Do All Women Need To Be Armed?

We need as many armed women as possible.This is fact regardless of whether violent crime against women is rising or in decline. Every woman is a potential victim every day of her life, and when the predator is upon her, any statistical assurances she may have relied on — fade to nothing. “Oh, I’ll dial 911.” Give me a break.

Denial provides only imaginary security. No victim of violent crime awoke that day thinking “Today it will happen to me.” If this were so, our victim would never have left the friggin’ house. Let’s be practical and pragmatic here, shall we?

Another fact is the most effective deterrent to violent crime is the armed citizen, and the most effective deterrent to violent crime against women is an armed woman. When seconds count the only first responder on scene fast enough will be the victim. As some trainers say, “Show them they chose poorly in the victim department.”

Allow me now to chew on some of the baloney surrounding this topic. One of my favorites is usually uttered by some vacant-skulled liberal who says a man can easily disarm a woman and use the weapon against her. I would like to see any guy relieve a woman of her firearm when she’s trained to draw and shoot. If he lives, methinks he’ll be relieving himself through a plastic tube, at best.

The Mechanics

Let’s talk about the scary recoil, the grave concern of almost every new shooter. This one is easy. Recoil simply ain’t what you think it is. For virtually every shooter there’s an effective and comfortable way to shoot a handgun. For most women this gun will be a .38 Special revolver or a 9mm or .380 semi-auto pistol. The revolver design is inherently a simple one — just pull the trigger, fire a shot. There’s no safeties to manipulate and no malfunctions to clear. Just draw and fire. With a well-maintained and loaded revolver, a woman knows her weapon will fire with every trigger squeeze.

Semi-autos require more practice to master but semi’s shoot faster, offer greater firepower (more rounds) and are faster to re-load. For the woman preferring a revolver she can use speed loaders or speed strips. She could also carry a second gun as backup. With the Josey Wales reload, she can pull gun number two and keep shooting. Surprise, Mr. Thug.

And there are more choices than these two. Though we love to debate about going to calibers smaller than the .38 or 9mm, there’s a case of note out of New Hampshire. It seems a 65 year-old grandmother shot a mugger with her .32 caliber Kel-Tech semi-auto pistol. Her assailant lived, but he was stopped with one shot. This case reflects less about the effectiveness of this or that caliber and more about the reality every fight is unique — with variables never perfectly repeating. Think what would have happened if she hadn’t had a gun at all? Women should think in terms of which caliber/gun combination fits them best and is effective through a wide range of circumstances. People can help you make this decision so you make an informed one.

We need as many armed women as possible. When a woman takes control of her own safety, she will be safer — and it will be the predators who’ll be in danger. And frankly, I like the idea. Lots.