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In simple self-defense, law enforcers are also turning to heavier and more sophisticated artillery, ratcheting up the arms race another notch. "The police are definitely outgunned in this country," asserts Dewey Stokes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police. A cop armed with the six- shot .38-cal. service revolver that has been standard for decades has little chance in a shootout with a criminal wielding, say, a converted Colt ; AR-15 capable of firing 900 rounds a minute; if not hit in the first fusillade, the policeman is likely to be shot while reloading. Out of that fear, police departments across the country are discarding the old .38 for semiautomatic weapons, and the DEA started a year ago to rearm its agents with the Colt SMG, a submachine gun designed by Colt Industries specifically for the agency. It is small enough to fit under a coat, yet packs quite a wallop.
The final and most dismaying turn in this cycle: responsible, law-abiding citizens -- afflicted by a lack of confidence in the police, reading every morning and watching on TV every night the stories about shootouts endangering innocent bystanders -- start arming themselves in case they have to join the battle. It used to be that the great majority of American gun owners bought their weapons for hunting or sport (target shooting, for instance). But recent surveys show nearly 50% mentioning self-protection as their primary reason. Says Mark Warr, a sociologist at the University of Texas: "It's a giving up on the system. People have lost confidence in the ability of local government to control crime. There is a growing feeling that 'We must do it ourselves.' "
Strikingly, it is often Jane rather than John Q. Public who is the first- time gun buyer these days. Guns have long been viewed as a symbol of male sexual power and arrogance, an attitude captured by the Beatles' song Happiness Is a Warm Gun. Yet surveys by Gallup for Smith & Wesson, the gunmaker, show that the number of women purchasing firearms increased 53% between 1983 and 1986, while the number thinking of buying one quadrupled, to nearly 2 million. Many of those plans have undoubtedly turned into purchases, though no updated figures are available.
The reason is that women feel especially vulnerable to violent crime -- often with good reason. Carol Kolen, a Chicago psychologist, was attacked several years ago at the University of Illinois Medical Center by two men, one carrying a gun, she fought off a rape but was severely beaten. Then, on a Saturday morning last year, she was attacked again as she approached her car parked outside a neighborhood church. "After that I said, 'That's it, no more.' I made the decision then and there that my protection was in my own hands." Kolen bought a gun and is going to indoor shooting ranges to practice because she realizes that "guns are dangerous. You need to become comfortable with a gun to use it in the right situation."