More on Women with Guns...

...seems to be a hot topic this week! This courtesy of Tim Katz via email, from Boston Magazine:

Girls With Guns
Alexandra Hall

Forget lipstick, Fendi bags, and Wonderbras. A local group of young women has elected the .22-caliber Smith & Wesson as its most powerful accessory. Is this simply more progun lunacy, or could it possibly be the next face of feminism?

Christie Caywood is feeling good. Really good. She's been at the firing range for less than five minutes, and already she's hit a bull's-eye. Brass shell casings from her .22-caliber Smith & Wesson are piled around her feet, and her long, red hair shakes as she reloads. Keeping her fingers clear of the trigger but tight along the muzzle, she slides each bullet into the pistol's magazine and snaps it into place. Then she readjusts her stance and pushes the button that, with an abrupt and heavy hum, mechanically sends out a fresh paper target. She retrieves the used target it replaces the way the rest of us handle an old family photograph — with light fingers, and at the edges. And for good reason: It will soon hang proudly on the wall of her room back in the dormitory.

At the Smith & Wesson Shooting Sports Center in Springfield, an indoor shooting range, the stink of carbon from gun barrels is unmistakable, even to the untrained nose. Even through earmuffs, and even from a piece as low caliber as the .22, the noise of every shot is firecracker-loud. At each discharge, bits of flame spark from the gun's nose, and Caywood's hand jumps back with the recoil. Larger guns are going off all around her — .44s and .45s powerful enough to shake the floor.