Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Handgun ownership surges in new groups (Women, gays, liberals and college kids)
Charlotte Observer ^ | Dec. 12, 2011 | Ken Wells

Posted on 12/12/2011 9:58:57 AM PST by Between the Lines

Robin Natanel picks up a compact black pistol, barrel pointed down range. Gripping the gun with both hands, she raises the semi-automatic and methodically squeezes off five shots. If the target were a person's head or heart, he'd probably be dead.

Natanel is a Buddhist and self-avowed "spiritual person," a 53-year-old divorcee who lives alone in a liberal-leaning suburb near Boston. She's a tai chi instructor who invokes the benefits of meditation. And at least twice a month, she takes her German-made Walther PK380 to a shooting range and blazes away.

Natanel is one of a growing number of people in groups once considered anti-handgun - women, liberals, gays and college kids - who have been buying weapons. They are part of a national trend: Domestic handgun production and imports more than doubled over four years to about 4.6 million in 2009, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

The surge has been propelled by shifting politics and demographics that have made it easier and more acceptable than at any time in 75 years for Americans to buy and carry handguns. Post-9/11 fears seem to be a factor, as are the pro-gun politicking of the National Rifle Association and the marketing, particularly to women, by handgun manufacturers. Events like the Dec. 8 fatal shootings on the Virginia Tech University campus reinforce a feeling that the world is an unsafe place, even as violent U.S. crime rates fall.

Two years ago, an ex-boyfriend broke into Natanel's house when she wasn't home. The police advised a restraining order. Instead, she bought pepper spray and programmed the local police number on her cellphone's speed dial.

"I was constantly terrified for my safety," she says.

Ultimately, she got the pistol.

Natanel found it was no trouble to purchase the Walther, a brand favored by movie superspy James Bond, or to locate experts to train her. Her circumstances won her a concealed-carry permit in a state with tough gun-control laws.

"I'd never considered a gun," Natanel says. "...I didn't think anyone should have them."

'Clear societal change'

Twenty years ago, 76 percent of women felt that way about handguns, and 68 percent of all people in the country were wary enough of firearms of any kind to tell Gallup pollsters that they backed laws more strictly limiting their sale. Then what Gallup calls "a clear societal change" began.

In October, a Gallup poll found record-low support for a handgun ban - at 26 percent among all responders and 31 percent among women.

The poll, which has tracked gun attitudes since 1959, documented a record-low 43 percent who favor making it more difficult to acquire guns and record-high numbers of women and Democrats saying there is a firearm at their home. Forty-seven percent said someone in the household owns at least one gun, the highest reading in 18 years.

Skeptics object

Americans who have acquired handguns for protection are living with "serious delusions," says Caroline Brewer, a spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. She contends that few are trained rigorously enough to deploy their weapons in the shock and heat of an attack, that they'll shoot innocent bystanders, and that more times than not their firearms will be turned against them.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-147 last
To: ExCTCitizen

That might be true, but perhaps it’s better to select better cases than a pervert being engaged in dangerous sexual behavior to make a case for armed self defense. It doesn’t play very well in most parts.

I’ll tell you what case would be better with most people. How about a guy who has to defend himself from a gay co-worker who continually keeps hitting on him despite repeated rejection and being told the guy isn’t gay, who finally tries to rape the straight co-worker? Now that’s a case I’ll get on board with. Or realistically, a guy of lower rank in the military having to fight off a gay male superior who’s attempting to rape him. This happens all the time. that’s the guy who needs to be armed.


141 posted on 12/14/2011 8:29:42 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 134 | View Replies]

To: Neoliberalnot

So should every human wear an electronic collar controlled by the government to control what they do sexually? Because that’s the only feasible way to do such a thing.

What somebody does in their own bed is none of your business.


142 posted on 12/15/2011 3:44:01 AM PST by wastedyears (Not too long you devious little parathyroid. Soon I'll be rid of you and I'll be free.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 125 | View Replies]

To: Neoliberalnot
You should redirect your comments to the homophobic boys the icon of the gay community, Mr. Sandusky, took care of. I lived in the bay area of San Fran and watched the molestation of boys for more than a few years. It was a game to them. The “gay” community referred to the young boys as twinks. When you work for too many years with the CA dept of Public Health, you learn more about the disgusting “lifestyle” then you care to recall. I’m glad you are comfortable with being a homophile. Good luck with it. I have to ponder what other kinds of friends you have. Are you in the GLBT alliance? For the record, “gays” vote 90% democrat.

So nobody ever organized a community watch? Doing that along with shaming them is more effective than depriving people their God-given right (which is given to all Americans regardless of their sexual preference).

Like laws against murder and theft: just because it's illegal, doesn't stop people from doing it.

143 posted on 12/15/2011 3:51:41 AM PST by wastedyears (Not too long you devious little parathyroid. Soon I'll be rid of you and I'll be free.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 136 | View Replies]

To: wastedyears

I can see by your opinions you are clueless on public health issues and the threat and cost it carries, not for what homos do in private, but for vectoring diseases there, in bath houses, and most frequently in filthy public restrooms—and the rest of us pay the price. The Mayor of Portland porked a juvenile kid in a public restroom—are you aware of anything other than what the homophiles promote?

Please reread: that is the big issue with male homos—infecting other people with a dozen diseases. Somebody has to work for public health, and trust me, it is not a glamorous or easy job, but male homosexuals are without parallel in their disgusting methods of disease transmission. Suggested reading for you: “The Gift.”


144 posted on 12/15/2011 8:33:18 AM PST by Neoliberalnot ((Read "The Grey Book" for an alternative to corruption in DC))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 142 | View Replies]

To: wastedyears; wagglebee; Morgana; massmike

“”which is given to all Americans regardless of their sexual preference.””

Homosexuals having a sexual preference for little boys is called rape and is not a God-given right, but an adomination against all manner of decency even if it is labeled homophobic.


145 posted on 12/15/2011 8:40:22 AM PST by Neoliberalnot ((Read "The Grey Book" for an alternative to corruption in DC))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 143 | View Replies]

To: Secret Agent Man
How about a guy who has to defend himself from a gay co-worker who continually keeps hitting on him

I'm not sure about you...but it rarely happens. There are more straights who hit on ladies at the work place. Come on...I don't like most of the gay's behavior, but neither does my gay friends.

being told the guy isn’t gay, who finally tries to rape the straight co-worker?

Did it ever happens?? If one of my employees ever try to RAPE anyone at work, I would FIRE the person and then I would press charges against the person. If it was after hours, I would have the person fired and see if the person would want to press charges.

This is my last statement on this subject. I believe that the constitution protects all... including GAYS -- with LIFE LIBERTY and HAPPINESS.

146 posted on 12/15/2011 11:01:11 AM PST by ExCTCitizen (If we stay home in November '12... Don't complain if 0 shreds the constitution!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 141 | View Replies]

To: ExCTCitizen

You believe the constitution protects perversion.

When the Constitution was written, sodomy was outlawed and often punishable as a capital offense. So was rape. The same brilliant minds that gave us the Consitution had no problem with that.

Nice try, though.


147 posted on 12/15/2011 11:15:12 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 146 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-147 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson