Woodland_Annie
Member
I recently acquired my Ohio CCW. A friend at THR suggested I post my comments here about how it's changed me.
It started off as a rant because ABC News had a segment on the growing number of women taking up shooting, and fears from gun control lobbyists about increased violence from women. Some of the numbers they put up shocked me: 20 times more likely for gun owners to be shot in their own homes, and the like.
The tone, as I saw it, was that we are the docile and submissive half of the species and we should all be surprised that women may want to shoot guns for some of the same reasons men do!
Here is what I have found since I acquired my CCW and started carrying a gun everywhere I legally can. I had thought it would make me more paranoid that everyone I passed on the street would want to hurt me. Actually I have the opposite effect. Knowing that I can take someone's life makes me less likely to want to do so.
A contradiction? I think not. I feel that responsibility for ensuring my own and others' safety deep in my core. When I put that little 638 in my purse or jacket pocket, I know that I need to be more aware of my surroundings and who is doing what, not less. It doesn't give me a sense of false security or that I'm some ersatz female Dirty Harry off to fight all the bad guys.
I'm not ashamed to say I'm in that one out of four women who has been sexually assaulted. I'm not even ashamed to say I didn't resist because I was too afraid to, although like over 90% of victims I knew my attacker. It won't happen again, at least not without putting up a fight and shooting my attacker, whether or not I know him. If I'm going down, I'll take him with me.
Yet, the gun does not give false security or make me cocky and arrogant. I won't go looking for trouble. In fact, the opposite is true. I feel safer carrying it around my rural property. Someone wandered onto my property recently and I had my 638 in my pocket. It turned out he'd had a car accident up the road and wanted to use my phone. I went inside, taking the dogs with me, and brought out the cordless so he could call for assistance. I was alone at the time, but waited with him. I kept my eye on him, but never felt a need to draw my gun.
One thing I did take from the CCW class was not to wave the gun around, hoping to deter an attacker. My instructor said, "If you're going to draw, shoot. If you're going to shoot, shoot to kill." That gives a sense of the responsibility involved in carrying that I wouldn't have otherwise.
It's nice to have forums like THR where people can share these kinds of experiences. Also if anyone wondered how a generally pacifist person feels about carrying, maybe it will give some insight into why it's necessary for citizens to defend themselves.
Annie
It started off as a rant because ABC News had a segment on the growing number of women taking up shooting, and fears from gun control lobbyists about increased violence from women. Some of the numbers they put up shocked me: 20 times more likely for gun owners to be shot in their own homes, and the like.
The tone, as I saw it, was that we are the docile and submissive half of the species and we should all be surprised that women may want to shoot guns for some of the same reasons men do!
Here is what I have found since I acquired my CCW and started carrying a gun everywhere I legally can. I had thought it would make me more paranoid that everyone I passed on the street would want to hurt me. Actually I have the opposite effect. Knowing that I can take someone's life makes me less likely to want to do so.
A contradiction? I think not. I feel that responsibility for ensuring my own and others' safety deep in my core. When I put that little 638 in my purse or jacket pocket, I know that I need to be more aware of my surroundings and who is doing what, not less. It doesn't give me a sense of false security or that I'm some ersatz female Dirty Harry off to fight all the bad guys.
I'm not ashamed to say I'm in that one out of four women who has been sexually assaulted. I'm not even ashamed to say I didn't resist because I was too afraid to, although like over 90% of victims I knew my attacker. It won't happen again, at least not without putting up a fight and shooting my attacker, whether or not I know him. If I'm going down, I'll take him with me.
Yet, the gun does not give false security or make me cocky and arrogant. I won't go looking for trouble. In fact, the opposite is true. I feel safer carrying it around my rural property. Someone wandered onto my property recently and I had my 638 in my pocket. It turned out he'd had a car accident up the road and wanted to use my phone. I went inside, taking the dogs with me, and brought out the cordless so he could call for assistance. I was alone at the time, but waited with him. I kept my eye on him, but never felt a need to draw my gun.
One thing I did take from the CCW class was not to wave the gun around, hoping to deter an attacker. My instructor said, "If you're going to draw, shoot. If you're going to shoot, shoot to kill." That gives a sense of the responsibility involved in carrying that I wouldn't have otherwise.
It's nice to have forums like THR where people can share these kinds of experiences. Also if anyone wondered how a generally pacifist person feels about carrying, maybe it will give some insight into why it's necessary for citizens to defend themselves.
Annie
Now, that's a receipe for violence!
