The purpose of the organization is to correct the public misperceptions about firearms and the shooting sports by indicating the involvement that women have in the recreational firearms community. We would hope that this would also encourage more women to become involved.
The Association of Women Shooters of Canada also welcomes the membership of men who support these goals.
The Association formed almost spontaneously. After a few minutes of whispering, the four founding members left the meeting room to "caucus" (as we now say) outside. This stirred up some curiosity among the others at the conference. When we returned a few minutes later and announced the formation of the association, it was greeted with enthusiastic applause. Within about fifteen minutes after the group had been formed, we had members from nine provinces and one territory. (There was no representative from Newfoundland or the Northwest Territories or I'm sure we would have had them, too.)
New members are, of course, welcome. The more members we have, the more impact we are likely to have in our political activity. Interested women and men can fill out the application form and send it in with the membership fee of $10 to the address on the form.
As anyone who has been on a shooting range knows, there are ladies there. It's about time the general public knew this too so that politicians won't be able to try to make gun control a gender related issue.
Judith Ross, Ph.D.