THESE WOMEN PACK HEAT:

Anyone thinking that Betty Lacy can’t take care of herself better think twice because the 81-year-old widow from Meridian is packing heat.

“I have a permit to carry my .38 and I know how to use it,” says Lacy.

Lacy is one of three remaining charter members of the Lauderdale Association of Women Shooters, LAWS, that just recently celebrated its 30th birthday. She says the organization, formed with the help and instruction of Meridian Police Department officers in August 1981, is still going strong with about 35 members.

An armed society is a polite society.