second Amendment Club, which, as such, seeks to preserve the right of private citizens to bear arms.

Along with first-time shooters, DiGaetano wanted to attract women who have guns they haven't handled in years, hidden away in a bedside table or dresser drawer.

"That's no good," DiGaetano said. "In the event that it's needed, you have to know what you're doing."

Hence, during the program's first 90 minutes, four instructors led us in a hands-on study of the guns. "You've got to find a gun that works for you," instead of someone picking one for you, said Ralph Philbrook III, a National Rifle Association-certified instructor.

First, though, we discussed safety.

"In my opinion, there's never an accidental discharge. It's a negligent discharge," Philbrook said, in response to questions about news accounts of such shootings. "You are the last safety on any gun, period."

DiGaetano believes it's "incompetent" folks who give gun owners a bad name. "We don't want that," he said. "We walk the same streets as everyone else."

The instructors, such as Philbrook, who also teaches a nonviolent self-defense class for women, emphasized that Saturday's program was to familiarize women with guns and target shooting, not to teach self-defense techniques. But the discussion kept coming back to the subject anyway.

We were there because we're afraid of being victims of crime, whether it's a home invasion, a purse snatching or rape. And we don't want to be powerless.

On the range, targets were set up at distances of 15 and 25 feet, backed up by a giant steel berm filled with sand.

The nearest target, while standard-issue, looked impossibly small. "By concentrating on a smaller target, you get a much better shot," DiGaetano assured us. Plus, attacks usually come at close range.

When I tore my paper target down from the post and inspected it, I saw that half of one bullet made the bull's-eye, and the rest were all over the map. But Bill Bunting, the Pasco County Republican chief, quickly pointed out the reality of that target on a potential attacker. "You would have hit him in any part of his body," Bunting said.

At the start of the course, we discussed different places where women can carry a gun, such as a purse.

I asked if carrying one is even realistic, considering how quickly an an attacker can strike.

"You have a better chance with one than without," DiGaetano said. "You're not going to be just a victim crying for your life."

I still don't plan to buy, much less carry, a gun any time soon.

But it's good to know I now safely could.

Jennifer Stewart writes about social events and personalities in Pasco County. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6231. Her e-mail address is jstewart@sptimes.com

For information on the Second Amendment Club, call John DiGaetano at 813 973-8918 or visit www.secondamendmentclub.org

[Last modified February 9, 2006, 01:30:24]