Women & Guns

"It Was 20 Years Ago Today"
A History of Women & Guns in Covers

By Peggy Tartaro,
Executive Editor

Twenty years is a long time in the life of a magazine. Sure, there are many that have survived far longer, adapting to changes in technology, the marketplace and more, but there are also a number of titles-some of them quite worthy-that don't make it to the two decade marker.

So to celebrate our 20th anniversary, we decided to take a look back at the evolution of Women & Guns.

1989: The Beginning
In October of 1989, Sonny Jones, an Arkansas resident with a varied resume and an interest in firearms, particularly for self-defense, attended the third Gun Rights Policy Conference, held in Dallas. She was covering the event-a gathering of gun rights activists from around the country sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms-for Machine Gun News, which was based in her hometown.

The idea for the magazine had been percolating for a while, and Sonny decided to go ahead with it. The first issue was 16 pages, black and white and included no advertising. The publication was by subscription-only. Sonny wrote almost the entire issue herself, although only her editorial was signed. The first feature was on concealed carry options for women and featured some of the then-very new holster purses, and another made brief mention of the also very-new LadySmith line from Smith & Wesson

1990: A New Home
By late 1990 Sonny realized that while she had a very good idea, she didn't have the wherewithal to continue publication by herself. She sold W&G to the Second Amendment Foundation. Julianne Versnel Gottlieb was named publisher and I became Associate Editor. Production of the magazine, now 2-color, was split between Arkansas and New York. The magazine continued to explore firearms from a woman's perspective and self-defense maintained its place as the center of the magazine. By now, the firearms industry had taken notice of W&G and advertising was trickling in-among the first were Beretta, Colt and a handful of holtsre/purse makers. Sonny's own writing was augmented by others, including Sheila Link who started her Gear & Gadgets column.

1991: Another Beginning
In September of 1991, a decision was made to take Women & Guns to newsstand to reach a wider audience. By this time Sonny had moved to Bellevue, WA, where SAF is headquartered, while physical production of the magazine remained in Buffalo. Coincidence-or perhaps serendipity-led Sonny to chose a now-iconic image from the film "Thelma & Louise" for the newsstand debut cover, and the cover hit the newsstand just as the film was making waves in the zeitgeist. The next issue had Linda Hamilton from "Terminator 2" on the cover, although most covers before and since have been of real women with real guns. The newsstand debut also meant a fair amount of general media publicity about the magazine and about women gunowners generally. We fielded dozens of media calls-from television, newspapers, other magazines and radio, and have continued to be a resource for the general media.

1992: Famous and Feisty
By 1992 the magazine was humming along, and we were still doing interviews about it and about women gunowners, a subject that was still fascinating/revolting/surprising to the general media. It was the headline of the newspaper feature (almost always in the "Lifestyle" section): "Annie Got Her Gun, or some twisty variant ("Granny Get Your Gun"). The magazine was doing fine, with more advertising (Taurus USA being one of the first to have a color schedule, and Glock paying to have a special booklet bound into an issue), more color pages inside, more rounded field testing and reporting. Lyn Bates was "Special Projects Editor," and doing a lot of work on concealed carry for women. But we knew we'd really arrived when academia started picking on us! The tagline on our February issue read "Are You Too STUPID to Read This Magazine?" and covered a law review article by Debra Dobray and Arthur Waldrop that proposed a novel legal theory: the Federal Trade Commission should sue gun manufacturers-specifically handgun manufacturerss-who marketed to women, because the authors asserted, women didn't understand the claims made by the manufacturers in their ads, and were being endangered by them. We had serious fun picking the article apart. Nancy Bittle, then-president of AWARE, attorney and National Rifle Association board member (later president) Sandra Froman, then-marketing director of S&W Sherry Collins and social scientist Fran Haga, joined me in the fray. The theory was bruited about for about a year more, but then the anti-gunners turned their sights to more general litigation issues, going after the firearms industry from a victim's standpoint.

1993: Changes and Adjustments
Settling into our fourth year, W&G continued to explore self-defense from a woman's perspective. We were finding more and more men (especially those involved in firearms and tactical training) were fans because they enjoyed our "no nonsense" style of reviewing. By this time, Sonny had left W&G to pursue other interests, primarily in the training arena and I was "Executive Editor"-a title that has always made me want to dress like Rosalind Russell in "His Gal Friday." My editorial comments had moved up front and Julie's "Dear Self-Reliant Reader" was a popular feature of our back page. In addition to Sheila and Lyn, Gila May-Hayes and Karen MacNutt were now comfortably ensconced on the masthead as Contributing Editors.

1994: All About You
In 1994 nearly every cover of W&G featured a "famous" gun woman-of course fame is relative, but many of them were well-known figures in the shooting sports and in training circles, and in the case of our June issue, politics. That issue featured Tanya Metaksa, newly appointed to head the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. Metaksa, who had worked for NRA, and later as a board member, stewarded their Refuse to be a Victim program for women, was a strong advocate of grassroots involvement, inspiring many women who are still active in the firearms civil rights fight. Some of the other women featured that year were handgunner Kimbrel Edington, IPSC champion Laurie Kraynick and trainer Heidi Smith. Our February cover, however, was a bit of a departure-it featured a birthday cake surrounded by six guns chambered for the .40 S&W round. Gila did the story and I conceptualized the cover after reading a trade journal that said women's magazines with cakes on them sold well. This issue was no exception.

1995: New, New, New
By the time W&G was five it had grown considerably. In addition to our continued focus on self-defense and our commitment to introducing readers to like-minded women around the country, we, like most firearms magazines, were keeping up with changes in firearms and accessories design. We also detoured occasionally to the shooting sports, including the very new Cowboy Action Shooting game. We were also still exploring self-defense techniques, with a number of our contributing editors taking-and reporting on-classes at well-know schools like Lethal Force Institute and Gunsite. That year we also did our first feature on pregnancy and shooting, likely the first of its kind anywhere.

1996: New Technology
Like a lot of other people, we were starting to get the hang of the Internet in 1996. In the Summer, I published my email address (and despite several IP changes, have been deleting spam ever since). It did provide another way for readers to communicate with us, as did several Reader's Surveys published over the years. It was also a year of a cosmetic change or two, as out "banner"-the cover title-underwent its third makeover. By this time, a number of our contributing editors were doing columns, often in addition to regular feature work. Lyn Bates' Defensive Strategies and Gila Hayes' Personal Trainer, were both integral parts of the magazine. The former offered (and still offers) Lyn's precise, thoughtful outlook on a number of different aspects of "personal defense," often including first-hand accounts from women who had survived critical incidents. These are notoriously difficult journalistic "gets," and Lyn always managed to do them extremely well. Personal Trainer was Gila's way of exploring-in her equally thoughtful and precise way-a number of technical aspects of self-defense, from dry firing to a survey of women's concealed carry methods.

1997: Survivors and Adapters
In 1997 we expanded our format somewhat, with additional pages in each issue. In addition to keeping up with all of the latest handguns, we were also giving quite a bit of coverage to long guns, for both sport and home defense. Women gunowners were more and more apart of the political mix. Lead by Suzanna Gratia-Hupp of Texas, their compelling first hand stories helped change hearts and minds in state legislatures across the country. It was part of the serious battle for concealed carry, or right to carry, laws around the country. In addition to continuing to bring readers first-hand stories of women's self-defense triumphs, we also focused on products and skills, including schools and matches, designed to enhance women's survival rates.

1998: Contractions and Compacts
With the start of the new year, our format was once again changing. The realities of publishing had made it necessary for the magazine to become bi-monthly, but the change also meant longer issues. Smaller handguns, with the burgeoning concealed carry market in mind, were making more and more appearances on dealers' shelves. Part of the reason was technological advances within the industry itself, but a big component in the development and popularity of guns like North American Arms' tiny Guardian and Kahr Arms' Compact 9mm, was political. President Bill Clinton and like-minded folks in Congress pushed for importation bans and other laws that limited the capacity of firearms and made demands for other cosmetic changes as well. A whole class of guns, dubbed "The Clinton Compacts," came into existence.

1999: 10 and Growing
Like many years, our 10th anniversary began with a cover featuring the shooting sports. Nancy Tompkins-Gallagher and her daughter, Michelle, made sports history the previous summer by winning high power rifle crowns at Camp Perry. We asked, both sadly and rhetorically, "Why Aren't These Women Famous?" on the cover and the women were profiled inside. Both are still active competitors, and both are still taking titles. Julia Watson, then an active duty Marine, was another cover subject, and another winner at Camp Perry. Setting a record was actress Leslie Easterbrook, she graced her third W&G cover in September.

December saw another actress on the cover, Carole Reed, a cowboy action shooter who also makes appearances as an Elizabeth Taylor look-alike. Like everyone else, we were wondering what would happen in the new millennium, but unlike a lot of other people, W&G was thinking things through, with a feature on "what ifs" and which gun would be best for them in our July-August issue.

2000: Millennium Matters
Whew! That whole Y2K thing was a bust! But we had other things on our minds, anyway. The explosion in compact guns continued, and Gila Hayes compared and contrasted 10 different models in one issue. Julie Goloski made her first (but not last) appearance on a W&G cover, as she was named Army Athlete of the Year. Lyn Bates took another close look at gun locks, rating and reviewing a number of the new designs, including the increasing-popular small lock boxes. In the 1990s, Lyn had won a prestigious writing award for her first look at locks-an innovative piece that featured a team of "junior safecrackers." In May of 2000, the whole "Million" Mom March movement took off, but once again, grassroots activists, in the form of the Second Amendment Sisters, took the field to challenge the public and media perception that "all" women were anti-gun. The Sisters formed around an Internet forum site, and when they appeared to counter-rally on Mother's Day in Washington, many of them had not yet met face-to-face.

2001: An Even Dozen
It wasn't a space odyssey, but a dozen years in operation that marked 2001. Kim Rhode, making her second appearance on a W&G cover, was also celebrating her second Olympic victory. The compact handguns were shrinking into a number of sub-compacts, including an offering from Glock. Another growing industry was lights and sights-including lasers-for guns. We reviewed a number of them that year. Competitive shooting, with an emphasis on getting started and having fun, were themes throughout the year, as we covered bowling pin shoots, .50 cal. matches and more. Our May-June issue featured two of my favorite "personal" stories: Lyn Bates' graphic tale of the harrowing home invasion story of Floridian Susan Gonzalez and Susan Laws' profile of "The Taos Kid." In real life, this cowboy action shooter was celebrated pilot Wally Funk, who was a member of Mercury 13, a NASA testing program for female astronauts. Politics (both military and regular) doomed the program and would keep women out of space for another several decades, but Funk remains a sterling example of the "can-do" spirit of American women gunowners.

Of course the singular event of the year 2001 was not reported in our pages until the November-December issue. The 9/11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania had an impact on everyone's life, including gunowners, although most of the consequences would not begin to appear until the following year. The 2001 Gun Rights Policy Conference was scheduled for the last weekend in September. SAF and CCRKBA sponsors of the event had no idea what turnout would be, because although registration for the event in suburban Cincinnati was high, it was unclear if anyone would be flying in, or if driving participants would opt to stay close to home. Although commercial air travel had only re-opened the week before, GRPC 2001 ended up being the best attended conference in the history of the program. Americans, again, especially gunowners, were beginning to rethink and regain their confidence.

2002: Leadership Ladies
Although Americans were quickly becoming accustomed to-if not used to-the new post 9/11 order, one of the strange quirks was that there seemed to be a growing public, if not political, acceptance of the idea of gun ownership as a fundamental American right, and a force for good. Gunowners have long argued that the whole point is self-reliance; that we are responsible for our own destinies, and our own safety. The lessons of countries, especially Israel, with a long history of terrorism, were being brought home. The fight over arming commercial pilots was joined in earnest, and anti-gun groups and politicians were terrified of the subject. It got to the heart of the argument: were civilians, even if highly trained professionals in another line, responsible enough to be carrying guns? Did the argument that civilians, armed with handguns, could be the literal last line of defense for other civilians, have merit? While the program has continued to be plagued by under-funding and other problems, its eventual enactment by Congress was a positive step for all gunowners.

Women & Guns underwent one more giant leap-albeit cosmetic-at the very end of 2002: issues were now full-color throughout all pages, allowing us to bring better quality images and more details to stories like "The Six Greatest Handguns" and "Leadership Roles for Women." This last article detailed a program, jointly sponsored by the Texas Starte Rifle Association and CCRKBA to train women grassroots activists in the media arts. The 2-day program, held in Dallas, was headed by TSRA's Sue King and I, with a major assist from the National Rifle Association.

2003: Odds & Evening Up
Comfortably into the "aughts" decade, the politics of guns moved from the federal stage where it was getting little traction, to statehouses across the nation. The main battle in Congress had to do with the upcoming sunset of the 1994 ban on some semi-automatic guns and the high-capicity magazine ban, together known as the "assault weapons" ban. Gunowners were disappointed when the Bush Administration signaled it was willing to support re-authorization of the bill the following year. In the Supreme Court, the justices declined to take up the Bean case, one many thought would be a winner for gunowners. But in states across the country, concealed carry laws continued to find support across the legislative aisles. New Mexico's Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson signed a "shall issue" statue in April. Late the same month, after years and years of wrangling, Minnesota replaced "discretionary carry"-which left granting of gun permits up to local sheriffs-with a shall issue law of their own. Meanwhile, Colorado, Oklahoma and Virginia either adopted shall issue laws or reformed existing laws to reflect that approach. Alaska became the second state in the union to make it legal to carry concealed without a license. (Vermont is the other state where this is in effect, although there is no law there saying so.) By the end of the year, Missouri legislators had overridden a gubernatorial veto and the state became the 36th enacting a shall issue law. W&G issues that year reflected the growing number of women who were availing themselves of shall issue laws with features on a variety of handguns designed for the concealed carry market, as well as accessories and lockboxes.

2004: 15 and Counting
States continued to take the concealed carry issue up in 2004, and it is important to note that women activists in many states considering changes were a key element of victories. Ohio, one of the most contentious states, finally got a bill passed, and, while not everyone was 100% happy with it, even its sponsor said it was a first step. The "assault weapons" ban did sunset-a huge victory and morale boost for gunowners going into a presidential, House and Senate election cycle. Despite growing dissatisfaction with George Bush, he was handily re-elected, despite his opponent, John Kerry's insistence that he was a gunowner and supporter of the Second Amendment.

Another year, more guns to review, including Ruger's new polymer offering, CZ's little Rami and Bushmaster's Lady Rifle. We re-examined laser sights and also featured custom and aftermarket grips for smaller hands. CJ Songer took us to the world of stuntwomen, who, thanks to a program by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, were learning about real guns.

2005: Learning & Teaching
It wasn't the first time we had taken up the subject, but outstanding features in 2005 included a 3-part series on kids and gun safety, with practical tips an d scenarios. Women in the military, celebrity charity shooting events and even how to choose a knife for a young girl were covered as well. I liked a short feature we had on Nicole McKibbin, a native of my home town. Now living and working in Texas, for Texas Fish & Game magazine, Nicole went on her first alligator hunt-bagged the critter with two shots from a Taurus .38 revolver. The meat was eaten and the hide tanned. While hunting has never been a primary focus of the magazine, we try to explore it several times during the year because there are a lot of women hunters. Gila had switched the focus of her column, which was now called Firearms Fundamentals, but she continued her solid, information-packed style of firearms writing.

2006: Romance & Reality
In 2006, W&G reported on two different programs for women writers, mostly women, which we participated in and hosted via out parent, the Second Amendment Foundation. The Las Vegas mystery writers seminar, a 2-1/2 day affair in its fifth year, brings together published writers who want to learn more about guns. The program is a 2-way street. Writers get to pick the brains of experts and fire a variety of guns, from .22 handguns to .50 rifles, and those staffing the event get to impact popular cultural in a way we wouldn't otherwise. Out of the mystery writers seminar came a unique chance to stage an event for romance writers who concentrate on thrillers or mysteries. It was a big expansion of the program-and a big challenge. Instead of a class of 20, their would be 100 students; instead of 2-1/2 days, we'd have one, and, instead of gun-friendly Nevada, we'd stage it first in a downtown Atlanta ballroom and then move to a suburban gun range. Oh, and it was July!

Political issues heating up included battles in various states over guns in the workplace, including employee parking lots and a rising new star in the anti-gun sky, New York City's mayor, the Napoleonesque Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg, using his own vast wealth, hired private investigators to make "straw man" purchases in other states and created the Mayors Against Gun Violence (MAGI), kicked off with a summit of mayors from large cities across the country, some of whom later dropped out when they discovered Bloomberg's full agenda.

2007: Young at Heart
Although we were celebrating our 18th anniversary in 2007, young women seemed to be the focus of many features through the year, including the Young Eagles Rifle Team, an international competition group, and a generation-spanning trapshooting family. We went back to basics with more concealed carry gun and accessory options and Gila's column morphed once again, this time into "The Armed Lifestyle," focusing on the needs of the growing number of women who carry concealed most, if not all of the time. That year, Shari LeGate, champion shotgunner, television host and recipient of the prestigious Shooting Sports Industry "Person of the Year" Award came on board the masthead to delve into the intricacies of shotgunning. On the political front, the 2008 Presidential campaign was already in full swing, and a case upon which gunowners across the nation were pinning their hopes, DC v. Heller, first made headlines. Also in the news, the shootings at Virginia Tech, gave even some anti-gunners pause to consider the folly of "gun free zones" and bans on campus carry for even licensed instructors. Out of the VT shooting, a new group of committed, grassroots activists was born-Student for Concealed Carry on Campus.

2008: Good News, Bad News
The good news (and it was really, really good news) of 2008 for gunowners was the 5-4 Supreme Court decision in the Heller case, affirming an individual right to keep and bear arms and forcing Washington, DC, to go back to the drawing board on its 30+-year-old ban on guns. Like dominos, other bans, including a clutch in suburban Chicago, were changed or rescinded outright in light of the Heller ruling. Chicago itself continued its ban, and SAF, NRA and individual plaintiffs filed suit. The champagne wasn't even polished off before the Presidential and Congressional races were joined in earnest. Barack Obama, a one-term senator from Illinois wrested the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton, and chose anti-gun Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware as his running mate. The Republicans had crowned their champion, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, earlier in the year, and gunowners were wondering if it would be another "hold-your-nose" election, as McCain was lukewarm to gun rights, at best.

However, his surprising choice of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, energized many gunowners. Palin was proudly pro-gun, from one of the state with the best concealed carry law on the books, a hunter and a life member of NRA. It is interesting that the image of "gunowner," and specifically "woman gunowner" is so firmly planted in the Mainstream Media's and most of the Popular Culture's mind, that the ridiculing of Palin, in part because she was a woman gunowner, was considered fair game. I don't think I ever heard or read anyone refer to Alaska's long tradition of hunting-a tradition with deep roots in sustance and not sport. But economic jitters, which morphed into shudders, an unpopular war and a sense of change all propelled Obama-Biden to a wide victory, and came close to giving them a filibuster-proof Senate. We continued to report on new handguns, rifles and shotguns. And we also covered again the now well-established approach to learning handgunning skills-the women-only class-a novelty when the magazine was started.

2009: So It Goes
It's never wise to make predictions. But it's fairly simple to state that the coming year, which marks Women & Guns' twentieth, will be full of challenges for gunowners. It's also a pretty safe bet that W&G issues will be filled with more news-good and bad-and with more useful new products, self-defense techniques and tips, profiles of women gunowners, famous and less well-known, and much more.