I Just Carry.

Many people ask me, “do you really need to carry a gun?”.  My first thoughts are about all of those victims of mass murderers who thought they were in a safe place - Columbine, Virginia Tech, Luby’s Resturant etc...  These were all places where firearms were prohibited.  These were all places where criminals disregarded the law.  I don’t carry because I live in fear of madmen.  Or to feel some sort of power rush.  

I carry because it is legal.  Because it is legal I can practice it’s use.  Through practice I have demistified it.  It has become part of my ordinary life.  Because I carry I do not experience a power rush, but the quiet confidence that comes from knowing I have the tools and the training to protect myself.  Because I know I can cope with the worst that can happen, I am free to go about my ordinary business.  And that is why I just carry, all the time.

User Rating: / 3
PoorBest 

The following is reposted with permission from the author.  She goes by the handle "limatunes" and has many instructional videos on youtube.  I've been following her posts for quite some time now, and recomend her sight whenever possible.  You can view her many excellent tutorials here.  If your on facebook, check out her page here.  And you should be sure to visit her Range Diary.

Should a Mother Carry a Gun?

Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!

Anyone who follows my videos online knows that I am not particularly sensitive. My thick skin allows me to sluff off the negative comments and continue on my way. 

However, when a fellow concealed carrier agreed that a mother should not be carrying a gun a little fire got lit under my backside and I felt I needed to speak up. Not just for myself and my own ideals but for all mothers who have accepted the responsibility of defending their lives and the lives of their children.

The western idea of motherhood is still suffering, it seems, from a “Cleaverville” mentality that Mommy dearest stays at home cooking dinner in a frilly apron and climbs on top of chairs at the sight of a mouse, depending on her fedora-wearing husband to rescue her from all peril.

Truth be told, I with that were true. I wish I could be the frilly, lace-wearing mother who vacuums in high-heels and doesn’t think or conceive that bad things can happen to her or her children outside of a burnt bunt-cake and bad grades.

The truth, of course, is a much more ugly reality. No, there are not rapists, murders and child molesters pounding down our door but it’s a very sobering reality that wakes me up to the fact that we no longer live in a world where a woman with a child is looked on tenderly and left to herself. Often they are victimized, their children kidnapped, themselves harmed, with total disregard to the lives shattered.

I’ve watched videos of WalMart and grocery store security cameras where children are snatched right out of shopping carts or mothers from the parking lots. Women and children and victimized along with all others and sometimes to a much more devastating degree.

In an increasing violent society the increase in response cannot be expected from the police, the public or even husbands (if a man is even present in the household to begin with).

No, the increase in awareness, preparation and response can be expected only from the individual in whose care is placed the delicate life of a child: the mother.

Yet some have the audacity to say we mothers should not be armed. That we are somehow unfit to protect ourselves and our children just because we gave birth. What is it about giving birth that suddenly transmits a woman from a world of strength and equality to a place where she is looked on as fragile, timid and unfit for the role of protector?

I’ll tell you what. The day a man gives birth after twenty-four straight hours of heavy labor and and addition two hours of pushing without the aid of any medication will be the day he can give me an opinion on what kinds of things I can handle. Until then I would prefer he allow me to think for myself.

Certainly, there have been strides made in the area of accepting mothers into “a man’s world.” The areas of self-defense are no different. But based on the comments I both heard and read I feel we still have a long way to go.

I am not the only mother taking the responsibility of defense seriously. There is a wave of mothers across the country who are sick of feeling helpless and taking an active step forward in the defense of themselves and their little ones.

I am encouraged to see women, potential mothers, young and even seasoned mothers, getting training and standing up to rash violence that is encroaching on their families. Weather it be through the use of hand-to-hand defense classes, non-lethal tools like tasers and pepper sprays, or firearms, I am seeing a trend that is defiantly standing up to violence.

We have all heard the analogy of the mother bear who will stop at nothing to defend her cub. So many times we have seen that same instinct in human mothers who stand against impressive odds in defense of their babies. Yet, I’ve seen a social shying away from the idea that they can be armed, clear-headed, concise, exhibiting clear and calculated judgment in a confrontational situation.

It isn’t stopping them, however, from getting training or purchasing guns, emailing me asking for holster advice or to say “thank you” for standing up for something they’ve secretly been doing for years.

I would beg the skeptics to open their eyes and see a world where children and mothers need protection like never before. One in eight girls will be molested before they are eighteen and the same will happen to one in six boys. Next time you go to the post office or to WalMart I want you to look at the Missing Children board and try to picture your child’s face, name, and description on one of those pages. Now ask yourself if you’d rather have a trained woman guarding your child or a woman who has been discouraged by your skepticism, doubt and misgivings?

I would ask you to look beyond the diaper bags, cuddling, teddy bears and blankets and see strong women determined to give all for the little ones they love. Encourage mothers to train and prepare for an emergency we all hope never occurs. Teach them to embrace that mother-bear instinct rather than repress it. Don’t think of us as liabilities but as allies and bodyguards for your future, for your children.

To mothers who are actively exercising your rights and your wishes to defend yourself and your children: I encourage you to continue to stand up for yourself and that which you hold most dear.

Train. Prepare. And carry on.

User Rating: / 1
PoorBest 

The other day I came home exhausted.  Before I could collapse in my bed, there was one more task.  Climb the stairs to my bedroom.  About midway through my struggle to the top, heart pounding and lungs screaming for air, I realized that I was no longer young.  I was no longer the swimmer with six-pack abs.  I ran down the standard list of "I need to's" (I need to workout, eat better, move into a single story house) etc....

Finally, having reached my room I began to kick off my shoes, empty my pockets and prepare to collapse into bed.  I reached for my concealed Glock 21 to put away for a nap.  That's when it hit me.  "I was my target audience".  I got into this business to make firearm training more accessible to the uninitiated and under-served.  And perhaps the most important message to my audience was that a firearm levels the playing field.  Firearms gave women an incredible advantage over otherwise physically dominant attackers.  The elderly were no longer an easy mark for would-be muggers.  "The gun is the great equalizer... For it is the gun, that allows the meek to repel the monsters; Whom are bigger, stronger and without conscience, will prey on those of us who without one, would surely perish."

Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!

I was reminded of the jewelry store owner here in Phoenix that not only stopped two much younger attackers, but held them at bay until police could arrive and arrest them.  I tracked down the surveillance footage and posted it here.  It's hard not to watch and chuckle at the predicament these two thugs found themselves in.  It's even harder not to feel a sense of pride in the efforts of a senior successfully protecting himself, and his property.

What is it about guns that makes us so uneasy about owning one, using one etc.... There are those who would tell me to watch my language here but I have to be truthful. The fear of guns, I believe stems from chiefly their intended purpose - to kill. Hollywood seems to have no problem glorifying this aspect either. The news spotlights criminal shootings whenever it can.

In spite of this, society still seems to value the presence of guns. We are reassured to see police officers in full tactical gear and a firearm strapped to their hip ready for action. Even so, there is still some taboo associated with guns. I know someone who won’t even touch a gun because of the emotions it evokes. The fear that she might pick it up and it go off in her hand is debilitating. But she has no problem getting behind the wheel of a car check her Facebook all the way down the freeway. She has no fear that by leaning on the car a certain way it might start up and run someone over. But the mere presence of a gun causes great anxiety.

I see this in the classes I teach. What’s more I see what happens when pragmatism replaces fear. When my students learn about firearms and how they are manufactured. I see them realize that a gun is a machine, that does not work unless a finger is on the trigger. I see them go through the basic rules of safety that govern how they handle firearms. I see the light go on when they learn about appropriate levels of force, and the laws surrounding legal use of a firearm. I see them transform from someone who is anxious and troubled into someone empowered and motivated to learn more. I see people turned on to the fact that they can be safe, and confident, and proficient, and vigilant about their own well-being in a way they never thought possible. It is the inner exhilaration of understanding a new truth. I have a right and an expectation to live in safety, and now I have the means to do it.