Women & Guns

My friend and fellow blogger, Everday Epistle, recently asked me a series of questions about being a woman gun owner. I was one of many women to give her answers and opinions which were then featured in a post on The Broad Side.

“Women Gun Owners Shoot Straight About Firearms, Violence, Second Amendment” is fantastic. The article features a variety of women who share their views on guns.

The following are my answers to the questions Aimee (Everyday Epistle) asked for her post mentioned above.

Q1. Tell me about your relationship with guns. Why do you own guns? When did you learn to shoot? Who taught you?

A1. I have been around guns my entire life, since I can remember. I was born on the opening day of deer season and hunting is a huge part of our family so guns were a natural thing to grow up around. I had bb guns to shoot at birds & my first real gun was a little browning .22 that I used to try shoot rodents and other varmints with. I took Hunter’s Safety around 11 so when I turned 12 I could go deer hunting. My dad, who taught me how to shoot rifles, is a huge advocate of hunter’s safety and it is a requirement in our family.

My grandpa taught me how to shoot shotguns, his passion is trap shooting. I do not do much bird hunting but enjoy trap shooting.

Growing up owning guns to me was for hunting however as I graduated college and was out on my own I then felt comfort in knowing guns could be used for protection if need be. Being a protective father, my dad made sure his girls had guns & knew how to use them for protection. He also bought us pistols. I got my concealed carry permit about 3 years ago. I travel & drive by myself a lot so it’s nice to have because you never know.

A few months ago I treated myself for my birthday & went to the symphony. I was not able to find anyone to join me so I went alone. On the way home I was pulled over by a police officer, I made sure to tell him that I  had a gun in my purse before I reach for my license. The officer looked really amused considering I was all “dolled up” & coming from the symphony. He said “I don’t think you look like you’re gonna shoot me so it’s ok to get your license, but why do you need a gun at the symphony?” I responded with “I am a single girl in downtown Eugene, why wouldn’t I need a gun?’ He laughed, barely looked at my license and let me go on my way.

Recently, I have taken more interest in practicing shooting. Last year I missed an elk. I did not like the feeling of incompetence or not trusting my ability. I carried my Ruger .270 everywhere I went on the farm after that and practiced shooting any chance I got. In January, I killed a cow elk with that gun, she went down in one shot.

My goal is to get more comfortable using my hand gun, which is a .38 special hammerless revolver. It’s cute. As I mentioned before my dad is a big proponent of gun safety & proper use, so for Christmas my parents bought me defensive handgun lessons that I will use later this spring.

It was instilled me since I can remember that a gun is “ALWAYS loaded” and “NEVER point a gun at anyone, no matter if the gun is real or fake” These principles still stick with me today every time I handle a gun.

Q2. What do you think should and should not be done to curb gun violence in our country?

A2. I understand a lot of people are not comfortable using guns or being around them. I honestly think proper basic education would go a long way in people’s perceptions about guns. A lot of sensationalism happens around gun violence. Focus is lost on other violent crimes, what about knives or baseball bats or fists that are used to commit heinous acts. Lately mental health has been the topic. Which makes me wonder if our pendulum has swung so far to the touchy feely emotional side that we forget to look at the reality of society and the world. There are sick people out there that no amount of public funds will make them better. I do not think more laws are the answer. Since when do criminals follow laws?

Q3. Why is the 2nd Amendment important for women?

A3. The second amendment is important for all not just for women. Our founding fathers left a place they considered to have tyrannical rule. They knew that true freedom was found in the people not the government of a country, they also were aware that government could get to big for their britches. If this ever became the case then “we the people” needed a way to protect ourself and, heaven forbid, if need be to take back the country. That is the big picture of it. However, the 2nd amendment applies to the rapist or attacker who seek to take a woman’s freedom about her body away. It’s a woman’s right to protect her body how she chooses.

Q4. Anything else you think is important to the discussion of women and guns?

A4. Guns aren’t scary. Guns will not shoot anyone on their own. Educate yourself, learn how to shoot. I recognize that the chances might be slim of you ever needing to use one for self-defense, but the confidence it gives you is invaluable. If every citizen, at least every woman, knew how to shoot & defend herself I would think we see a decline in “gun violence”. Guns may not be for everyone and that’s ok, but don’t take away someone else’s right to own & carry because “you aren’t sure”. The more we limit our tools to defend ourselves or even provide food for ourselves the more we limit our individual freedoms.

Are you a woman who owns & shoots guns? Aimee would love to hear your answers to these questions! Email your responses to aimee@everydayepistle.com

If There was a “War on Women”, I’d be on the Frontline

Disclaimer: I hate to discuss “social issues” on my blog because a lot of times it is emotional, personal issue & intertwined in faith & religion. However, I have felt very strongly about this issue particularly since I feel it’s making my gender look bad.

Women, I know we love to dwell on stuff. But seriously though can we quit this talk of “War on Women”?

First of all it’s non-existent; we’re making a mountain out of a mole hill. Some politicians said some things that were taken out of context. No one in their right mind is going to take away birth control. Yes, there is talk of defunding Planned Parenthood. So what if they do. It will still exist and you can always go to your county health clinic and receive the same amount of care. If you aren’t too proud to get free birth control at PP then your local county health clinic shouldn’t bother you either. As for insurance providers opting out of providing it, so what, that’s their prerogative and their business decision. If ObamaCare didn’t exist this wouldn’t even be an issue. A downfall of a single payer system, limited options for you to make the right decisions for you and your family.

Second of all, conservatives aren’t the ones degrading women. Liberals and other women are. Yes, Rush Limbaugh used a derogatory word, he apologized. Anyone listening to him that day, which I was, knows he was using absurdity to show how ridiculous the actual situation was. Seriously, we have more pressing issues like the economy, jobs & some wars. However, democrats & liberals in congress wish to bring out an old issue, such as women’s rights to health care in order to stall.

Also wasn’t it degrading to women when Monica Lewinsky was found underneath the president’s desk? Have we not progressed enough in the professional field that we have to perform sex acts to advance our career? Or how about Bill Maher continually calling Sarah Palin & Michelle Bachman derogatory names and running them down. Aren’t they women too? Or because they’re conservative they don’t count?

I consider myself a feminist because my gender has never stopped me from doing anything I wanted to. I have never felt less of a human being because I was a woman nor have I ever let anyone make me feel that way. Ladies, quit letting politicians and other mouth pieces, liberal or conservative make you feel less than what you are.

The “War on Women” is what you make it. I say don’t make it anything. Go out in the world and be bold, go be a CEO of a company, which will show any actual women haters out there, what we are really capable of.

Some other’s opinions:

• Liberals don’t own Women’s Rights
• Bill Maher: Obama’s Million Dollar Man

A Legacy of AgVocacy

I wrote this post a little less than a year ago.  Today, Feb. 19th, 2013, my great grandma passed away.  What a great life she had. 

Forty-three years ago, in 1969, a group of unstoppable women formed Oregon Women for Agriculture (OWA), one of them being my Great-Grandma Charity. As she describes it, she received a phone call from Mary Holzapfel saying women were coming to her house to discuss what they could do to fight & educate the people who wished to end field burning. A practice that is vital to producing quality grass seed. The women realized they had to do it because the men were to busy in the fields that time of year to do much.

As they organized no one was stepping up to be president so my great-grandma did. My great-grandma Charity is one of the best women I know. She is 96 years old and still remembers, in detail, going over the Santiam Pass in a wagon in the early 1920′s at seven years old so her dad could farm the land we still farm. One of the original rocking rural women!

On Saturday, my grandparents drove my Great Grandma nearly two hours to come see me installed as president of Oregon Women for Agriculture. I was so excited to see her there, so were her friends and so was she! Women of all ages still actively participate in OWA.

During my installation my mom surprised me and caught me off guard. She presented me with my Great-grandma Charity’s past president pin. I shed some tears, not an easy thing for me to do.

Past & Present

Great-grandma Charity & me!

I believe I have the same passion that group of women shared back in 1969 when founding Oregon Women for Agriculture: we need communicate our story of today’s agriculture so that we can protect our livelihood!

Diversely Unified “AgVocates”

I just returned from the American AgriWomen (AAW) Mid-Year meeting in Phoenix, AZ.  We spent two full days listening to speakers and developing our policy positions to take them back to Washington D.C. for our annual Fly-In.  This was my first Mid-Year meeting but not my first AAW event.  Every time I am with these amazing ladies I am inspired keep on advocating for agriculture.  Being surrounded with people of like mind and the same goals re-affirms the actions I’m taking to “AgVocate.”  

However, probably what I enjoy the most at AAW events is the diversity of agriculture that is brought together.  I’ll be honest, I know very little about corn and soybeans but what I do know about is seed crops.  That’s probably why I am AAW’s seed crops chair.  So gathering with these ladies makes for a great exchange of knowledge and issues facing agriculture in the different regions of the country.  We can learn and develop ideas together!

Women in Timber (WIT), an affiliate of AAW, had a large presence at the meeting.  WIT is an organization that serves a similar purpose and mission as AAW so it only makes sense that we team together and for the first time WIT and AAW will be in DC together for Fly-In.  For multiple reasons I am personally so excited to see WIT and AAW working together.

1) I love the timber industry.  I have spent some time working with people in forestry.  From my experience they are well-rounded when it comes to the impact of natural resource policy and legislation.  They are aware that just because a piece of legislation or policy doesn’t specify their product or industry that can easily change and be detrimental to ALL natural resources.  A perfect example of this was during the 2009 Oregon Legislative session and field burning hearings were going on.  While the purpose of the bill was to eliminate grass field burning and only specified certain counties, the timber industry testified on the farmers behalf. Knowing all well that they could extend the reach of the bill and easily slip something in that could pertain to slash burning.

2) We can learn from the timber industry.   It’s my opinion that we, that natural resource community, got behind the environmental movement because we didn’t feel the need to tell our story.  Foresters, farmers and ranchers felt the food on their table, the clothes on their back and the roof over their head told our story for us.  This lesson can easily be seen from the economic devastation that the spotted owl did to the timber industry.  I’m not saying they didn’t work to fight the “green agenda” when the spotted owl issue arose but at that point the “Green” PR campaign was far ahead.  However, we are aware of this now and any time we forget why we’re “AgVocating” it’s easy to look back and see where not telling our story got us.

3) It is VITAL we stick together.  I know we all have our separate challenges in our relative industries, but if we are not unified we are more likely to be “picked” off one by one.  Our end goal is the same, to keep our natural resource industries vital and relevant in the United States.  They are our livelihoods and the green agenda is set out to destroy that.

I am already looking forward to the next time I can get together with the women of WIT and AAW.  I know we will be able to accomplish amazing things together, as we already do great things!

Women in “Big Ag”

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has produced an “analysis” today stating that out of the top 5 commodity groups (US Rice Producers, American Soybean Assoc, National Cotton Council, National Assoc of Wheat Growers, and National Corn Growers Assoc.) and the 228 board members that only 3 of them are women.  That is disappointing.

However, today a couple of articles that reported these findings were severely misleading as they took the analysis to mean that women really have nothing to do with “Big Ag” (a term I hate) and their PR campaigns using women are just ploy to fool consumers.

One article in particular caught my attention because of the opening line “Big Ag is big business — and big profits” and continued on with negative verbage slamming successful conventional farms and commodities.  The article “Male Dominated Big Ag woos women with paternalistic marketing blitz” by Sheila Karpf made several erroneous accusations at conventional agriculture.  A sector of agriculture I love.

1) “Big Ag is big business — and big profits”   So what? First of all what’s “big ag”?  It’s a successful family farm that has grown through good production, marketing and financial management, and agriculture is agriculture no matter what size the farm is. Also, I wish someone would tell me what is wrong making a profit because I have yet to figure that out!

2)Big Ag is using women in campaigns to “polish their tarnished reputation”  There is no “tarnished reputation” there is an image of agriculture that has been misrepresented since Rachel Carson.  People in the natural resource industry fell behind in marketing because of the obvious, why should farmers market when they are producing the food on your table.  However we now have come to realize that people are disconnected from their food and have “hunger” to learn about it.  That’s what organizations like the EWG don’t like.  Today, farmers and ranchers are spreading the word that food is produced safer than ever before whether it’s conventional or organic.  Farmers and ranchers are telling their story of how they care for their land and animals because it’s their business and their livelihood.  If they don’t care for their farms and livestock they’re out of a job.  Science is being used to point out that the chemicals used on crops are not poisoning the population.  Farmers are demonstrating how using science in farm operations has reduced environmental impact while becoming more efficient in production. We are correcting the misconceptions and lies that have been spread over the last 40 years.

3)”since we’re keeping score, the leaders of all three national organic food and agriculture organizations are women…”  Here tally these:  50% of the farmland owned in the US is owned by women.  Five women are currently serving as their State’s Department of Agriculture directors. That includes Oregon, Idaho and California. There are farm and ranch organizations dedicated to the advancement of women in agriculture such as American Agri-Women or American National Cattlewomen. Ms. Karpf was clearly not looking very hard for women involved in “Big Ag.”

It is a shame that more farm and ranch women are not in “titled” leadership roles in agriculture.  However, their voice and leadership is heard and seen in day-to-day farm operations and board rooms.  In my own family farm decisions are not made without my mom’s approval. That’s the way it’s been for four generations.