Women's Safety Depends on Concealed Carry

w hile doing a TV debate recently with Handgun Control Stinks (oops, I mean "lnc."), the host

demanded of me: "what good can concealed carry do? How will the criminal know you've got a gun if it's concealed?" Resisting the urge to blurt out, "Two to the chest, one to the head," I marvelled at the sincerity of a society gone soft.

As founder of the women's pro- firearms group called SWARM (Safety for Women and Responsible Mother- hood), I often hear this type of inane rhetoric. My involvement in this issue has shown me that one thing is certain:

er a defense-literate peo- proud nation of sitting ducks. May God bless America, indeed.

One of SWARM'S goals is to protect the rights of decent citizens to the defense of self, family and community. SWARM began with a handful of women and grew in seven months to 1,700 female members in Colorado alone. Due to requests from across the US., SWARM is now becoming a national orga-

nization with our sights set on achieving legalized concealed carry in all 50 states. We seek "reciprocity," that each state will recognize the right to carry of the peaceable citizens of the other 49

Rebecca John Wyatt is the founder of Safe- ty for Women and Responsible Motherhood, a national selfdefense advocacy group.

states. SWARM places special emphasis on the importance of firearms training.

While SWARM welcomes male membership, our positions tend to fo- cus on women for one very important reason: "civil disability." Women are physically disadvantaged to men and are most often attacked by men. When citizens are told that they can't carry guns, it logically follows that it is women who are hurt the most.

I founded SWARM as a result of having been attacked. The advice on self- defense that I received after the assault was, "Don't get a gun. It will only add to

the violence." Never having been ex- posed to guns before, this seemed to make sense ... until I was attacked again. At that dreadful moment, it be- came painfully clear to me that if I ever hoped to possess that ability to protect myself from criminal violation, I would require nothing short of an equalizer.

In trying to decide exactly what the best "equalizer" might be, I examined a great deal of research. This quest led me ultimately to the work of two dia- metrically opposed researchers of guns and violence: Dr. Arthur Keller- mann, an emergency-room doctor, and Dr. Gary Kleck, a professor of criminol- ogy at Florida State University. As far apart on the gun-control continuum as these two researchers are, they both agree on one thing: that the firearm is the single most effective tool for self- defense-especially for women.

Dr. Kellermann was quoted in the March 1994 issue of Health Magazine: '"If you've got to resist, your chances of being hurt are less the more lethal your weapon,' says Kellermann, the no- guns-in-the-home man. 'If that were my wife, would I want her to have a .38 Special in her hand?' he asks. 'Yeah.'"

Dr. Kleck concurs. "...other forms of forceful self-protection are far more risky than resisting with a gun." Kleck also maintains that women who carry guns are far less likely to be raped. The reason becomes clear when we examine the three essential require- ments women need in a defense tool:

It must be reliable in a majority of conditions. This is why pepper sprays

I 34 GUNS & AMMO/SEPTEMBER 1995 I

are dangerous as a final defense; they don't work in many weather conditions or if the criminal is on drugs or alcohol.

It must be highly effective at a dis- tance. Weapons that require physical contact with the criminal violate the number-one rule of safety for women: Keep out of reach of the criminal. Weapons that require physical contact for effectiveness are the ones that can be taken away from women and used against them.

It should be the tool least depen- dent upon the physical strength of the user.

I challenge anyone to find a defense tool besides the gun that meets all .

three of these special needs for women. Oddly enough, when I sought to carry the best known tool for defense outside my home-where 87 percent of crime occurs-my government wanted to label me a criminal. That set my pinball machine on "tilt." Pro- hibiting concealed carry is, in effect, a deeply violent form of discrimination against women.

At a time when three out of four women will become victims of violent crime in their lifetime, our government should not be in the business of limit- ing our options for personal defense. This becomes crucial in light of the fact that the government has held itself completely unable to defend us individ- ually. Several court cases have held that the police are merely liable to protect the community as a whole. As a practical matter, despite their best ef-

"...the firearm is the single most effective tool for self-defense- especially for women. "

forts, the police can never be psychic. With only one officer for every 3,200 citizens, they can't possibly bodyguard us all 24 hours a day.

Who does that leave to be solely responsible for my defense?

Suffering at the mercy of criminals ingrained in me a universal truth: Weakness is a provocation; vulnerabili- ty invites attack. Criminals are cow- ards. They will choose only the easiest of prey. What we unfortunately never read about are the many women who don't become victims, many of whom train with a gun, becoming familiar and comfortable with its use. The type of woman who goes to these lengths to take care of herself exudes a self-con-

fidence that sends thugs running in the opposite direction. These are the vast majority of pro-gun statistics that we will never get to see.

Self-defense is a serious charge. It is necessarily the first of our personal responsibilities, far ahead of bathing, feeding and providing ourselves with shelter. Yet pacifists seek to construe our taking this responsibility seriously as "paranoia." If one follows this logic through, we are also paranoid if we buy fire insurance or wear seat belts. When we provide food for ourselves, we are gluttonous. When we practice good hygiene, we are vain.

Our government cannot give us any rights that it hasn't already taken from us. Self-defense is so basic a right that it is an instinct. SWARM holds that those who want to deny decent citizens this most basic of rights should carry the burden of proof. They should have to prove that allowing peaceable citizens to carry guns is a public dan- ger, which can never be done.

Florida's statistics show that .007 percent of its gun-carry permit carri- ers-that's seven one-thousandths of one percent-wind up with some type of criminal record. This figure includes inadvertent crimes such as walking un- knowingly into a restricted area while carrying a gun. Out of all the hundreds of thousands of permit holders in the U.S., not one has ever been convicted of murder. Decent citizens merely seeking to protect themselves have never been the problem.

In any case, don't tell me I should "arm" myself with mere awareness. I am thoroughly qualified to pooh-pooh that solution as a sole means of defense. I did use lights, and locks and awareness, and guess what? The second criminal to attack me didn't care. Though awareness and safety precau- tions should be a matter of habit for us, we are naive if we make them our last line of defense. It can be fatal when women are given pie-in-the-sky solutions for real, life-and-death problems.

Concerning fears that concealed carry will "only add to the violence," SWARM views it, at worst, as a zero- sum game. To wit, the carrying of guns by decent citizens never adds to the violence. Dr. Kleck has more recently asseoed that 99 times out of 100, when a gun is used in self-defense, no one is shot.

Statistically, we know that those 100 potential victims cut their chances of being injured or killed by a third when they use a gun to defend themselves. This is a drastic reduction of violence.

GUNS

It also shifts the minimal risk of injury onto the criminal-where it belongs- instead of the victim. Gun carry is the quintessential victimless crime.

The requirement to prove "need" to carry concealed is another sore subject. Could any of the murder victims about which we read on a daily basis have proven "need" to carry a gun right up until five minutes before they were slaughtered? Ninety percent of all women murdered are murdered by men; most of the time this is accom- plished with the criminal's bare hands. With his superior strength, bare hands

"Prohibiting concealed carry is, in effect, a deeply violent form

of discrimination against women. "

are all most male criminals need to fin- ish off a defenseless female.

Let me tell you what a truly "barbaric society" is: a nation that gives the bal- ance of power-the ability to criminally violate-to whomever happens to be the biggest brute. We've come full cir- cle back to the morals of the caveman.

Ironically, it is the very ones who fan- cy themselves as enlightened and compassionate who are inured to this trapping of our women into victimhood. The state has thus become the ac- complice of vicious criminals. It has engineered crime into a viable career opportunity: flexible hours, tax-free in- come, little risk ... even government- paid vacations. With the special pro- tections afforded them by liberal criminal "justice" systems, criminals don't even need a union. We the people are given no choice but to subsi- dize the proliferating scumbags with our property, taxes and lives.

While speaking at a press conference in California on its gun-carry bill, I had the distinct pleasure of awarding SWARM'S Golden Do-Do Award (pro- nounced "doo-doo") to Senator Diane Feinstein. We piled an award plaque high with gold-plated doggy doo, and congratulated her through the media for her "do as I say, not as I do" behavior concerning guns. It was a touching moment. I wish you all could've been there.

Of course, Feinstein does have com- pany in high places. Referring to the disturbing fact that violence against women is growing a great deal faster than the other rates of crime, President

(continued on page 105)

2'' AMENDMENT 2ND AMENDMENT I cannot make this observation with- (continued from page 35) out pointing the ugly finger back to gun 1 Next comes the alliance of ~ o l i c e owners. This is our US. of A. We oet

Clinton recently acknowledged, "It's a bigger threat [to women] than cancer or car accidents."

Whoa! Do you think genuine concern about gross human suffering finally got through to Clinton's bullet- proof heart? Did he break from the usual tax-and-spend mode to choose the crime-control "program" that wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime?

Will a bear stop making Diane Fe- instein awards in the woods? In- stead, Clinton announced the cre- ation of yet another government office: the Violence Against Women program. Not only does the name fit perfectly, but it gives new meaning to the word "demagoguery." This little addition to our leviathan state will

"It can be fatal when women are given pie-in-

the-sky solutions for real, life-and-death

problems. "

have $26 million in grants "to protect women." Excuse my partisan heart, but th is is so typ ica l of l iberal ideas-it sounds good at first, but on second glance is really, really stupid.

Outside of the federal government, SWARM faces two major adversaries of our rights to self-preservation. First in line is the Anti-Self-Defense Lobby, which includes organizations like Handgun Control Inc., The League of Women Voters and The National Orga- nization of Women. Our friend Jeffrey

0 Snyder describes them best. He says, C "The truth be known, most of these $ groups that supposedly represent the

interests of women would have us PO throw out all of the men and let the

state take care of women." Pah-lease! I don't want to hear anymore about

0 "choice" and "empowerment." I want $ the right to defend my life, even if my m physical disadvantages necessitate 4 having a gun to do so. Ill The Big Lie that the Anti-Self-

Defense Lobby is trying to sell the 1 American public goes like this: The 1 more crimes vicious criminals commit, A the more rights we should take away $ from decent citizens to defend them- C" selves. They seek to predicate the - rights of the peaceable on the behavior 0 u of criminals. Go figure.

and district attorney officials. w e at SWARM fondly refer to them as "The Flat Earth Society." This is because they demand that we ignore all modern science and the success stories of the 20-plus states that allow concealed carry. They demand that they-often the strongest and most dominant of humankind-be the only ones allowed to carry guns.

These officials in one way represent the opinions of the average line officer. We have a number of police in SWARM'S membership, and we receive letters from officers regularly, privately givlng their support. Nevertheless, they've been intimidated by their bosses into sllence before our legislatures. They, too, are frustrated that the "top brass" will show up in uniform at our gun-carry

"I don't want to hear any more lip about

'choice' and 'empowerment. '

I want the right to defend my life.. . . "

hearings-n the taxpayer's dollar-and testify against our rights to self-defense. These are the people we've entrusted "to protect and to serve" us.

In many states, these officials have managed to create two classes of people: the police class and the lower class. Because of their physical disadvantages, women wind up at the bot- tom of the heap.

Here's what Martin Luther King wrote about this very subject from the Birmingham jail: "An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey, but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal." Mr. King goes on to say that in this circum- stance, we have a moral obligation to civil disobedience. For all their political correctness, the liberals stand dis- graced by their own demigod.

After we muddle through the sundry pretenses, we come to the loathsome realization that there are those in authority who crave absolute power, even to the exclusion of allowing decent citizens to provide for their own safety. It is not a free society where only a chosen few-including criminals-carry guns.

the government we allow. We get the Handgun Control Inc. we deserve. If we sit on our duffs and don't become activists, voters and educators of both media and public concerning the truth about guns, who do we have to blame but ourselves?

When forming social policy, it is crucial that we examine both the pros and cons of each issue, based on known science and log~cal argument. We can't afford to restrict the rights of peaceable citizens as a knee-jerk re- action to emotional stories and un- founded fears. This would seem an el- ementary principle, and it's usually embraced. But bring up the subject of guns and public debate instantly becomes a rat race of irrational fantasy.

How will our message concerning the life-saving side of guns ever reach the misguided? Consider their stereo- type of the "typical" gun owner (which I certainly won't give credence to by reit- erating here). That's why women are the perfect conveyors of the pro-gun, pro-self-defense message. The media locks on to well-dressed, soft-spoken women with guns-and never seems to let go. In its first seven months, SWARM has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, US News & World Report, The Chica- go Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Fox Cable TV; NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.. .even The Australian and The London Telegraph.

The same is true from a legislative standpoint. When Alaska's governor recently signed the state's bill allowing gun carry, he said, "I'm doing this for the women:' After SWARM hosted a rally of 200 women at Colorado's state capitol last March, the Rocky Mountain News reported "At day's end, (Repre- sentative) Chlouber said the move by SWARM 'was the most impressive and compelling lobbying effort I've ever seen down here."'

Can you see why we must pool re- sources to facilitate women carrying this pivotal message? SWARM is poised to provide that vehicle, while the old saying rings true: "Never under- estimate the power of a small group of people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that has ever changed the world." fa

field %204, Wheat Ridge, CO 80033, i -. .-. 1 106 GUNS & AMMO/SEPTEMBER 1995

America's Justice System Astray judge-made bail because law. that He is now a court enters r u ~ i the or The Hard, Straight Facts On Why Our Legal System Isn't Working worst part of the system, namely, the

activism was launched. Now in- : from the truth. ' presented for deliberation. Care stead of waitino for our elected In my 27 Yeam at the Trenton Police Depertment, I I must be afforded even at this late

judiciary.

0 ur system of law is based today has nothing to do with truth or When our suspect enters this phase, upon the separation of pow- justice. Our trials today are about de- he is at his best. The jury cannot learn ers: The legislative branch lay, confusion and lying, all in the inter- of his past record, see explicit photos of makes law that the execu- est of maklng money. The modern-day your dead loved one, listen to members

tive branch enforces along with the ju- defense counsel has as their main goal of your family tell what a fine person dicial branch, which is supposed to the defeat of justice and freedom for your dearly departed was and a whole see that it all works. This was brilliantly their guilty clients at any cost. They host of other rules designed to confuse explained in our Constitution and Bill of then receive a fee (most of the time juries and cloud the truth. Everyone will Rights. Using this document and the paid by you) for this service or, more be on trial except the suspect. The de- European common law, many of - fense will blame the police, society,

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36 GUNS 8 AMMO/SEPTEMBER 1995

the suspect's upbringing, ethnic rage Or anything else-including visitations from Martians-to get their guilty client freed.

When and if you finally get to the jury stage, assuming you have survived the minefield of court rules for trial, then your case is

our proceedings worked very ef- A H o ~ D ~ f s n ~ aunt , v \

fectively for about 200 years. m you often read in various articles and hem televh

legislators to make the law, the judiciary simply makes its own by applying convoluted reason- ing to our existing law. Thus you end up with judge-made law, an aberration that was never intend- ed by our Founding Fathers.

When a serious crime is committed, a great deal of money and effort is devoted to identify- ing and arresting the Unfortunately, following the arrest, the effort and money ex- pended to protect the rights of the accused suspect dwarfs that spent leading to the arrest. It is at this point that the victim is for- gotten and the criminal begins receiving treatment as though he were the victim.

What is occurring in our

About 30 Or 40 years ago, elitist members of the judicial branch started to pervert and twist the meaning of the words these scholars placed on paper cen- turies ago. The age of judicial

sion that owning a gun for self-defense [s a foolish course of gction. you hear horror stories exclaiming that you are more likely to klll a loved one by mistake than to kill an armed intruder. Once a statistic is out in the media, all other media feed off of it and it suddenly becomes fact, even though it may be the farthest thing

courts today is really a travesty of jus- accurately, disservice. I don't know fense and to make mocey for defense tice. I would hope that by the time you how they sleep nights. lawyers. Guilt or innocence is not a read this the circus that is known as This month I want you to imagine factor; victory is all that matters. the O.J. Simpson trial will be over. I am one of your family members bang a It is time that the American public glad that this trial received the publicity victim of a violent murder. The police demands that we stop this charade of that was generated because it gave arrest the mutant that killed your loved justice and return to a system that the American public a clear view of one and have h ~ m in custody. Now the once again can become the model for what is wrong with criminal justice to- entire weight of the criminal-justice the rest of the world. We were once day. Our courts were designed to find system will be brought to bear upon close to excellence. We pay for excel- the truth and to administer justice. Un- this animal, right? Wrong! The real lence, we were once accustomed to it fortunately, what occurs in our courts horror of our system will now rear its and we should demand no less. R

can tell You that owning a gun for self-defense is One of the best reasons for having'a firearm* You have all read the Inflated figures that are wed by the media describ. jng the Of innocent people by In my I have never seen an innocent killed by a homeowner in must also that the figures you are reading and hearing concerning the amount of defensive incidents involving firearns are only a hct,on of what is really occurring. Just as crimes such as rape, flimflam, property crimes and a whole host of others go under.reported or are not reported at all, the same is true of defensive gun urns%

M& people simply brandish a gun to ward off a crimb rial or announce that they have a gun in w&r to end an attack. They then don't report it due to all kinds of reasons. I can assure you that this goes on constantly and that these weapons are protecting many citizens who would otherwise become victims. Check your local law so that You will know when you can brandish a firearm or use deadly force in selfdefense.

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date for we mustn't influence the jury by a prejudicial charge by the judge or some other contrived silliness. NOW, contrary to most other aspects of a democracy where majority rules, a jury has to be unanimous in saying that the suspect is guilty or not guilty. If. this does not occur, we get what is called a hung jury and we can do it all over again.

In the unlikely event that the suspect receives the death penal- ty, it will take 10 to 15 years to be carried out. Remember, there are about 18,000 murders committed each year and only about 300 death sentences are handed out. Why? Because of all the asinine court rules and judge-mac'e law that are designed to help the de-

Women's Safety Depends on Concealed Carry

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