An armed campus: the goal of a new generation of woman activists
   The Baltimore Sun  (MD)
   FINAL ; HOME & FAMILY ; Page 4N
   March 3, 2002

Byline: Susan Reimer
Christie Caywood grew up in Oklahoma around firearms. Although she never
learned how to shoot, she knew guns were a serious matter.

"We understood guns were tools. As kids, we were never tempted to play
with them," she says.

Caywood came east to college at Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts, where,
unknown to her, gun laws are among the most restrictive in the country.

"A friend of mine from Kansas who grew up around guns, too, suggested we
go to the firing range to take a break from finals," says Caywood, a
junior.

"Six of us went, and four of us had never shot before, even though we'd
lived with guns."

A man showed the girls how to operate a Smith & Wesson .22 semi-automatic,
"a very good gun to start out on," and the girls were hooked.

Caywood decided to buy a gun and take up shooting, but she ran smack into
Massachusetts laws that required her to wait until her 21st birthday to
begin a lengthy process that could result in her being denied a gun permit
without, she said, any reason or any route of appeal.

"As soon as I started looking into the laws, I saw that the rights of
people to own guns were being denied here. That's when I looked at
starting an organization and talking to women about their Second Amendment
rights."

So Caywood, an active conservative, started a campus chapter of Second
Amendment Sisters, an organization begun by women, according to their Web
site, who had "enough of the distortion, the misrepresentation, and the
reproach from the anti-Second Amendment crowd."

"They wanted to show that the Million Moms March didn't speak for all
women."

While she was organizing her chapter, Caywood, a member of the College
Republicans, learned that not even the security police on the all-female
campus were permitted to carry firearms.

"Weapons are banned on campus. We aren't allowed to be armed, but it would
be nice if at least our campus police could defend us," Caywood says.

The short-term goal of SAS is to spread awareness among women on
self-defense issues. "It is the single best way to approach women on the
subject of the second amendment.

"Is it my goal to arm the women students on this campus? It would be nice,
but there are Massachusetts laws that get in the way, so it isn't likely
to happen, certainly not while I'm here.

"We want to educate women about all self-defense issues. Encourage them to
support our right to defend ourselves in any way we see fit, even if it is
with a firearm."

For her part, Caywood just turned 21, so she can now begin the process of
purchasing and getting licensed to carry a gun.

"I have to save a couple of paychecks first, but I do plan on carrying a
gun in the future, everywhere it is legal," she says.

Talking to Caywood recalled for me my days as a campus activist, although
at the time we were trying to make a place for women on the faculty and
the sports teams and the marching band, not the firing range.

She said that there has been some negative reaction from other women
students, especially when SAS members are canvassing for the signatures
the group is required by the school to collect each semester for two
years.

"But most of them understand our right to come together over an issue we
believe in, even if they do not agree."

The activist I was during my college days would agree, too. But I regret
that this is the child that college activist birthed -- a young woman
whose goal is to arm her classmates.

I regret that this -- the unhindered right to carry a gun -- is a
galvanizing issue in a movement that was originally about equal
educational and economic opportunities and control over our own
reproductive systems.

It is as though the women's movement has finally turned in upon itself.

hmmm i wonder if she is single?

A disarmed campus: the goal of [i]every[/i] generation of liberal activists

To tell you the truth, She would have had to wait until she was 21, to buy a hand gun, here in Oklahoma to, she would have to wait until she was 24 to get a CCP as well.