by John Kass is an op-ed columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He has a reputation for sticking it to the powers that be in both Chicago and Illinois. His latest column is entitled Babes with Bullets and other women who believe the Constitution applies in Illinois.
After noting that Gov. Scott Walker signed concealed carry into law in Wisconsin making Illinois the only state without concealed carry, he says –
And this means that Illinois is the only state without such a law. In Illinois, our Chicago aldermen can carry guns in their purses and even in ankle holsters, and criminals obviously carry guns, since breaking the law is what they do.
But the rest of us, the chumbolone law-abiding taxpayers, can’t carry.
I’m not desperate to carry a gun, but the fact that Illinois has exempted its citizens from the Individual Rights Sweepstakes is so constitutionally depressing that there’s only one sight that could cheer me up:
A few dozen women with Smith & Wesson handguns learning how to get lethal, with the help of top female shooters and instructors in firearm safety.
Those women with Smiths were attending a training session put on by Babes with Bullets in a suburban county near Chicago. Kass attended one of their sessions and talked with a number of the trainers as well as the participants. What struck him the most was how serious they were about learning.
A few minutes later, I watched the smart-alecky Analise and her cousins out on the firing range with top instructors, serious champion instructors like Lisa Munson and T.D. Roe, of Lemont, who teaches personal protection shooting.
And there was Kay Miculek, of Louisiana, another co-founder of Babes with Bullets. From now on, when I think of a serious person, I’ll think of her.
Miculek has many national titles, and her husband, Jerry, is one of the top shots. She’s middle aged, and I liked the way she worked with the young women, calm but serious, because what they were doing was serious.
He goes on to say that you can tell that in Kay Miculek’s hand a pistol is a tool and not a symbol. It is also a serious tool, he says, and the instruction from trainers like Kay Miculek is all about safety.
Kass concludes by saying:
They were serious women, taxpaying women, law-abiding moms and sisters and daughters and friends.
And they’re the women who have the audacity to believe that the Constitution applies to them, too, even in Illinois.
Something must in the water at the Tribune because this is the second column in so many weeks that takes a pro-gun approach. First Eric Zorn and now John Kass. Good.
