A fairly decent story on gunowners in TN from NewsChannel 3. Paula Mastin is WAGC’s TN State director…..
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http://www.wreg.com/global/Default2.asp?P=/Global/story.asp?s=333612

May 11, 2001
Who’s Packing Heat?

It crosses gender, race and economic barriers. Its gun ownership.
So who owns a gun?
Is it your neighbor… The driver in the car next you? the clerk at the store?
17- thousand people in Shelby county have licenses to carry guns more than in any other county in Tennessee.. The people you are about to meet might help you forget all your preconceived notions about who’s packing heat.

At first glance Paulette Mastin looks like just another suburban mom out running errands with her two year old daughter… And in a way she is.. But occasionally she makes one unusual stop… At the pistol range.

“”It’s not the first picture that comes to mind when you think of someone having a gun.”" she says.
Paulette has a permit to carry a .45 caliber pistol.. She got it a year ago before she became a victim of crime.

“”My husband’s not always there 24 hours a day and I need to be responsible for taking care of myself and my daughter and the best way I feel I can do that is to have my concealed weapons permit and carrying a gun.”"
Thinks she’s the exception? think again. Tom givens has trained more than 8000 people to get their carry permits at range master and says Mastin doesn’t make the first cut.

“”Probably the most unusual.. The one that would stand out in my mind is the 88 year old grandma with one arm.”"
then there was Maude Clarke Bolton.. The 92 year old Memphis woman who three years ago became the oldest person in the state to get a permit.

Bob Lee of Germantown decided to get his permit two years ago before he and his wife went on a vacation out west. He read a story about another vacationing couple the same age who was kidnapped and killed.

“”Prior to that I was kind of anti-people carrying guns.. I thought it was a survivalist thing.. I’m not that kind of person.”"
Nevertheless he bought a pistol and taught his wife to use it… The day before they left on vacation he almost insisted she start carrying it.
“”I said wait a minute I can’t.. She doesn’t have a license and she’ll be in trouble and a felon if she’s caught.”"

The next day teenagers car jacked and kidnapped Barbara Ann Lee as she ate at a Collierville restaurant.. Then they murdered her.

“I still regret I didn’t make her take it with her.”

Most of the state’s 100-thousand permits have been issued in the last five years.