Vermont ladies ''Taking aim''

June 28, 2004
Bennington Banner

SHAFTSBURY -- "Most people don't think of women wanting guns, but we do," says Bennington resident Jane Moffitt.
Moffitt, who hasn't used a gun in more than 20 years, wants to protect herself now that her husband has died. She decided to attend a free National Rifle Association-funded program just for women Sunday morning called "Women on Target."

Moffitt, along with 24 other women from the area, gathered at the Hale Mountain Fish and Game Club on Rod and Gun Club Road to familiarize themselves with the safety basics of pistol shooting. The course was instructed by law enforcement officers and an NRA-certified instructor.

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The women spent the better part of the course seated in a semicircle in the club's cabin, with its stone fireplace, mounted animal heads and red-and-black-checked curtains. A variety of pistols were laid out on the table at the front of the room, all unloaded and facing away from the audience.

Although instructors were aware that the women would want to get out on the shooting range and start practicing, an assortment of important topics to cover kept cropping up, until the women were finally sent to put theory into action on the rifle range.

Lt. Paul Doucette of the Bennington Police Department took the reins for much of the instruction. Doucette, also the vice president of the Hale Mountain Fish and Game Club, has been conducting firearms instruction at the police academy "for years and years."

Although approaching the course with light-hearted humor, Doucette was a bit more serious when he explained to the women, "When you leave here today, you're not going to be sharpshooters by any stretch of the imagination."

Doucette hoped instead that the women would be more comfortable and confident than they had been previously when using a gun. He said one of the most important things he could teach Sunday was safety.

"They could be in a classroom for a solid week, that's why this is familiarization only," said Doucette during a break.

The firearms experience of the women ranged from those who were members of the club or had husbands who were members, to those who had never touched a pistol before. One woman joked that she was taking the class to learn to shoot better than her husband. Another explained that she had been hunting since she was 12 years old, and wanted to learn to use a 9 mm.

Liza Joyce of Bennington explained, "My husband hunts and I'd just like to know how."

Out on the shooting range, the women broke up into small groups at close range to 10 bullseye targets. Each group went through the firing, loading and unloading process with an instructor before ammunition was brought over. The women and instructors all wore safety goggles and earplugs while the shooting was going on.

Many of the participants seemed surprised that they would be shooting the whole round in their pistols. Doucette warned them that they would probably become worse shooters as the practice wore on due to muscle fatigue. He said someone's finger might even end up bloody before the end of the day.

Moffitt, who brought a pistol of her own to the course, practiced holding it before it was her time to shoot, trying to remember everything she had learned, including not to have a "death grip" on the gun.

"I will get a gun, when I see what's needed, what fits me," Moffitt had explained earlier.