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Show Women Take to Arms In this day of organized and widespread wide-spread crime the problem of protecting the home from the burglar and the thug has become one of outstanding magnitude. Almost daily the world is horrified and startled by the activities activi-ties of homicidal maniacs and degenerates, degen-erates, who butcher women and children. chil-dren. The newspapers also carry countless reports of less dramatic but equally menacing happenings; sneak thieves terrorizing women and robbing them, burglars gaining admittance to unprotected homes during the day, when the men of the family are not present. To meet this need for home protection pro-tection an ever-increasing number of women are learning to handle and operate small arms. Portland, Oregon, has a Women's Revolver Club made up of mothers and wives who have gained an expertness in marksmanship marksman-ship that is posessed by few men. Mrs. Edna Christofferson, head of this club and an internationally known revolver shot and winner of many important im-portant trophies, has made the pertinent pert-inent statement that "A pistol, and a knowledge of its operation, is the best possible means of home protection for a woman." To a criminal, a woman, with the natural frailties attributed to the sex, is the perfect victim. He runs no danger of meeting opposition by force as he does when holding up men, with the result that his crime is almost always al-ways successful. It would obviously work a great change if more women were familiar with guns and knew how to use them; if the criminal knew that he was in danger of being confronted con-fronted by a weapon held by a steady und practiced feminine hand. As yet, the number of women wbo have learned shooting is relatively small. But there is a pronounced i-icrca.se yearly, and a growing under-c'anding under-c'anding of the need it fills. Mrs. Christofferson, with her fine record, ha1 set an examnle that more and more women are emulating. |