An excerpt from American Shooter
The 1980s became the decade for peddling handguns, long
guns, shot guns, and anything that would go “Bang!” to women. Collaborating
with the NRA, gun manufacturers’ designers, advertising agencies and media
shills set out that women must be armed.
The high
ticket sell point on the prefrontal lobe of the male-dominated firearms market
was “rape.” All women feared rape. Fear of “radicals” and “troublemakers” had
fueled gun sales in the South during the height of civil rights confrontations.
Fear of having the Second Amendment carjacked by skulking liberal socialists
fired up millions of people who had a gun moldering away in a dresser drawer,
night stand, or basement closet. Sportsmen, target punchers and militia members
fired up their typewriters with letters to legislators and Op Ed columns in the
media. Fear of that loss blazed from the pages of the American Rifleman Magazine’s editorial pages. Now, the Big Gun
turret swung in the direction of women as they were targeted by the testosterone
bubbling gun world.
To allay
any concerns that male NRA members would soon be attending Tupperware™ parties
or carrying man purses, the NRA Personal Protection Program Director, Tracey
Martin said in 1988: "Millions of intelligent, self-reliant women have
chosen to defend themselves." And if the female members of NRA were looked
upon as beer-swilling, tattooed, ball-busting rednecks in biker drag, that was
also a misconception. In articles and advertising women were portrayed as
competent, pleasant, no-nonsense folks who, besides being a businesswoman, high
power shooting champion, or former Dallas Cowboys Cheer Leader could also
defend themselves. That was the key comment from all the quoted female
shooters: “I can defend myself.” Believe that, because in an NRA sales
instruction pamphlet titled, “ A
Question of Self-Defense” the NRA text against a blood-spattered background warns,
“You're a woman. Someone's going to rape you. You'd better buy a handgun.
People buy handguns out of fear, and rape is perceived as what women fear most.
'Tell them
what rape is,” the pamphlet shrieks, “Be
graphic. Be disgusting. Be obscene. Make them sick. If they throw up, then they
have the tiniest idea of what rape is!”
Another NRA
pamphlet titled “It Can Happen to You” shows the picture of an elderly woman
and the text oozes:
“In nature,
the predator preys on the weak, the sick, the aged. It stalks. It waits
patiently for the precise moment when the victim appears defenseless. Then, it
strikes...There is no way of telling a criminal predator by the way he looks.
He might be a potential suitor.”
A 1987
self-defense advertisement shows a man in a stocking mask beneath the headline,
”Should You Shoot a Rapist Before He Cuts Your Throat?"
And a
further warning and admonition sums up the potential dangers:
“The days
when you thought you'd never be the victim of a rape--that it ‘can't happen to
me’ – are over. We all know of friends or family who have been raped, beaten,
robbed or burglarized by thugs who don't think twice about hurting someone. You
might be the next victim.”[i]
Now, shut your eyes and imagine an ad that reads, "It's a beautiful day to work out. What will it be: the golf course, the tennis court or the rifle range?"
[i]
Pamphlet texts quoted from: Josh
Sugarman, National Rifle
Association - Money, Firepower and Fear, Violence Policy Center, 1992.
