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Freedom, guns and woman

Freedom, guns and women

1     There is a stout tradition in politics of posing as    180,000 cases of this disease are diagnosed - a
 something you’re not. Bill Clinton secured his quantity, Mrs Metaksa notes, equal to the total
 re-election by sounding like a Republican.50 number of rapes that get reported annually.
 Republican Newt Gingrich tried to boost his ratings Women get themselves checked for cervical cancer,
5 afterwards by sounding like a Democrat. Now the too: each year 5,000 women die of this disease, the
 National Rifle Association - champion of macho same number as are murdered. Only a reactionary
 hunters - is doing the same thing. Fully 85% of the anti-feminist could possibly object to the idea that
 NRA’s 2.8m members are men. No matter: the NRA55 women should protect themselves by owning guns.
 is going feminist.6     This linking of feminism and guns is a clever
  political move. So clever, in fact, that it may prevent
  further undermining of the NRA’s goals. In 1993 Mr
  Clinton signed the Brady Law, imposing a five-day
 60 waiting limit on people wishing to buy guns; in
  1994 he won a ban on 19 types of assault weapon;
  in last year’s election, gun controllers defeated
  several pro-gun candidates. All this comes after a
  quarter of a century in which nobody dared take on
 65 the NRA, and not one piece of gun-control
  legislation was passed at the federal level. Flushed
  with these successes, gun controllers have begun to
  hope that America may soon come round to the
  European view, which is that the right to bear arms
 70 and the right to arm bears deserve roughly equal
  sympathy.
210     The women’s movement at the NRA is led by7     But now comes the feminist counter-punch.
 Tanya Metaksa, the organisation’s chief lobbyist. Whereas violent crime against men has declined in
 Hoping to extend the NRA’s appeal, Mrs Metaksa  the past five years, violence against women has in-
 has launched a book. It is a how-to manual for75  creased. Moreover, nine out of ten violent attacks
 women seeking to be safe. Its message is that on women are carried out by men. The NRA has
15 women’s liberty and gun liberty are inextricably organised women to lobby for laws that permit the
 bound together. carrying of concealed guns: unarmed women are
3     This proposition starts with the warnings more vulnerable than unarmed men, the argument
 plastered over the book’s cover. Three out of80 goes, so women have most to gain from concealed
 four women will have a crime committed weapons. In recent years, concealed-carry laws
20 against them in their lifetime, it claims. The police have duly passed in 31 states.
 won’t help: there are no arrests in approximately8     The gun lobbyists hope that this advance will
 56% of all violent crimes. The courts won’t change the wider gun debate. The more women
 help: half of all convicted rapists spend less85 carry guns, the more the gun lobby will be
 than one year in jail. Husbands and boyfriends identified with the victims of crime rather than with
25 won’t help: 60% of female murder victims were the criminals. Until now, opinion polls have
 killed by people they know. Thanks to the suggested that women were keener than men on
 progress of feminism thus far, women are gun control. If women were to come around, the
 assuming more responsiblity at work. Now90 NRA’s influence would expand considerably.
 it is time for women to rise up and take care of9     Unfortunately for the gun lobby, women may
30 their own safety. not come around. So far, rather few have taken to
4     Mrs Metaksa’s book explains how to do this. packing guns in their handbags: Florida’s records,
 Fortify your home. Trim garden shrubs so that they for example, show that women account for only
 cannot obscure a man-sized figure. Forget glass95 15% of concealed-carry licences. Unless this
 doors: they are too easily smashed. Keep a cell changes, the gun lobby’s feminist pose may not
35 phone handy, in case he cuts your telephone lines. convince anyone for long. People may start
 As a pedestrian, walk against the traffic: that way pointing out annoying facts: that guns kept at home
 you will not be surprised by car-borne baddies who are more likely to be used on a family member than
 sneak up from behind. As a motorist, don’t sit in a100 on an unknown assailant; that countries which
 parked car studying the map. Fasten your belt and forbid guns suffer less violence than America.
40 fire up the engine in no more than five seconds.10     Those foreign countries, highly critical of
 Last, but certainly not least, think about keeping the America’s gun laws, will not like Mrs Metaksa’s
 kind of gun that fires bullets. book. But she is already preparing her response.
5     These safety guidelines may sound a little strict.105 “The Japanese and Chinese and the UN are coming
 But, empowered by the feminist age, women are to deny Americans their rights under their own
45 prepared to take great pains to increase their life national sovereignty,” she growls. Perhaps there is
  expectancy. They go to great lengths to have them- another book in this.
  selves checked for breast cancer; and each year'The Economist', June 14, 1997