NSSF Photo

At the Strong Arms Gun Club in Virginia recently, WTKR news was on hand as approximately 20 women gathered to learn firearm handling and safety from Joel Jones, a local firearms instructor. Amidst rising concerns about public safety, these women, ranging in profession from real estate agents to mothers, are part of a growing demographic turning to firearms for protection.

Even as mainstream media tries to play to the negatives of shooting, when it comes to female empowerment and safety, it’s hard to put a negative spin on learning how to safely shoot a gun. And to the paper’s credit, they looked at the movement from a positive view.

“Especially with things going on like shootings in stores. You can be grocery shopping and anything can happen, so I just want to be safe and protect my children as well,” explained Raleesha Hinton, a Virginia Beach resident.

Pamela Maldonado, also from Virginia Beach and a real estate agent, shared her reasons, noting the risks of meeting clients alone and traveling at night. Adrienne Thoroughgood emphasized the importance of understanding the laws and being properly trained in firearm use.

The trend of women gun owners is on the rise, with Pew researchers noting an increase from 13 percent in 2013 to 22 percent of gun owners now being women. The primary reason cited is personal protection.

During the session, Jones emphasized the importance of not only safe handling and proper storage of firearms but also education on the use of firearms for self-defense.

“I think it’s important for anybody that’s going to be dealing with a firearm to know exactly what they’re dealing with and how to keep themselves safe and others safe,” Bria Pollock, another participant, told WTKR.

Jones also stressed the importance of educating children on firearm safety, advising that guns should not only be securely locked away but that families should have discussions about safety fundamentals. Firearms, are, after all, not something to be feared, but something to understand, especially when it comes to safety.

By the end of the class, many participants told the news channel they felt more confident in their ability to handle firearms safely.

This class is part of a broader movement within the community and nationwide encouraging responsible gun ownership and education as a means to enhance personal safety, the news channel reported.

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77 COMMENTS

  1. Women learning to shoot?

    Maybe, unless you’re a republican governor.

    So many folks on this list vilify the ATF and other LEO for shooting dogs out of hand, and I agree with that sentiment.

    So in the interest of Fairplay, I await the general condemnation of Kristi Noem for her reckless and despicable act of animal cruelty.

      • Kristi Noemi apparently shot her dog 20 years ago. That makes her a distasteful psycho I don’t want to have anything to with in my opinion.

        What this has to do with women learning to shoot and the medias treatment if the event I don’t know. Just more of Miners masturbation I guess. He probably got himself all worked up over at Reddit reading about it and just had to share with his friends here.

        • You left out the part where the dog bit her. If I owned a dog that bit me, guess what happens next.

          • “If I owned a dog that bit me, guess what happens next“

            No attempt at retraining, no attempt to rehome the dog through your local animal shelter or Humane Society?

            Kristi Noem intentionally chose a high strung hunting breed with a strong prey response, and apparently made no attempt at training.

            Regarding the chicken killer story, in the situation Kristi Noem failed to have her hunting dog on the leash around the chickens, hunting dogs chase birds, it’s their normal prey response.

            She shot her dog for being a dog.

            Governor Noem apparently was too lazy to properly take care of her dog or provide training if needed, she admitted she “hated” the dog and shot it.

            Of course you will defend her to the very end, y’all belong in the same cult so you are willing to hold an immoral position in order to remain a member of the group.

            And yes, it’s a story about a nationally prominent woman employing a firearm irresponsibly.

            • No it’s not, but you broached a couple things that you seem to have strong opinions on. How many bird dogs have you owned and trained? Let’s make it easier; how many bird dogs have you hunted over? I ask as I sit by the mill pond on the farm. You know, the farm I’ve hunting dove and quail on since 1989. Some dogs just cannot be trained. Oh, I don’t think ‘yall is part of the vernacular in the upper Midwest. You generally have to be south of the Mason Dixie Line to hear that in casual conversations. You know, down here among the Florida Crackers, Deep South Rednecks, Cajuns, Appalachian Hillbillies, etc. Before you say it, education has nothing to do with it. I know a married couple that are friends of mine that met at Duke. Married after graduation. He’s from NC. She’s from MO. They both say ‘yall. Besides, ‘yall sounds so much friendlier than “yous guys”, don’t you agree?

              • “You generally have to be south of the Mason Dixie Line to hear that in casual conversations. You know, down here among the Florida Crackers“

                We’ve covered this ground before.

                Paternal-Dade Co dairy farm on the Tamiami Canal 40 yrs before City Airport.

                Maternal-Western Va Appalachians

                We currently have four dogs now, all self-rescues who show up out here in the woolly woods. Flatlanders drop their ‘unruly’ ‘dangerous’ ‘’feral’ Fidos out here rather than rehome them.
                They figure if they’ve driven a dirt road for an hour and not seen a house it must be wilderness and the dog won’t find their way home. If a dog shows up with an attitude problem, the pack momentum will generally straighten out in just a couple days. They settle right down once they learn their position in the canine chain of command. Dogs usually only act out if there’s some confusion about just who is in charge.
                Sometimes more expensive breeds show up, I’ve had a 16 pound Pomeranian for eight years now, coyotes and bobcats don’t get her, I think the bulldog is using her like alligator bait. Should’ve named her Amos Moses.
                And I have yet to understand how an azawakh showed up in hillbilly land, but she’s a great squirrel dog, fast.
                Yep, run bird dogs, bear dogs, foxhounds, coonhounds back in hunting days. Don’t hunt much now, no more killing, bedroom getting crowded.
                Neighbor has a 995 acre fox lot for gentleman hunters from the city.
                They pay good money to ride four wheelers, drink the shine and listen to their dogs bark.

        • Kristi Noemi shooting a dog is nothing compared to Pedo-Joe-telling-atf-to-esstentially-murder-innocent-people, Crack-Head-human-trafficker-Hunter, and Malpractice-for-profit-Jill.

    • fyi
      The goal the Left has always been to make it easier to rape and murder, women and their children.

      That’s why they want them disarmed.

    • I followed that story a bit. From what I understand the dog was a problem animal. It had already bit Noem and killed a neighbor’s chickens. It was not responding to training. Just like people, some dogs are just bad. The talking heads are saying she should have given it to a friend. That’s everyone wants, a friend that will foist their problems on them. Shelter? She would have given her problem dog to a stranger. Vet to be put down? Sure, pay someone else to do your dirty work. Miner, I don’t know where you grew up, but problems on a farm are usually taken care of on the farm. However, the article was about women learning firearms safety. You called Noem reckless. Sounds like she took care of a dangerous animal without harm to anyone, livestock, or buildings and farm equipment. When I was in the army we called that accomplishing the objective.

    • I condemn Noem’s action. She could have put the dog up for adoption.

      But that doesn’t mean you’re not a d*bag.

      • Once a dog bites a person it should be put down, even if the person provoked the dog. The dog learns biting is ok, and seldom forgets.

        You definitely don’t want to pass the badly behaved dog to someone else.

      • The Leftist excludes considerations of property rights from his rhetoric, pretending that Noem shooting *her* dog is the same as .gov shooting *your* dog. Shocker.

        That said, writing a book about it makes me question her judgement.

    • Miner, I’ve seen this story. Under the circumstances Noem described in her book, I fail to see what she did wrong. It was regrettable, but I can understand what and why she did what she did. The talking heads read excerpts from her book this morning. They were ringing their hands and wondering why she didn’t give the dog to a friend. Except, she said the dog had already bitten her and killed her neighbors chickens and was untrainable. Now, that’s what everyone wants. A friend that foists their problems on them. Shelter? Sure, let the dog bite a stranger’s child. Ever seen the Green Mile? The conversation between Tom Hanks and Gary Sinease on the porch? That was a movie, but I’ve seen it more than once when children were mauled. Vet? Yeah, pay someone else to do your dirty work. Besides, the article was about women learning to safely handle firearms. Sounds like that’s what Noem did. The animal was dispatched with no harm to humans, livestock or buildings and farm equipment. Miner, I don’t know if you ever spent any time on a farm, but most problems on the farm are usually solved on the farm. Remember, just like bad people, some dogs are just bad. That’s the reason they sell the signs.

      • There are just so many fallacies and incomplete claims, I don’t know where to begin.

        “Remember, just like bad people, some dogs are just bad“

        Nope. Bad dogs aren’t born, they are created by neglect and mistreatment.

        But enough about the dog, I’d be interested in hearing your defense of the governor for shooting a goat for being unruly and smelling bad.

        Sometimes I find the conservatives’ ‘pro-life’ stance just so fascinating.

        • The reverse is also true, herr goebbles/miner. You bemoan the loss of a dog but insist on supporting sangers plan to handle the ‘black problem’.

          It’s only children, after all.

        • Bad dogs aren’t born? Are you really that naive? I’ve owned many K-9s. All were good, friendly dogs. Except Blue. He was a very good dog. The problem was he wanted to eat everyone but me. Raised exactly the same way as all the others. You were fine as long as I was around. Come back and hour later without me. Your next stop is going to be the Doc in a Box for stitches. Seen similar all my life, but maybe you live where all the dogs are named Pluto.

          • “Nope. Bad dogs aren’t born, they are created by neglect and mistreatment.”

            Holy crap, no way the Leftisi believes that – he’s trolling us…

            But anyhow, from what I read, Herr Biden had a dog (or dogs) that bit people, including Secret Service personnel… Guess said dog or dogs were mistreated and abused?

            My mom graduated high school in ’29 or ’30. As a true blue 1920s lib, she donated to the ACLU most of her adult life. Bless her heart, she finally cooled down some when she learned how much money was being spent just to keep Ted Bundy alive. Even she understood that rehabilitation is sometimes inappropriate.

            People put animals down everyday, often for totally frivolous reasons. Why castigate Noem but give them a pass? That said, including it in her memoirs seems like a real bad idea.

            • XZX, that was a good point about the doddering fool’s dog. Wish I had remembered that.

            • Those poor dogs were obviously confused and anxious after being around the senile puppet for any amount of time. They were also tired of sopping wet, fresh out of the shower Joe chasing them around the White House, trying to yank their tails (his words – yes, really). The shocking part is that they didn’t bite more people. I bet they did actually, and we didn’t hear about all of it.

              • My bet would be TRUE.

                The Leftist would red flag Noem’s dog as “untrainable” and confiscate its teeth with the same enthusiasm it convicts Noem of “animal abuse” – if the dog belonged to (at minimum) a fellow traveler – but a commie prez can do anything it wants, and so can its dog.

        • minor49iq…Do you know what feral means? There are kids maimed or killed by dogs that a finger pointing bozo like you thinks they can make house pets out of. Dogs, cats, etc. are like people, there are good ones and then there are those who will bite you, etc. Tons of court cases where dog owners were sued, try again hangman.

        • Didn’t know about the goat. I suggest curry and rice. I like Indian cuisine. Oh, just reported on CBS, hardly a bastion of conservative thought, the dog had also bit others.

        • “Nope. Bad dogs aren’t born, they are created by neglect and mistreatment.”

          That’s deliberately misleading, but its a normal thing for animals like you Miner49er to be misleading because you don’t understand what context means.

          1. Some dogs are ‘born bad’, and not all dogs are trainable.

          2. Not all dogs can be fully ‘domesticated’, and some dogs tend more towards natural instinct of biting people and killing prey with abandon and can’t be trained out of it.

          3. Dogs are not not born ‘already domesticated’.

          Its sort of like you left wing fascists Miner49er, you think your way is ‘the way’ because you don’t realize you are mentally ill. Bad dogs are like that, they think its perfectly normal to bite people and kill prey with abandon – like you Miner49er, you think its perfectly normal to ‘bite’ chunks out of constitutional rights and destroy the country and prey on children with abandon. Bad dogs have an excuse, its their natural instinct nature is stronger than domestication and training can over come – with you Miner49er its mental illness.

          • Let me offer you the concept of something I call ‘pack momentum’.

            Training a dog, one human on one canine, is very difficult because it becomes a contest of wills, a binary contest with only one possible victor.

            In my experience, it’s much better to introduce a new dog to a pre-existing pack, one with a solid hierarchy that has been developed over months or years.
            We only have four dogs right now, including a 10 year old 75 pound bulldog, a six year old 75 pound foxhound, a 40 pound azawakh and a 16 pound Pomeranian.
            The two big boys have been together for years, they have worked the situation out and there is no dog that will come onto the scene and successfully threaten their well-established leadership.
            Within about a week of daily patrol movement around the perimeter, route marches to the top of the mountain, and just general wandering the woods, the new canine will quickly learn their position within the chain of command.
            Is interesting, they may squabble in the backyard as we prepare to hit the woods, but once they realize this is a large, mysterious forest full of critters, the dogs will all ‘pack up’ and act as a unit.

            We were fortunate in that the two big boys were raised by Peyton, our 135 pound Weimaraner who passed five years ago, she taught them bravery without aggression, compassion without gullibility.
            Think Alvin York or Joe Sakato, rather than Rambo.

    • It is interesting that so many people who don’t know where their food comes from have an opinion about life and death on a farm.

      I worked in a family restaurant that bought directly from local farmers when possible. While I didn’t work on their farms, I knew that their life was way harder than the 60 hour weeks I was working on the line.

    • MINOR49er, What LEO’s have shot any dogs out of hand? Provide some proof? I doubt you could find your own butt.
      Why shouldn’t women learn how to properly and safely handle a firearm? Would that created more people who oppose your hoplophobic rants? It just goes to show how clueless you people (sic) really are.

  2. The goal the Left has always been to make it easier to rape and murder, women and their children.

    That’s why they want them disarmed.

  3. Since women make up the majority of elementary school teachers. I understand why Liberals think it’s so important to make sure women are disarmed.

    Pass this on to Elaine D. TTAG writer and liberal gun owner. Since she believes women teachers should not carry in school.

  5. Reworded my reply to Miner. It, too, is awaiting moderation. Fuck TTAG. Moderate that.

    • patience is a virtue angry one…come back later, your moderated words of wisdom may appear.

      • I’ve got patience. There wouldn’t be sixteen whitetail shoulder mounts hanging on my wall if I didn’t.

  6. A contrarian opinion of firearms training…

    Many (many, many?) here, and other forums, decry the idea of mandatory firearms training. It seems such people are all about “permission slips”, muh’ rights, tyranny, and the boogie. As a 13yr subscriber to TTAG, I finally concluded that training/education on local, state and federal firearm laws should be mandatory.

    Teaching people about firearm handling, maintenance, safety, shooting stances, square range etiquette are helpful, but even if a firearm owner cannot “hit the broadside of a barn”, not knowing current laws regarding private storage, “shoot, don’t shoot”, gun free zone restrictions (and a host of other constraints) leaves gun owners of the 21st century “alone, unarmed, afraid”, and open to prosecution for what otherwise would be a “good shoot”.

    For those still reading, I have no magic solution for how to inject the legal world into their lives, “mandatorily”, while preventing government from corrupting (“power corrupts, PowerPoint corrupts absolutely) the education. Take it as a thought exercise.

    • There is no way, Sam. Once mandatory becomes part of the equation abuse is immediate.

      We are either free or we are not. Freedom is messy and a bit scary.

      • “We are either free or we are not. Freedom is messy and a bit scary.”

        Thinking that not being aware of federal and local laws concerning firearm ownership makes owners “not free”. Of course, staying up-to-date on firearms constraints presents another problem. But, not knowing current gun laws can also end with one not being “free”.

        Wouldn’t we want to have gun owners free of jail?

    • Treat firearm safety like math. Teach it in school and make it a requirement for graduation from high school.

      • “Treat firearm safety like math. Teach it in school and make it a requirement for graduation from high school.”

        That would require making training mandatory, a tricky proposition.

      • “Learn the law. THEN buy a gun.”

        But without a mandate (of some kind), how effective would the proposition be?

  7. One last thought for Miner. Why is Noem a villain when the killers of ‘Ol Yeller and the Yearling are sympathetic heroes?

    • Nobody that is not a vegan should have an opinion on killing animals.

      And I will still ignore the vegans opinion.

      • Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian. He loved animals and hated people. The many vegetarians I have encountered were all [email protected] pr0.gressive in their p0.litic@l 0rient.@ti0n.

        And many of them hated people too.

        • I’m not a vegetarian, and I hate people. Well, progressives, Democrats and their fellow travelers, any way.

          And I’ve never shot any of my dogs.

          • “And I’ve never shot any of my dogs.”

            “When the need arises – and it does – you must be able to shoot your own dog. Don’t farm it out, that doesn’t make it nicer, it makes it worse.”
            – – Robert A. Heinlein

    • Wow, sometimes I take for granted the cultural icons of my generation, not realizing most don’t share that wealth of history.

      You know, Ol’ Yeller hot bit by the wolf and came down with rabies. In the 1800s, that was a terrible painful death for the canine, and made him a risk to the entire family.

      ‘The Yearling’ is a much more complex story.

      They had killed a fawn’s mother to make a poultice for a snake bite, and the boy adopted the fawn against the wishes of his parents.

      “As Jody takes his final steps into maturity, he is forced to make a desperate choice between Flag and his family. The parents realize that the growing Flag is endangering their survival, as he persists in eating the corn crop on which the family is relying for food the next winter. Jody’s father orders the boy to take Flag into the woods and shoot him, but Jody cannot bring himself to do it.
      When his mother shoots the deer and wounds him, Jody is forced to shoot Flag and kill the yearling“

      Of course, as a liberal Democrat I hold our capitalist society responsible, by perpetuating the system that concentrates vast wealth into a fraction of a percentage of the population, while the mast majority of those who labor in obscurity for their families are left with a pittance.

      The fact is the Yearling died as a direct result of poverty.

      As my friend Chris Cooper said,

      “They got you fighting white against colored, native against foreign, holler against holler.
      When you know they ain’t but two sides in this world,
      them that work and them that don’t.
      You work, they don’t.”

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5RSaBoDl_9k&pp=ygUUTWF0ZXdhbiB1bmlvbiBzcGVlY2g=

      • So those screaming Racism are serving the wealthy few. Like soros, gates, bloomberg. The same ones you serve.

        • “those screaming Racism are serving the wealthy few“

          As Archimedes would say, “Eureka!”

      • Miner, were you writing a book report? It was not necessary. I’ve read both books. Several times each. I’ve also walked the ground where they were set. Have you? If you ever get this way, try the Yearling restaurant. Excellent Southern fare. It’s not far from Gainesville and Ocala. I’d refrain from being boisterous about your politics though. You might find a safety razor blade in your cheese grits.

        • I had a great aunt Mina in Ocala, they were big fans of wild pig hunting and doves.
          When I go to Florida these days, it’s usually Ybor city for the Colombian restaurant.

  8. “The fact is the Yearling died as a direct result of poverty.”

    The fact is, “The Yearling” was a bullshit story with a bullshit plot crafted to appeal to rich liberal Yankees, with near zero correlation to the reality or culture it is supposedly set in…

    • XZX, you are exactly right. If you want to read an accurate work of historical fiction about post Civil War Florida, read A Land Remembered. I mailed Possum a copy of it not long ago. He said it was great and also said he never thought of cattle drives in Florida. Florida shipped as much cattle north as Texas. Orlando was a cow town no different than Dodge City and just as dangerous.

      • The cow biz in FL has changed a lot just in my lifetime. We used to buy scrubs in the spring and graze them till fall, then take what we could get. We had good pasture and usually did OK.

        Now the mixed breed scrubs we ran are basically extinct, few people remember free range times (or understand how different it was) and people wearing stetsons and pointy boots are spending big on bull semen. Everybody still loves cowboys, tho…

        For non fiction Civil War eye witness stuff, try Recollections of a Confederate General by Sorrel.

  9. A woman showed me a gunm she had, a .38 El Tigre. She didnt have any bullets.
    I gave her some bullets.
    She shot her husband.

    • Years ago I bought four of those for $60.00 each. Sold three of them for $400.00 each, still have one I’m holding on to for my own collection.

  11. XZX, that was a good point about the doddering fool’s dog. Wish I had remembered that.

  12. It’s a pointless argument with people that don’t understand what a woman is.

    A woman owning firearms is quite literally female empowerment. The fact that so many on the left see women as so worthless is truly astounding. Burning bras isn’t a statement. It’s just destroying your own property (just like Dick’s Sporting Goods). Standing up to evil in the face of danger for the protection of life…THAT is a pretty bold statement.

  13. Holy shit! I just got off the PX with my buddy in Crystal River. He reminded me that in Obama’s book he admitted eating dogs when he was in Asia. Nobody said much about it then, but the story is gaining traction now after the Noem book. What do you say Miner? Care to join Obama for dinner? I wonder if Obama prefers Labs, or Golden Retrievers. BBQ, or fried?

    • Same strategy, different day. Attack/ignore, attack/ignore, etc. At least their side tries to win. It is easier when you own the media, tech, and culture.

      • “At least their side tries to win.”

        Oh yeah?

        “Our side” holds the moral high ground, constantly scolding Dims and fellow travelers about hypocrisy, and bad optics for them. A good tongue lashing (don’t go there) and public outrage will effectively disgrace the Dims and fellow travelers in the minds of voters.

    • Yep, Asians eat dogs. Not me.
      Of course, if you’re hungry…

      And killing an animal for food is far different from shooting a dog because you didn’t take the time to train it and as she herself said “hated” the dog.

      There are cultural differences, but killing for food is not the same, as MTG would say, “wonton killing”.
      Remember tragic story from Korea, wife sees cute puppy in the market, asked to buy, owner takes pappy into back, returns with a package for dependent lady.
      Round eye dependent opened the package,faints, shipped out to CONUS to mother.

      • Possibly you think the lack of stray dogs and cats in North Korea is proof that communism works? And the only fat people in NorKo are commie thugs and close kin. Even more proof! Wow, let’s all vote demonicrat, a little socialism never hurt nobody…

        • “North Korea is proof that communism works?“

          Nope, never said that. And my story is from South Korea, there is a difference.

          But you are forgetting, Democrats are no fans of North Korea, its your ‘Chosen One’ Donald Trump who is in love with Kim Jong Un:

          ‘We fell in love’ – Trump swoons over letters from North Korea’s Kim
          By Roberta Rampton
          September 30, 201812:34 AM EDTUpdated 6 years ago

          “I was really being tough – and so was he. And we would go back and forth,” Trump told a rally in West Virginia.
          “And then we fell in love, okay? No, really – he wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters,” he said.“

          How sweet, he was playing hard to get but true love conquers all and they became best buddies.

          He publicly declared his love for Kim, he’s sword dancing with the King of Saudi Arabia, he ‘admires’ ‘great leader’ Putin, Donald Trump is a real fanboi for dictators.

          I couldn’t write this stuff, no one would believe it. Is it possible for any of y’all to see this is why the whole world is laughing at Donald Trump and his supporters?

          • You mean the whole world laughing at the US for having a senile old man running the country?

            Seriously. bidens wife and kameltoe amongst others should be up in court on elder abuse charges.

          • Dems, Chicoms, even commies everywhere LOVE NK. The Hermit King makes them look good. Chicoms could make him retire his act with a phone call. Ditto MacArthur for his grandpa Kim Il Sung in ’49, but the commiecrats would not allow it. Too bad Truman was evil. When your world turns radioactive, be sure to thank old Harry.

            As to Trump’s trolling of the Hermit King, are you not the one that claims nothing Bad Orange Man says can be taken at face value?

  14. Possibly you think the lack of stray dogs and cats in North Korea is proof that communism works? And the only fat people in NorKo are commie thugs and close kin. Even more proof! Wow, let’s all vote demonicrat, a little socialism never hurt nobody…

  16. When I was around 10 years old, I watched a movie at the theater that just came out. It was called “Old Yeller.” In that movie the older brother and mother were forced to put down the family dog that they ALL loved very much, especially the youngest boy. I cried like a baby watching the end of that movie. But it is what it is under those circumstances. We love our Labrador Retriever to death, but if he ever bit someone other than just playing rough, he would be done for, but I have very little worry about him biting anyone unless it was someone trying to harm any family member. He’s trained very well and labs are among the easiest to train due to their inherited love for food. They will do anything for a treat and they don’t forget after the 1st attempt to train them using that simple technique, (At least mine does). But dogs are still “only” dogs when compared to human beings. But there are so many dog lovers who have gone far beyond the balance of a dog/human relationship. That is actually a mental illness IMHO.

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