Roughly a dozen years ago I met a woman Adrienne. Like many young women, she feared guns because she didn’t understand them and had years of mostly negative “education” about them from American media and pop culture. As a stay-at-home housewife, she cared for her three young daughters while her husband worked a half-hour away.
One day in the summer, a creepy man showed up at her rural home riding a bike. Seeing the mom and her three daughters, he rather insistently asked for a glass of water. Adrienne, recalling the incident, said that the guy made her extremely uncomfortable as her intuition screamed danger.
She managed to close and lock the front door and when the guy didn’t leave, she called police. In the meantime, as the creep lingered in the area, she saw her opportunity and took her girls and ran from the back door the 100 yards to her elderly neighbor woman’s home.
Eunice the neighbor had a revolver, and the knowledge, skills and attitude to use it against bad people with evil in their hearts. The five of them watched as the bike rider returned to Adrienne’s house and pounded on the door for what seemed like a few minutes before he finally rode off out of sight.
Thirty minutes after the original call, Johnny Law from the Sheriff’s office arrived. A little sleuthing and Adrienne found the guy’s picture on the State of IL Registered Sex Offender database. He had raped little girls in his past, and thanks to the Land of Lincoln’s “dog years in reverse” prison sentences, was prowling the countryside asking for glasses of water instead of serving his entire sentence in prison.
It was at that moment, she told us, that she realized how close she came to becoming a victim of something terrible. At that point, she stopped resisting her husband’s urges to take a class and learn about guns.
She arrived at one of our Guns Save Life Defense Training courses riddled with anxiety but highly motivated thanks to Mr. Registered Sex Offender. Thanks to patient, skilled instructors, Adrienne discovered how she could harness the power of a firearm for self-defense through learning the fundamentals of shooting a handgun. Having a fellow woman coaching her proved an added bonus. We helped desensitize her to those internal fears she had learned.
She remained on the meek and mild end of the spectrum until one of the instructors told her to imagine those three little girls of hers behind her in one of the barricade drills. He later said he could see the switch in her demeanor. While leaning out from a barricade, she roared “GET OUT!” before shooting the guy coming through the window in the target with two center-mass shots to the chest.
We had helped her empower herself. She knew that if Mr. Sex Offender returned, she could say no and back it up with force. And if Mr. Shoulda Been In Prison decided to break in, she would have the knowledge, skills and abilities to help him find Jesus if it came to that.
Fast forward today, Adrienne has become a new woman. She took more training and was elected Vice-President of Guns Save Life. She has also become a support staffer with the GSL Defense Training team. After seeing the transformation of other students from meek and mild to empowered and strong, she became an instructor to share her passion with others, but especially women new to guns.
Her daughters have all grown up, but mom and dad (and the GSL Defense Training family) have inculcated them with an entirely different mindset than Adrienne had as a young woman. One of the girls (and her husband) are support staff with the team and another one is a capable instructor. As they have kids of their own, Adrienne knows they will never have a sense of fear and helplessness if a creep shows up at their door insistently asking for a glass of water.
If you know people in your circle of friends who are agnostic or even fearful about guns and gun ownership, gently nudge them to come to the range with you sometime. Show them a good time and buy them some ice cream afterwards. Make it a day they’ll remember fondly for years to come.
If they find themselves a crime victim (or near victim) and come to you for help, share a great day at the range with them, too. You’ll make a friend for life and help them empower themselves. They might even ask you to accompany them to a gun store. By all means, do so.
Alternatively, or additionally, help them find a good entry-level defensive pistol course from good instructors. Remind them how they don’t have to be a defenseless victim. They can empower themselves by becoming a gun owner. With a little training, they’ll be more than capable of defending their lives, their families and their homes from bad people with evil in their hearts.
As most Americans know, the only thing that stops bad men with evil in their hearts is a good guy or gal with a gun.
Wimmen could hang some ballpark franks with string for targit practice. Seein how this is the most powerful hamgum on the planet and could blow yer “head” clean off, do you feel lucky punk?
“Wimmen could hang some ballpark franks with string for targit practice.”
The nuts are far better choice for *instantly* breaking off the attack.
Any guy who has ever taken an inadvertent kick in the nads can describe the instant crippling *agony*…
I was once attacked by an individual, as he was coming towards me I pointed the gunm at him. He said “Shoot me mtherfcker, I dont care.” I pointed the gunm at his testiculars and said I’m going to blow your balls off. He stopped in his tracks, cussed me, then left.
“He later said he could see the switch in her demeanor. While leaning out from a barricade, she roared “GET OUT!” before shooting the guy coming through the window in the target with two center-mass shots to the chest.”
She made the correct transition of mindset, and will be a responsible gun owner. (But we knew that already.)
More worrisome to me is someone uncomfortable around guns, gets some training and is still uncomfortable around guns and gets a gun anyways. If I were asked, I’d advise against it.
Well, I wish them all the best, it’s their right to have one.
(Just my .02 and worth considerably less than one-half of that… 🙂 )
The sexually liberated have always been s0ci@list pr0gressive in their p0litic@l 0rientati0n.
They have never supported civil rights. Their long term goal has always been to instill fear about gun ownership. By stopping all public education of the 2A.
Including the termination of shooting teams at public High Schools.
Proper firearms education gives knowledge to people. And takes away the fear of the unknown.
But the proud h0mosexu@l Democrat Tom Ammiano in California. Got himself elected to the San Francisco school board. With the publicly stated, intent to stop all firearms education. Unfortunately he was successful.
And as a result, we have many people who are uneducated and afraid of guns, and they don’t have to be.
Yepper…
Whomever is in that last picture near the end of the story, she could definitely use some instruction on proper grip.
Gripes about grips, if it works dont gripe.
Looks to me that the grip is compromised because the trigger reach in this gunm is way too far for her small hands. The bones of the lower arm should be aligned with the barrel. If one needs to rotate their grip that far around just so that the index finger can reach the trigger then repeatable accuracy and speed of follow-up shots will be seriously compromised.
Is that a SIG P250? Flashback!
Are you sure the perp wasn’t a recently inducted member of dacian, miner, and jsled’s antifa troop? He would have boosted their membership by 33%!
Josie’s wife shoulda had a gunm, at least she could have got a couple of them Redlegs.
That’s a good story about Adrienne.
Cool.
one day he’ll be the only one carrying.
I just participated in a yearly active shooter drill in our county courthouse. It was the same scripted playacting as every year. At the after action debrief the question was asked about if anyone was already hiding or barricading their doors before the shooting started. As usual a few people raised their hands. Which took away from the purpose of the drill. That being following the protocols in place for such an event. After the debrief I spoke with the people in charge of the event about why this drill isn’t done more secretly to make it more realistic. The answer was very enlightening, but not all that surprising. The reason was because numerous people working there carry a firearm to/at work. Most of whom are women.
In my neck of the woods a “surprise” or unannounced secret active shooter drill that some people were not aware of beforehand would likely result in “unfortunate” results for the play-acting shooter.
Yeah, they don’t *dare* pull an unannounced stunt like that around here… 🙂
That was the point of my comments. Unfortunately not all city, county or state governments allow their employees to carry a firearm for self defense in the workplace. In our state it’s the law that you can. As can all legally allowed citizens.
I went in the bank and the post office yesterday with a concealed 1911.
Because it was concealed.
Even carrying in the parking lot or the sidewalk in front of the Post Office is a felony if caught.
ATF Says YOU Are The Problem, So Give Up MORE Of Your 2A!! WTF?! (with more bogus BS and anti-gun determined re-defining).
Gun Controllers Decades Long Plan STUFFED HARD… Republicans Actually Grew A Pair & Engaged?!
Gun Control Group Caught Stealing 2A Women’s Photos.
“She remained on the meek and mild end of the spectrum until one of the instructors told her to imagine those three little girls of hers behind her in one of the barricade drills. He later said he could see the switch in her demeanor. While leaning out from a barricade, she roared ‘GET OUT!’ before shooting the guy coming through the window in the target with two center-mass shots to the chest.”
He later said he could see the switch in her demeanor …
That moment where the easy prey becomes the strong defender the predator didn’t expect.
The moment that switch is clicked in our natural and normal human species response for survival of ourselves and/or loved ones.
The moment where common sense and logic in sane people with correctly functioning sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems determines we must be stronger than our predator to overcome the threat.
The moment where common sense and logic in sane people says ‘nope, not today. I may or may not succeed but its not going be because I didn’t try to stop you.’
That moment when gun-control means the ability to put rounds in the threat to save your family and/or self from harm or death.
Put Possum on as a writer…everyone says Gunm now.