Up & Coming Weekly

STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Janice Burton Joy Kirkpatrick editor@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITER Stephanie Crider stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Marybeth Lieby Marybeth@upandcomingweekly.com Steve Rogers Steve@upandcomingweekly.com OFFICE MANAGER Suzy Patterson suzy@upandcomingweekly.com –––––––––––––– GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alicia Miller art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Soni Martin, D.G. Mar tin, Pitt Dick ey, Margaret Dickson, Bob Cogswell, John Hood, Shanessa Fenner, Erinn Crider, Karen Poppele, Renee Gibbs, Heather Griffi ths –––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan Street P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: (910) 484-6200 FAX: (910) 484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a “Quality of Life” publication with local features, news and infor- mation on what’s happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per per- son. Subscriptions can be purchased for $30 for six months or $60 for 12 months, delivered weekly by first class mail. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. INSIDE PUBLISHER’S PEN by JANICE BURTON I have never been what anyone would call a “gun nut,” although I know quite a few people who are. It’s not that I think guns are a bad thing, it’s just that I don’t know how to use them. My only experience with a fi rearm was shooting a high school boyfriend’s shotgun, which put me on the ground and left me bruised. It wasn’t something I wanted to repeat. Shortly after I married some 11 years ago, my husband, who is a soldier and a hunter, wanted to buy a handgun. I was not in favor of the idea. We argued. He pleaded the case that since he deployed, I would need to have one to protect myself. My answer, always given rather laughingly was, “Yeah, somebody will break in, I’ll have the gun, not know what to do with it, and they’ll kill me with it.” It’s not a joke. Too many times, that is the case when people who have fi rearms pull them in self-defense. And that’s why I didn’t want a gun in my house. My husband offered to teach me to shoot. But I still remember him teaching me how to play spades, how to fi sh .... and the list goes on. As my recent interviews with fi rearms experts revealed, having a spouse teach you how to shoot is a very bad idea. Both of the gentlemen I interviewed told me that, more times than not, when that happened, the woman shot once or twice, put the gun down and never picked it up again. Our spouses expect us to know what they know, and to pick it up the way they did. That’s not going to happen. So, to keep my happily ever after happy, I declined my husband’s numerous offers, and picked up my own kind of protection — baseball bats, arrows — the usual kinds of things women have laying beside their bed. Later my excuse for not having a handgun in the house was the Littlest Burton. My husband pointed out that we did have guns in our house, big ones. But those are for hunting and are kept secured in a locked safe. My argument went something like this: “If someone breaks in the house, and I have to run to the gun safe and unlock it to get the gun out, they will already have killed me.” He would roll his eyes, shake his head and drop the subject. At the heart of the gun issue for me, was the idea that I was more afraid that I would shoot myself or someone I love with it because I didn’t know how to use it. In short, I was afraid of it. So my arsenal of weapons grew: more baseball bats, knives (really big ones) strategically placed throughout my home, hairspray and other sprayable liquids. In fact, my arsenal even made it to my car where there Fayetteville’s Weather Forecast August 13 Fayetteville’s Weather Forecast Friday Thursday August 12 Saturday August 14 Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. High 99° Low 79° Partly Cloudy High 100° Low 76° Isolated Thunderstorm 4 UCW AUGUST 11-17, 2010 High 93° Low 74° Isolated Thunderstorms High 95° Low 75° Isolated Thunderstorms High 92º Low 75º Mostly Sunny High 94º Low 73 Sunny WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM are a number of knives — all of which I know how to use and can get to quick. I felt safe. Fast forward to the past few months — a serial rapist, peeping Toms trying to drag women out of their homes, home invasions — all of these things have taken front and center in the headlines of our daily paper and the television news. As a military spouse, I am called on to keep things going at home, and despite my desire to bury my head in the sand, and my longing for chivalry, that also means it is my duty to protect hearth and home. It is my duty to protect my child. So, with all of that running through my head, a news story about the number of women who were purchasing guns and getting concealed carry licenses across the nation caught my attention. Those women refuse to be victims. I started talking about writing the article earlier this year, and it fi nally all jelled this past week. Since I wrote the article, and published some photos from the range on my Facebook page, I’ve had a lot of interesting feedback from friends and strangers. Many of my liberal Facebook friends (read, college friends) have hammered me with a litany of “Why’s?” and statistics about guns. Others have been complimentary and have applauded me for taking what for me was a giant step. My husband, whom I thought would be turning cartwheels, was shocked and tried to talk me out of the idea. I think he thought the actual shooting would freak me out. He was surprised to fi nd out I am actually a fairly decent shot. (Yes, I shot a bullseye and kept my shot grouping within the center mass of the target.) In the end, it’s not what the naysayers or those who agree with the idea say. Owning a gun is a personal decision. It’s one that every person has to make for themselves. I can cite statistics and tell heartbreaking stories about innocent family members being shot, and I’m sure I can fi nd stories where families were saved from death because they had a gun. That’s not for me to decide. What I do know is this: If you decide to have a gun, you must know how to use it. You must be trained, and you must secure it so that your child or your neighbor’s child cannot lay hands on it and hurt themselves or their friends. Do what you think is right. That’s what I’m going to do. Internet Directory ............................ 14 Calendar ........................................... 12 Concert Connection ........................ 19 TV ..................................................... 18 Movie Review ..................................18 Free Wheelin’ Feelin’ ....................... 19 News of the Weird ........................... 20 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 20 Classifieds ........................................ 22 Games .............................................. 21 Why the Sudden Interest In Guns? JANICE BURTON, Associate Publisher. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Call 910.354.1679 Call 910.354.1679 Sunday August 15 Monday August 16 Tuesday August 17 24 24 / 7

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