My experience with two different women comes to mind, and it’s not that I am picking on women; men can make the same mistakes.
The first woman is single and lives alone. About a year ago she asked me to come look at a revolver that she had gotten from her grandmother for personal defense. Sadly, the gun was a piece of junk, and it had been a piece of junk when it was new, too; it simply wasn’t safe. I explained this and then showed her some better-quality revolvers that would be better for her to learn with and use for protection. I also explained that decent defensive handguns could cost several hundred dollars and that she might have to start a little savings account to pay for one. I also offered to give her instructions at no cost because she was a friend, and I wanted her to be safe. To date she still hasn’t bought a defensive handgun or done anything to study personal defense.
The other woman lives with her family several miles south of town. While her husband is in town working, she is at home, training and caring for horses. Neither one was a shooter or particularly concerned about personal defense. All of that changed the day this woman was out tending her horses, and an unknown trespasser came walking out of the brush in the next pasture. Fortunately, he was just passing through and there was no threat.
However, this keyed my friend into action. She wanted a gun to keep in the horse barn. As a kid, she had grown up on a farm elsewhere in the Southwest. They’d had a 20-gauge shotgun in that barn. Without too much trouble, we found her a 20 gauge like the one she’d had years ago, along with some birdshot for snakes and buckshot for bigger problems. She, her husband and their daughter have all been shooting the shotgun and discussing personal defense. It’s become a family thing.
There is an old saying that some people change because they see the light and others change because they feel the heat. Unfortunately, when one feels the heat of a criminal attack it may be too late to do anything about developing the necessary skills or obtaining defensive equipment. It is frustrating for us to see friends and family who won’t take their personal defense seriously and often don’t even acknowledge it until they are faced with the threat.
But we have to keep doing what we can, bringing news reports to their attention, inviting them to the shooting range with us, and encouraging them to get training. The NRA and many other training facilities offer defensive classes that are very reasonably priced, especially when one considers what is at stake. Good guns cost money, but most gun shops have lay-away plans. We simply have to do what we can to point friends and family in the right direction; the direction towards personal safety.
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