Jan/Feb. 99
Women & Guns Magazine is ten years old!
By Julianne Versnel GottliebDear Self-Reliant Reader:
The small publication that was started to meet what some of us thought was a void in the marketplace, a publication primarily for women, primarily by women and presenting a strong proactive stand on the right to keep and bear arms for women has become a fixture. It has lasted longer than the average marriage and most cars.
Women & Guns is a hot topic everywhere-from Australia, to France, to Japan. Our publication has appeared in scores of newspaper articles, magazines and on radio and television shows. The brilliant verbiage of our tireless Executive Editor, Peggy Tartaro, has been dubbed into several languages and graced the pages of publications from Redbook to Penthouse.
It seems that we have clicked as what the general media sees as a narrow-cast, special interest publication.
I have always felt very main stream about my stand on self-reliance.
*****
The November 1998 elections have confused and angered me.
I spent much of the last two months of the election season travelling. I saw and heard television commercials in dozens of states.
I cannot remember one candidate’s spots that mentioned being pro-choice without mentioning that they were against so-called "assault weapons."
There was no shortage of candidates that strongly stated that a woman had the right to choose what to do with her own body and yet, in the same 60 seconds, denied she had a right to choose a firearm to defend her body.
I heard the Senate campaigns of Rep. Charles Schumer of New York and Sen. Barbara Boxer of California script virtually the same advertisements in their winning races.
These candidates were pro-choice and anti-choice in the same breath.
And no one ever called them on their hypocrisy.
*****
Each of us approaches life in a unique fashion. As do each of you, the Self-Reliant Reader.
As the results of the reader’s survey show, we are a diverse group.
There is a multitude of questions that were not asked. I imagine that on the whole, we are representative of the whole American population. Statistically, I would guess that we are pro-life, pro-choice, liberal, conservative, Democrat and Republican in the range of the general population.
The Self-Reliant reader is a Soccer mom, non-Mom, single Mom, working Mom, aunt, grandmother, daughter or, yes, even a man.
We have seen Bill Clinton sign the Brady Bill and heard him call for banning toy guns and mandating the use of trigger locks. We have seen Hillary Clinton stand by her man. We have seen the Centers for Disease Control attempt and nearly succeed in turning the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, into a national health issue.
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The real issue is the degradation of human life. And it has occurred most heinously to our children and young adults.
In the past thirty years violent crime has risen almost 600 percent while the population has only increased 41 percent. Today over 30 percent of all births and two-thirds of black infants are illegitimate. The reality is that divorces have quadrupled, the number of children living in single family households has tripled and the suicide rate for teenagers has increased more than 200 percent.
In 1999, our teachers are dealing with or ignoring drug addiction, alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery and assault. Crack houses adjoin neighborhood playgrounds and first graders know what gang signs to watch out for. Methamphetamine, speed, has become the drug of choice in small Midwest towns and heroin is now the "chic" high.
Each year thousands of federal, state and local laws are passed to deal with these problems. We have an "Alphabet Soup" of social programs to cure all ills. There are safety nets and welfare reform and the largest percentage of the population ever incarcerated in prisons and jails for property and violent crime.
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The degradation of our society has taken place at the hands of those who would save us from ourselves.
There is no honor, no glory, no reward, no recognition given to those who willingly follow the laws of our society, sometimes at grave personal risk. Often, situations have been legislated that these individuals have no option but to break the law in order to exist.
The elusive solution is freedom.
To me, "self-reliance" is the ability to be free to make those choices that are best for me and mine (AMG, Miss Splendiferous, Miss Spectacular and Mr. Stupendous).
Your "self-reliance" is your ability to make choices that are best for you and yours.