Second Amendment Sisters. (Making a Difference).(gun rights group)(Brief Article)

The grassroots self-defense advocacy organization Second Amendment Sisters (SAS) was formed in December 1999 to counter ideologically the anti-gun Million Mom March sideshow in the nation's capital on Mother's Day 2000, and to raise awareness of the vital role that the Second Amendment plays in protecting the basic human right of self-defense. In January of this year, the influential gun rights group formally announced a new project: the formation of SAS chapters on college and university campuses.

Conservative pro-gun activist Christie Caywood, a junior at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, had been selected last fall to serve as college chapter liaison. She and a handful of likeminded students subsequently launched the first SAS chapter at Mount Holyoke, a small women's institution renowned for its liberal leanings. On February 23rd, the chapter hosted a luncheon and discussion sessions for Second Amendment activists in the New England area. Peggy Tartaro, executive editor of Women & Guns magazine, delivered the keynote address, during which she noted that from nine to 15 million U.S. women own handguns, exploding the myth that women are "anti-gun."

Chapter coordinator Caywood is a native of rural Oklahoma who recently told Baltimore Su columnist Susan Reimer that after arriving in Massachusetts, "A friend of mine from Kansas who grew up around guns, too, suggested that we go to the firing range to take a break from finals." They were joined by four other students, three of whom had no prior hands-on firearms ...