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.