ATF, Chicago Columnist Whine About Alpha Girls Firearms Fashion Show

Karen Bartuch is a former Chicago law enforcement officer (police work runs in the family, her brother is a cop too) who has worked everything from patrol, gang and tactical teams, undercover, surveillance, intelligence and counter-terrorism to serving as a policy advisor to the superintendent of police. She's also the founder and CEO of Alpha Girls LLC and the Women's Tactical Association, a self-defense training company specifically focused on teaching women the skills they need to defend themselves.

AlphaGirls, LLC is about empowering women, of all ages, through education (i.e., skills training both mental and physical, events, gear, etc.). All “bad guys” are looking for victims, not opponents and AlphaGirls ARE NEVER VICTIMS! AlphaGirls will bring out the "alpha" trait in you thereby positively impacting all aspects of your life! Join us today!

Bartuch is hosting her annual Firearms & Fashion show this weekend to raise money for the Chicago-Police Memorial Fund. Each year Bartuch teams up with the company Nickel & Lace in order to show women what their concealed carry options are while wearing a dress or curve hugging clothing.

Carol Marin is a political columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, a political editor for NBC5 News and a contributor to WTTW's Chicago Tonight. Marin is baffled by Bartuch's event and apparently doesn't understand the difference between violent Chicago thugs and women hosting a firearms and fashion show in the Windy City. Writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, Marin lumps in fashion show participants and attendees with gangsters shooting teenaged girls in the streets:

Former Chicago Police Supt. Phil Cline heads the foundation. I called him to ask if there isn’t an odd disconnect between the bloody reality of this city and a police fundraiser where guns are accessorized with spandex.
In a city that can’t shake its shooting reputation, here we have a firearms/fashion show billed as a way to “empower women.” And it comes just days after a 14-year-old girl was shot and killed by another 14-year-old girl who will never grow up to be a woman.

Hey, no worries.

There's a disconnect between "the bloody reality of this city and a police fundraiser where guns are accessorized with spandex," because there was never a connection in the first place. Law abiding women with firearms are completely unrelated and in no way connected to the "bloody reality" Marin writes about.

"It is typical of a left-wing liberal so-called journalist to misrepresent facts and stir up unnecessary fear in order to push their anti-gun agendas. The violence in Chicago is due to a people problem, not a gun problem," Bartuch told me in response to Marin's piece. "If Carol Marin would dig into the facts she would be able to report accurately and be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Our mission is to empower women and teach them self-protection skills, we are part of the solution."

Naturally, Marin also got in touch with her buddies at ATF, who gladly offered up their opinion about what firearms do and do not have a place in the hands of law abiding citizens or "urban society."

I asked current and former ATF agents Tom Ahern and Mike Casali to view a YouTube video of last year’s firearms/fashion event to help me identify the weapons on the gun company display tables that, amid the open bars and babes, dotted the room. They saw what appeared to be a .50-caliber Barrett assault rifle and a Glock semi-automatic pistol.

“We had four agents fired on in Waco, Texas, with a .50-caliber rifle like that. It blew out the engine block of their truck,” Casali said.

“There’s no place in urban society for a weapon like that,” Ahern said.

But there is in a fashion and firearms show.

And it’s legal.

Just like the handgun used to kill that 14-year-old girl once was.

Legal.