About 200 people turned out for Guns Save Life’s Ladies Night meeting in Champaign with well over a third of those in attendance women, and a couple of score of newcomers. It was grassroots activism at its finest.
Our guest speaker lineup was incredible.
Annette Chapman is a firearms instructor, having gotten the bug to learn guns while her husband was away for weekends with the National Guard a number of years ago. She has since become certified and today runs a training company (Pistol Prep Academy) and has about a dozen (male) firearms instructors working with her.
She hit on a number of points, including urging both women and men to get that carry license and to carry everyday, citing the fact you never know when you’re going to find yourself singled out for victimization.
Marilyn Smolenski: CEO of Nickel and Lace – it’s not your daddy’s holster. She talked about the challenges of becoming an entrepreneur, and at the same time the overwhelming support she has received from folks far and wide.
She also mentioned the only major exception to that being the Chicago media. In once instance, a Chicago special snowflake reporter accused her of making holsters so the young girls on Chicago’s south side could pack their blasters in their panties. Because we all know the gang bangers in Englewood are going to spend $77 for what is in essence is something that looks like Spanx with holsters built in, right?
Rachel Thomas: She’s with the new Sangamon-Christian County chapter of “The Well-Armed Woman” to talk about that new group and the education and opportunities it offers for women. She had contacted GSL in the weeks before her first organizational meeting for her new chapter and asked for some publicity to get the word out about the meeting. We put it up on our website and in GunNews and helped her make that first meeting the biggest organizational meeting in “The Well-Armed Woman”‘s history. Rachel expected maybe twenty ladies. She got sixty-three.
President Eric St. Pierre noted that our long-awaited foray into Chicago would happen in less than three weeks. The Oak Lawn VFW will host our event on Saturday, May 30th. We picked a Saturday for our first meeting to facilitate the ease of people coming from across the city without the weekday rush-hour traffic to deal with. This organizational meeting will then lead to other meetings in the Chicagoland area as we already have leaders identified for other regions on the city.
Of course, we covered legislative news. In short, contact your state Senator, especially if they are a Democrat and encourage them to ask Senate President John Cullerton to allow pro-gun and pro-hunting bills to be heard in committee before the end of the month and allow a free and fair vote on the senate floor… Call Cullerton’s office as well and ask him to do the same.
We discussed current events too, including how a good guy with a gun can stop a terrorist attack in its tracks – as evidenced by the ISIS attack near Dallas where two body armor clad “trained soldiers” / bad guys with rifles were taken down by a single beat cop with his Glock. “Be aware of your surroundings and carry your gun!” GSL Executive Director John Boch told the audience. We also discussed how millions of Americans had their misplaced confidence that the police will be there for them in an emergency further eroded by the images coming out of Baltimore. “These people are going to buy guns and ammo to protect themselves and their family as they are coming to realize the police might not be there for them,” Boch said. “That means hopefully more educated voters when it comes to guns! And that’s good news!”
Dean Rothermel, a long-time member, talked emotionally about a fundraiser being conducted to help with the expenses of his fight against recently diagnosed cancer and the outpouring of support he’s gotten from his fellow members of the organization – and Guns Save Life in general.
He also shared his story of how he became involved in Guns Save Life. He was challenged by a man he deeply respected many years ago to find a gun rights group and become involved. He found that at his first meeting of Guns Save Life. These weren’t rednecks, but intelligent, deeply passionate people working to make our state and our country a better place. “These were true patriots,” Dean said. He talked of some great friendships he has made in his time with Guns Save Life.
Dean also recounted some of the remarkable speakers we’ve hosted over the years, including that first meeting he attended where a WWII soldier who became a POW of the Germans, and then the Russians during World War II told his story. At his second meeting, he noted that John Boch asked a judge running for office about his time serving in the Viet Nam war. The judge mentioned he was an interpreter and the plucky John Boch asked him if he’d gone on any helicopter rides while interrogating prisoners. The judge went from dry legal talk to explain that yes, he had gone on some rides and in great detail how effective they were at gaining good intelligence information. Of course, he was just there to translate. (That candidate was elected and continues to serve to this day.)
He urged everyone to join Guns Save Life and to become involved as he had done and they too would make great friends and make the world a better place.
As he finished, another member in the back donated yet another gun – a .30-30 lever action collectible – for Dean to put into a future drawing to help pay for medical expenses not covered by insurance.
There were a couple of other speakers on charitable causes, including a Masonic hall’s gun-drawing fundraiser to help them replace their roof and promotion of a golf outing to help wounded warriors through the HOOAH Deer Hunt for Heroes program.
We ended the night (albeit running a little late, but when you’ve got great speakers sometimes it happens) with something special for all of the kids in attendance (the water guns were popular), a special set of door prizes for the ladies and lastly, the drawing for a very nice Ruger LCR revolver modified to take moonclips for faster reloads, provided by the TK Custom Store in Thomasboro, IL.
Real good meeting, let’s have more “ladie’s nights”, they add to the “asthetics” of the room and it is good to see more ladies joining the shooting sports and empowering themselves against possible harm or attack. Most ladies seem to take their training seriously and that is good for us all. Excellant speakers!
Thank you to all the ladies that spoke. Most traveled more than an hour or two to get to the meeting. Hoping that maybe some of the “wives” that came this week will still come next week. The more the merrier!
Whooo Hoooo!