my opinion ON POINT to feminism and gun control

[old lady new shooter]

Since I am one of the few women who post here and the other thread was closed before I got a chance to contribute, I would like to state my feelings on this topic, especially as in the time and place where I grew up, girls did not shoot, even boys only maybe shot bb guns.

As a female one internalizes at an early age the sad realization that pretty much any male with bad intentions vis-à-vis oneself will unfortunately likely be able to carry them out, unless some other male is present who is willing and able to be the knight in shining armor, but regardless the female is always the damsel in distress. This is incredibly deforming to the psyche, and I think this deforming was part of the root cause of the whole feminist movement to begin with, no human wants to go through life feeling one-down out of the gate.

Learning to shoot takes away the one-down feeling, it's tremendously empowering, enabling exactly what at least the early feminists declared to be their aim, a woman being able to be INDEPENDENT, not threatened by man x or having to be protected by man y, but able to defend herself. So I think the way to de-couple "feminism" and "gun control" is by stressing this point.

Interestingly, a few days ago on The View, a program of leftist women who would almost certainly describe themselves as feminists, there was a discussion of the recent video from the Bloomberg outfit about a woman and her stalker... three of the four women on the show expressed SUPPORT for women being armed. (See http://bearingarms.com/everytown-proves-best-domestic-violence-prevention-armed-victim/.) The recent stories out of Detroit didn't hurt either. So I think maybe the tide is turning on this.

 

[herrwalther]

Real Feminism, not the radical man hating version, supports gun rights. Firearms are equalizers for women against assault. The one statistic that proves this over and over to the contrary of public "feminists" like Hilary is female shooters are the FASTEST growing group of gun owners.

 

[oneounceload]

+1 to that - I see it on the shotgun clubs courses........

 

[Musket44]

Somewhere, some time, I read a limerick, piece of doggerel, poem, that went something like this:
"Be not afraid of any man,
no matter what his size,
Call on me and I will equalize."

That truly has no gender -- it just states a universal fact.

 

[old lady new shooter]

+1 to that - I see it on the shotgun clubs courses........

Women are also shooting shotguns? That's pretty interesting. I always heard about them being good for home defense but in the gun store I tried holding one and my initial reaction was that it seemed unwieldy due to the length.

 

[old lady new shooter]

Real Feminism, not the radical man hating version, supports gun rights. Firearms are equalizers for women against assault. The one statistic that proves this over and over to the contrary of public "feminists" like Hilary is female shooters are the FASTEST growing group of gun owners.

"female shooters are the FASTEST growing group of gun owners."

Excellent, should be widely publicized.

 

[Nom de Forum]

Feminism would not have come into existence if its complete opposite had not forced it into existence. Women accepting the use of firearms for self-defense instead of relying on men or accepting victimhood is a step toward real not just lip service equality for all women.

 

[Deaf Smith]

It goes,

"Be not afraid of any man,
no matter what his size
When danger threatens
call on me, I will equalize."

Samuel Colt

And the fear of others who are stronger apply not only to women, but to the young, elderly, and handicapped.

But Sam Colt knew a thing or two on that subject.

Deaf

 

[danez71]

The thing that I did with my daughter was to embolden her with the mindset not to cower and give up.

GIRL POWER!!!!!!!!

A 250 lb guy has a high chance to overpower her.... or me for that matter.... but if you do your best to make him pay dearly you'll have the best chance of getting away.

She also grew up in a time and place that guns were a 4 letter word.

Thankfully she has an uncle LEO that we're close to that shares the same beliefs as I do about guns (and self defense) in that despite what she was being taught in school, guns aren't just for cops and bad guys.... they're for regular good guys too.

 

[Deanimator]

I'm not sure that anything that advocates mandatory submission by women to sexual violence could be considered "feminism".

In response to the common sense assertion of the right of women to defend themselves from rape through the use of armed force, the response is often, "Teach men not to rape!"

Men are "taught" a LOT of things, including not to steal, set arson fires, commit murder and drive while impaired. What if the "lesson" doesn't take? Apparently that imposes upon women a duty to do things like vomit, urinate and defecate on THEMSELVES in an attempt to protect the RAPIST from harm.

Likewise, it's asserted that a 110lb. woman can go toe to toe with a 210lb. rapist, but she can't (or more disgustingly, WON'T) shoot that same rapist rather than LET him take her gun.

Of course then you have the bottom feeders who explicitly espouse the mental and moral INFERIORITY of women which supposedly makes them incapable of defending themselves with a gun. Many years ago in usenet, an Englishman told me that women shouldn't be allowed to carry guns because he was "afraid of being 'mistaken' for a rapist and shot". I replied to him, "Put down that butcher knife, pull up your pants, and you should be just fine."

The bottom line is that you're going to take the side of the rapist or the rape victim. Pick ONE.

The simple fact is that the hard core of the anti-gun movement would prefer a woman to be beaten, raped and murdered than for her to defend herself with a firearm. That fact needs to be hammered home at EVERY opportunity.

 

[Sam1911]

Women are also shooting shotguns? That's pretty interesting. I always heard about them being good for home defense but in the gun store I tried holding one and my initial reaction was that it seemed unwieldy due to the length.

Let me introduce you to Ms. Kim Rhode!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/s...old-in-womens-skeet-setting-records.html?_r=0

 

[danez71]

Many years ago in usenet, an Englishman told me that women shouldn't be allowed to carry guns because he was "afraid of being 'mistaken' for a rapist and shot". I replied to him, "Put down that butcher knife, pull up your pants, and you should be just fine."

Awesome.



The video brings a tear to my eye. At about the 1:30 mark she touches on what I tried to explain.

Nervous, scared, dont know what to expect.... dont cower, dont give up....GIRL POWER!!! can get you through.

Good job by her father too.

I'm smaller than average and can attest that in my experience, having the correct mindset is key.


Great vid Sam. I wish I was 1/10th as good and confident with a shotgun as she.


ETA: Women should be as confident that they can use every tool available regardless of what traditionally has been a 'mans tool'. IMO, every father has a duty to encourage it.

 

[PJSprog]

My first wife grew up hating guns. I slowly changed that for her. Took away the unjustified fear and replaced it with factual knowledge and hands-on experience. She is now a regular recreational shooter and a staunch RKBA supporter.

I'm now married a second time, and my new wife (of two years) grew up in a family where there were guns, but they were the aforementioned "Men's Tools." I re-educated her, too, and helped her with her first gun purchases when we were still dating. She now owns nearly as many firearms as I do. She's not quite as much a "gun nut" as I am, but she does enjoy the occasional fun trip to the range or casual shooting/plinking out by the barn. More importantly, though, she has her CCW license, and carries every day. I definitely worry a lot less about her these days. She's small, but feisty and armed.

 

[Frank Ettin]

Women are also shooting shotguns? That's pretty interesting. I always heard about them being good for home defense but in the gun store I tried holding one and my initial reaction was that it seemed unwieldy due to the length.

Well my wife is an NRA certified shotgun instructor. That's mostly geared to sport/wing shooting -- flying clay targets and birds.

She's competed at our state trapshooting championships and at the Grand American (the ATA national championships). She's helped coach our club's Scholastic Clay Target (youth) group. One year one of our youth squads won the state championship, and she took them to Vandalia, Ohio to compete in the nationals.

We've hunted pheasant together.

Her first trapshooting lesson, she was worn out and bruised after 25 targets using a 20 gauge. Within a year she was routinely shooting 200/300/400 targets in a day with her 12 gauge trap gun.

Perhaps I should (or should not) mention that (unlike me) she's quite slender. After the 1989 earthquake here, she had to lie about her weight to be allowed to donate blood.

She's found that her involvement with firearms has bee very empowering.

 

[CoalTrain49]

Women are also shooting shotguns? That's pretty interesting. I always heard about them being good for home defense but in the gun store I tried holding one and my initial reaction was that it seemed unwieldy due to the length.

Personal experience. One of the very best trap shooters I have ever seen was a 19 yo woman. Seriously, there wasn't anyone (99% men) in our club that could compete with her, she was that good. She was on a totally different level. She had aspirations of becoming an Olympic shooter, she may have, I don't know, I don't shoot there anymore.

Lisa Munson is a member of my present club and shoots there often.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100608/SPORTS/706089967

 

[oneounceload]

Women are also shooting shotguns? That's pretty interesting. I always heard about them being good for home defense but in the gun store I tried holding one and my initial reaction was that it seemed unwieldy due to the length.

Never said anything about home defense, but I suppose some may do that. Called having fun shooting trap, skeet, 5-stand, sporting clays and FITASC. Google Olympic medal winner Kim Rhode who won her first gold medal at 16 in Atlanta 1996 and has medaled in every Olympic since and is going back again next year.

Shotgun sports are growing faster than anything else at this time, especially golf and especially among women and kids. Lots of high schools have SCTP teams- and the girls give up nothing in competing with the boys.
If there was ever a fun sport where gender is a non-issue, this is it.

 

[Tom Fury]

So...

Equality with men is all you're going for? Doesn't feminism have any higher goals that that? As long as thats' the only target, of course they'll fight you...
Can you say: "I'll draw their fire!"
J
My wife can shoot a .45-
But, she'll drill your eyes out with a .22...

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

First wife was a 70's liberal feminist and VERY anti gun.

Current wife, a PHD Geophysicist, I taught to shoot.We hunted ducks and deer together but she got her first deer with a 50cal muzzle loader while I was working over seas.
Oddly enough, our daughter isn't interested in shooting but she has a Black Belt in TKD and a Brown Belt in Krav Maga.

 

[old lady new shooter]

"Men are "taught" a LOT of things, including not to steal, set arson fires, commit murder and drive while impaired. What if the "lesson" doesn't take? Apparently that imposes upon women a duty to do things like vomit, urinate and defecate on THEMSELVES in an attempt to protect the RAPIST from harm."

My favorite take on that is this cartoon, although it's a little crude for my taste:

 

[old lady new shooter]

"The thing that I did with my daughter was to embolden her with the mindset not to cower and give up."

Bravo!

 

[old lady new shooter]

Sam1911:

Wow, 99 out of 100 targets!?!

And on the video she is such a sweet person, what a great role model.

I thought she must be tall so I went to wikipedia to check her height, she is only 5'4". Which is still taller than me, but not tall.

And I still can't believe she shoots with those nails, on the photo posted in another thread here about her I thought maybe she just had them applied for the photo, but in the video she has them too.

 

[buckhorn_cortez]

...no human wants to go through life feeling one-down out of the gate.

It is unfortunate that women are often thought of as the "weaker sex" and that stereotype has been reinforced through movies, television, magazines, etc.

Frank Zappa summed up this stereotype quite neatly in his introduction to "Cheapnis" about 1950's SciFi movies when he said...

"You know how they are, the weaker sex in everything, twisting their ankle on behalf of the ice-cream cone."

In reference to the scene in, "It Conquered the World" where the monster that looks like an inverted ice cream cone chases the woman out of the cave, and of course, she twists her ankle and falls down in front of the monster.

My wife carries everyday, and shoots action pistol...so she doesn't conform to the stereotypical expectations of how the "average American woman" comports herself.

 

[David4516]

She's small, but feisty and armed

Sounds like my wife. She's mainly into handguns but sometimes will shoot rifle or shotgun.

We just started doing IDPA matches together, she's beat me in the last two

 

[Delford]

My wife's family are shooters. My mother in law nearly shot her husband when he came home early and didn't announce himself some years ago. They're both gone now. My sister in law has carried since she and her husband went into business. Their daughter, now a lawyer, amazes all the men at skeet and trap ranges with her skill and she CCs a G19. Unfortunately my wife isn't interested but is thankful I CC. I have friends helping me arouse her interest. My daughter is taking a CC class in October and my son isn't as aware as he needs to be about protecting his family. He's a good shot and so is his wife but they don't feel a need to CC. Hopefully they will change before misfortune arrives. Men or women can handle tools. It's how often they use them and get proficient that will matter when a bad day comes.

 

[oneounceload]

That rape pic could have at least the woman actually holding a Glock....