March 1995	Women & Guns

	Parting  Shots ...

	As the dust settles around the swearing in of the 104th
Congress, gun rights advocates are organizing.

	This large, diverse, grassroots group is networking in ways
unheard of 20 years ago.

	Whether you follow Vice President Al Gore's nomenclature of
"information highway" or House of Representatives Speaker Newt
Gingrich's term, "cyberspace", it makes one wonder if the political
realities of today might not be different if current technology had
been available two decades ago.

	The Internet is a network of networks connecting over 35,000
individual computers. It is estimated that every ten minutes another
network is added to the Internet. The Internet offers discussion
groups, files and software and mail.

	As a user of electronic mail, or e-mail, I receive over 40
messages per day. My "mail" consists of everything from subscriber
inquiries to copies of legislation being introduced by city councils.
In the space of ten minutes, I respond to a dozen activists from New
Hampshire to California.

	According to American Online, approximately one third of all
households have a personal computer. Five percent of all households
subscribe to an "online" service. The communication potential is
exponential.

	"What's on the Internet" by Eric Gagon (Peachpit Press, 1994)
lists one discussion group that pertains to the First Amendment and
free speech, alt.censorship. It lists six groups that focus on the
Second Amendment and gun rights.  They are: alt.politics.org.batf,
alt.war, talk.politics.guns, alt.law-enforcement, info.firearms and
rec.guns.  In addition there are numerous databases such as saf.org
that are accesible on the Internet.  These are all relatively easy to
access, especially for children. Those of us over thirty often need an
instruction manual. I have used "The Internet for Dummies" and
"Internet in a Box" among others.

	One of the subjects that crops up from time to time in
discussions on women and firearms' safety is exposure to lead via
bullets.  I posed this question to Women & Guns reader, John Latz,
M.D. Dr. Latz said that there has been much written about the effects
of exposure to lead by children and pregnant women, but that he is
unaware of any study that looked at lead contamination via bullets. He
did cite a personal story about a range operator that he knew.  While
the range was safe due to the ventilation system, the gentleman was
exposing himself to dangerous levels of lead in his bullet casting and
reloading operation. If you have any concerns, please contact your
physician and let him know.

	The other evening my daughter came home from school with yet
another assignment for the family. Her teacher asked her to get the
definition of respect from all of us_siblings to grandparents.  This
prompted me to do an unscientific survey.

	I found that my children and I have very similar definitions;
"to treat other people as you would wish to be treated yourself." My
eldest and I unknowingly used the same wording.  The response of
another young lady, the same age, from the same city, from the same
school, had an entirely different answer.  To her, respect meant
listening to those with authority.

	I don't want to jump on the bandwagon of "family values." But
no matter how hard I try to avoid it, the concepts of personal
responsibility and urgency for moral beliefs to be attained from self
are lacking.  Rape, assault, robbery, drug use, etc., in my opinion,
are caused by a lack of respect for one's self and for other people.

	Another doubtful survey is getting media attention.  This is
the latest salvo fired by the Center for Disease Control(CDC) and
again published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA).
"Firearm Training and Storage" by Hemenway et al. was done under the
auspices of the Harvard School of Public Health and partially funded
by the CDC.

	The survey concludes that the only safe way to have a firearm
in the home for self-protection is to have it unloaded and locked in a
safe.  One could reasonably argue, given the same criteria used, that
the only safe way to have an automobile is to have it locked in a
garage with any empty gas tank.

	In the battle to maintain our precious Second Amendment right,
and therefore other rights, we need to use all the tools available.
This includes new technology.  Without it, this publication would not
exist.  All the information contained in piece was derived from
materials downloaded from the Internet.  Personal computers, faxes,
copy machines_all of these facilitate our ability to communicate. And
this is what will allow us to remain free.