http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-column-2000522165616.htm

May 22, 2000

Pistol packin’ mamas
Suzanne Fields

The Million Mom march looked like fun. A glorious sun was shining on
the Mall. Moms pushed babies in strollers, held hands with adolescent
children, sang and laughed as though they were pilgrims on a religious
outing, feeling good about themselves.
The message, however, was all wrong, a downer about the dark side of
life. It was emotional and naive, short on facts and long on
sentiment. The emphasis was on death not life, on control not freedom,
law not liberty.
It was enough to rankle even a dedicated feminist.
Says sharp-tongued Camille Paglia in Salon webzine:
“It doesn’t take a weatherman to figure out that the average citizen
doesn’t want national policy determined by packs of weeping women led by
a shrill dim-witted talk show host [Hillary sycophant Rosie O'Donnell].”
Nobody defends bad people who shoot people, whether adolescent gangsters
who kill each other over drug turf, careless men and women who leave
guns around for children to find, nuts who ignore their meds to look for
someone to murder because they hear crazy voices in their heads or
instructions broadcast by the CIA through the fillings in their teeth.
Nearly all of us know someone hurt or killed by a gun.
The nation’s capital, where I live, has the toughest gun-control laws in
the country, and the rate of gun crime is among the highest. In states
that allow citizens to carry concealed weapons, murder, rape, truck and
carjackings are down, along with other kinds of violent assaults.
“Pistol Packin’ Mama,” as the song goes, is not the most feminine image
for a woman, but packing heat is beginning to make sense in a world
where a woman is often defenseless without a man at her side.
Criminologist Gary Kleck estimates that 2.5 million men and women
successfully defend themselves every year against a burglar or mugger
with a gun.
Most of the murders wouldn’t have happened if gun laws were enforced.
Criminals don’t give a fig for the law ? that’s why they’re criminals.
Ban gangs, not guns.
Focusing on the disintegration of the family and fixing what causes
goons who shoot up schools, day care centers and even churches is what
you might think the Million Moms would be doing. Alas, that’s not media
sexy.
Fatherless families breed criminals. Law-abiding gun users don’t.
Neighborhoods devoid of adults during the day allow certain adolescents
to sink to their basest instincts. The most creative political idea for
mending these problems is to support faith-based organizations in the
community, enabling them to reach out to troubled youngsters. Men and
women who work in these organizations have the structure and the
motivation to take over when parents are gone.
The rich and privileged celebrities who led the Million Mom March are
the least likely among us to have a personal knowledge of the rudderless
young people growing up in cities. (If they’re scared, celebrities hire
bodyguards.) Celebrities get their information from songs their
colleagues write, from the movies and television shows they perform in.
(They never look for the causes of crime in artistic violence.)
They’re like the administrators in a school in New Jersey who suspended
a kindergarten boy for pretending to make a gun with his index finger
and shooting at his schoolmates at recess. (Will finger locks follow
trigger locks?)
Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster, insists that George Bush will lose
big on guns. After all, she and others point out, he’s the governor of
a state that permits adults to carry concealed guns.
But women aren’t stupid, nor do all of us play follow the sheep. Women
can recognize a complex issue when they see one. After the march, lo
and behold, the polls showed women to be fairly divided on the
gun-control issue. Al Gore does only slightly better with single women,
George W. attracts a large majority of married women and mothers.
Carrying a gun is a good feminist issue. The Second Amendment Sisters,
who counter-rallied to the Million Mom March, display a picture on their
web site depicting a tough looking blonde pointing a gun at the viewer.
Caption:
“As seen by would-be rapist, for about O.2 seconds.”
Talk about impact.

Suzanne Fields is a columnist for The Washington Times.