Go TCU!

It’s been five years since coach Karen Monenz took over the Texas Christian University rifle program. The program had been around a long time, but never managed to make it to the NCAA Championships until three years ago.

Taking a solid home-field advantage this year, however, the Horned Frogs shooters swept the NCAA Championships, bringing home the trophy. For Monez, who had never coached before, it was validation of a long, successful shooting career.

Heck, it’s a major victory for anyone who believes women can do more than just compete with men in many disciplines.

The TCU squad- all eight of them- are all females.

Over 35 years, Monez has been shooting in major events. She still holds two world records in air and standard rifle, and won the 1979 World Championships in women’s air rifle in Seoul, Korea. This year, however, she’s proven a point she’s made for years, there just isn’t a size or strength advantage when it comes to shooting. It is, she says, comprised of “non-gender characteristics” like dedication and self-discipline.

In taking the title, TCU bested (in order of finish) Alaska, West Virginia, Kentucky, Army, Nebraska, Murray State and Navy.

Going into the final competition, TCU trailed Alaska by six points, but strong air rifle performances turned the competition around with TCU taking a 22-point lead at the finish.

The last team to take a national title at TCU? Women’s golf in 1983.

Go frogs!

West Virginia’s closing in on one of those tax-free guns and ammo holidays. West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin is expected to sign a bill passed over the weekend by the West Virginia Senate that will set out one day in October when state sales tax on guns and ammo will be eliminated.

It seems these sorts of holidays, along with a movement among the states to declare guns made, sold and used within their borders as no longer subject to federal regulations are pretty clear declarations that the citizenry has had about all the Washington intervention it can tolerate. South Dakota has joined Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming and Montana in declaring the state’s internal firearms industry (if one emerges) as no longer covered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms regulations.

Gary Marbut of the Montana Shooting Sports Association is the unofficial “godfather” of the movement. Other states considering similar legislation are: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.

And on the international front, it seems there’s an emerging groundswell for the preservation and expansion of firearms rights wherever possible. We learned yesterday that the Second Amendment Foundation has joined The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR).

According to the SAF’s Alan Gottlieb, organizations and gun rights activists from Sweden, Norway, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy and the United States met last week in Norenberg, Germany to kick their work off.

Their official slogan: “Liberty and Security”

And it seems the movement is growing, with Switzerland, Belgium, Argentina, Finland, India, Israel, Greece, South Africa, Australia and the Philippines also looking at joining the group.

“Self-defense is a human right,” Gottlieb says, “that is not just limited to citizens of the United States thanks to our Second Amendment. We look at IAPCAR as an organization that can counter the world gun control campaign currently being waged by the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). We will provide rebuttal to IANSA’s misinformation and myths about firearms ownership, and work to expand the individual human right to defend ourselves and our families from crime, the violence that often accompanies civil unrest and the growing threat of terrorism.”

IAPCAR will have offices in Washington, DC and Vienna, Austria. Mark Barnes, a Washington attorney will serve as managing director.

As the firearms freedom movement continues to grow – we’ll keep you posted.

–Jim Shepherd
www.shootingwire.com