Check out Regis Giles' common sense approach to carrying a weapon. Regis Giles is a leading young voice for Second Amendment Rights, self-defense and conservation. Her media appearances include: ELLE Magazine, The Daily Mail, ABC, CNN, & Fox News. Her website is http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/
Showing posts with label Women and Guns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Women and Guns. Show all posts
Monday, April 1, 2013
Regis Giles - 10 POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUN RULES
Check out Regis Giles' common sense approach to carrying a weapon. Regis Giles is a leading young voice for Second Amendment Rights, self-defense and conservation. Her media appearances include: ELLE Magazine, The Daily Mail, ABC, CNN, & Fox News. Her website is http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/
Friday, March 8, 2013
Judge Jeanine Pirro - Straight Shooting on the 2nd Amendment
Jessie Duff is recognized as one of the most accomplished competition shooters in the world. Competing – and excelling – in five different shooting disciplines, Jessie has won both world and national championship titles, included among them are the prestigious Bianchi Cup and the Steel Challenge World Speed Shooting Championships. Over the last couple years Jessie has been a fixture in the shooting sports industry representing her many sponsors, chief among them Taurus.Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Doug Giles - Double Barrel Biden, Rape Whistle Salazar and My AR-15 Giveaway
I heard so much horse scat coming from the left last week regarding self-defense that I am now befuddled as to whom I should give my “Are You Blanking Kidding Me” award to. Damn you, tyranny of many options. Damn you!
First on the stooge list of bad ideas for self-defense is one, Jose Salazar, Democrat lawmaker (God, help us) from Colorado who decided to unfurl how dumb he thinks women are and how much he doesn’t care about them in one fell swoop. And boy did he dunk it, folks. Boom!
Now, before I proceed, allow me to say that if I were a woman – and I’m not (but I do like Kate Hudson films) – but if were a lass, I’d tell gun-grabbing democrats to kiss my Pilates because they do not care about your person or family and would rather y’all be a sitting duck to demented perps. Oh well, what can you expect from a party that supports Planned Parenthood.
Back to Dufus Salazar.
Question: Did you hear the sputum Salazar spewed last week regarding what ladies should do in a rape altercation? Democratic Congressman Mr. Salazar, told college girls, among other unreasonable things last week, to whistle if they think they’re getting raped verses carrying a gun and drawing down on the dipstick.
The reason he argued for the whistle defense is essentially because you ladies are, in his estimation, emotional basket cases who cant discern if you’re a). about to get raped or b). about to be asked directions to the gym. And with that sagacious guidance, Jose made Todd Akin sound like Sandra Fluke. Or is it Fluck? Fluke, I don’t know.
Blow a whistle, Salazar? Who are you? Lauren Bacall? “If you want me, just whistle?”
Look ladies, the only thing that blows is Salazar’s advice. Forgive me, but if I were a chick and some lech lurched for one of my puppies, the only whistling noise anyone would hear would be made by an incoming 90grain, .380 bullet heading for Chester the Molester’s vitals.
Second on my list of "What did you just say?" is this is advice the University of Colorado gives to women to repel attackers. Check it out:
1. Be realistic about your ability to protect yourself.I’m too gobsmacked to even queue up a cheeky quip for that crapola. Tell ‘em you’re menstruating? Wow. How about #11: walk around with pig blood on you like Carrie at the prom?
2. Your instinct may be to scream, go ahead! It may startle your attacker and give you an opportunity to run away.
3. Kick off your shoes if you have time and can’t run in them.
4. Don’t take time to look back; just get away.
5. If your life is in danger, passive resistance may be your best defense.
6. Tell your attacker that you have a disease or are menstruating.
7. Vomiting or urinating may also convince the attacker to leave you alone.
8. Yelling, hitting or biting may give you a chance to escape, do it!
9. Understand that some actions on your part might lead to more harm.
10. Remember, every emergency situation is different. Only you can decide which action is most appropriate.
Suffice it to say ladies that I’d much rather have a loaded, purty gun.
And lastly, we come to Vice President Joe Biden who told a Facebook forum that for home defense we don’t need an AR-15 but we should all get a double barrel shotgun and simply fire it in the air, off the balcony, if we believe our homes are being invaded.
In all fairness to Mr. Biden, the shotgun is the ultimate showstopper for home defense. If I was a Hamburglar I’d much rather deal with a 55 grain, .223 round in my chest versus having no chest at all after being hit with a heavy, high brass, duck load out of a 12 gauge goose gun.
That said, however, the 2nd Amendment is in the Bill of Rights not the Bill of Needs and if we want an AR-15 to defend our castle then it is our right to choose. Yes, I said it. I’m pro-choice. Joe’s counsel is fraught with many foibles, chief amongst them is the aforementioned: it is our right to choose which weapon we’d like cover our backside, not what big government green lights.
And with that I’d like to announce that my little website, ClashDaily.com, is giving away, to a lucky subscriber, an AR-15. Register now and you might win this lovely weapon.
To make everyone happy, you can call it your whistle. Or how about calling it Whistler Mother? Registration is free. Good luck.
Doug Giles
Sunday, February 24, 2013
NRA Women's Network - Rising Through the Ranks
Katie Francis is one of the youngest female junior shooters in the circuit. At only 13-years-old, she has already accomplished more than most. Her father, Sergeant First Class Chad Francis, bought her a .22 when she was 9-years-old. At the age of 10, she got her first buck, an 8-point, with an AR-15. Today, the ambitious teenager has her sights set high, and counts the possibility of making an Olympic appearance as one of her goals.Saturday, February 23, 2013
Amanda Collins - Legislation Made Her a Rape Victim
NRA News profiles Amanda Collins, a rape victim with a very important message about the right to carry concealed weapons on college campuses - NRA News - November 30, 2011November 2011
February 2013
Women and Guns Discussed on The Five
Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, was criticized for comments he made Monday in defense of a bill to prevent concealed weapon carry on college campuses. From a published video:“There are some gender inequities on college campuses. This is true. And universities have been faced with that situation for a long time. That’s why we have call boxes. That’s why we have safe zones. That’s why we have the whistles. Because you just don’t know who you’re going to be shooting at. And you don’t know, if you feel like you’re going to be raped, or if you feel like someone’s been following you around, or if you feel like you’re in trouble and when you may actually not be, that you pop out that gun and you pop, pop around at somebody.”
Malkin said she has seen similar passive defense recommendations on other colleges’ websites, such as Oregon State University, State University of New York and University of Wisconsin. But advising women to arm themselves is a self-defense tip Malkin said is missing.
“It’s this nanny-state paternalism that I think is extremely dangerous to women,” Malkin said. “The idea that women can’t be trusted to make their own self-defense choices, that was the message that Joe Salazar sent, and it’s the message that a lot of these anti-gun college administrators send.”
Malkin said she supports concealed carry on campuses and wants to make sure her own daughter is comfortable protecting herself with a gun.
“I support freedom of choice when it comes to self-defense methods,” she said. “Unlike a lot of these democratic men, I don’t think women should only have whistles, call boxes and ball-point pens to defend themselves against violent sexual predators.”
Aired February 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Jessie Duff - World Champion Shooter
At the 37th Annual National Wild Turkey Federation Convention and Sport Show in Nashville, Tennessee, Cameron Gray talks to Jessie Duff, world champion shooter, and co-host of "Friends of NRA TV" on Outdoor Channel.Wednesday, February 20, 2013
NRA - We Are America - We're Free Already and We Allow Politicians to Be In Power
Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and all other elite politicians trying to marginalize the law-abiding, average American must never forget that they work for us.
Click HERE to join the NRA.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Sixteen Stories of Armed Citizens saving Themselves or Others
We often read of armed civilians committing crimes with their firearms.We read so little of armed citizens using their firearms to defend lives and property, to prevent crime etc.
Here are 16 True Stories...
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Gayle Trotter - Gun Rights Protects Weak
Gayle Trotter makes the case that mothers like her need guns to protect themselves and their children. Sean Hannity and Gayle discussed how the gun rights debates affect women and the elderly. Trotter maintained that women and the elderly should be able to defend themselves “with all the means necessary” when faced with intruders.February 2013
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Very Afraid - 66-Year-Old Woman Shoots and Kills Home Intruder
An elderly Northern California-woman woke early Friday morning to hear an intruder attempting to break into her home.Hopper says she was terrified
when she heard the intruder at her her door, firing two warning shots through her window to scare the man away. When 37-year-old Jesse Edward Theis persisted, attempting to come back in, Hopper fired a fatal shot in his abdomen, killing Theis on the scene.66 Year Old Woman Shoots Home Intruder To Death
Selecting a First Handgun (woman's perspective)
My own female opinions on selecting a very first handgun. (click arrow to get a topic - timeline)1:14 How I Categorize my Firearms
5:19 The Purpose of different guns
6:55 Handgun Features & what is most important to you
9:56 How all these guns fit my small hands (grip sizing)
14:08 A little about gun stores
15:16 semi-autos VS. revolvers (things to consider!!)
20:50 Beginners - Starting out with a 22 & developing good shooting habits
22:16 About the Ruger LCR (my current concealed carry self-defense pistol)
23:02 Types of 22 pistols
23:36 Self-defense guns
25:18 Range guns that can also work for self-defense (my recommendations)
26:36 My personal comparisons of the guns in this video, with range footage (Kel-Tec PF9, Kel-Tec P3AT, Glock 17, Ruger LCR, Ruger SP 101)
Women and Guns - Defending the Home
A young Oklahoma mother shot and killed an intruder to protect her 3-month-old baby on New Year's Eve, less than a week after the baby's father died of cancer.Sarah McKinley says that a week earlier a man named Justin Martin dropped by on the day of her husband's funeral, claiming that he was a neighbor who wanted to say hello. The 18-year-old Oklahoma City area woman did not let him into her home that day.
On New Year's Eve Martin returned with another man, Dustin Stewart, and this time was armed with a 12-inch hunting knife. The two soon began trying to break into McKinley's home.
As one of the men was going from door to door outside her home trying to gain entry, McKinley called 911 and grabbed her 12-gauge shotgun.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Massad Ayoob - Tailoring Guns to Females
So, I'm sitting here in a hotel writing this, less than three hours after getting off the witness stand in a manslaughter case. The defendant was a 5'3", 130-pound female who was being stalked by her sometimes-abusive estranged husband. It was a "backwoods home" kind of incident: the ex accosted her, with a male relative along (for moral support presumably), when she was trapped on a narrow dirt path on her dad's rural shooting range. There was no escape: her car was blocked in by his, and he had deflated one of her tires. Things escalated; he punched her, threw her to the ground, and kicked her. She took the beating in a fetal position, curled up to keep him from getting the gun that was tucked center-front inside her waistband. He left her on the ground and strode triumphantly back to his car, snarling "stupid bitch!" over his shoulder as he went. As he reached the car where she feared he had a weapon, he spun to face her, shouted a challenge, and appeared to be about to lunge at her again. At a range both prosecution and defense stipulated to be fifteen and a half feet, she fired from the ground. A .38 Special bullet cut his spinal cord, and he fell. The assault was over.
One reason I believe she was able to get the hit that probably saved her from being killed or crippled was that she was given that revolver by a father who was wise in the ways of firearms, and understood that the gun has to fit the shooter. It was a Colt SF-VI, an uncommon late variation of the D-frame revolver Colt introduced in 1907 as the Police Positive, and brought out with a short barrel like the SF-VI's in 1926 as the Detective Special. It's one of those very rare handguns that seems to fit small female hands and large male hands equally well. As I sit here waiting for the verdict, I'm reminded of a basic fact:
For equipment to work, it has to fit the user.
If you put a five-foot-tall woman behind the wheel of a truck or automobile whose seat has been adjusted for a six-foot-six male driver, she's not going to be able to drive that vehicle as safely or as well as she could if the seat was properly adjusted. The reach to the steering wheel won't be right for her shorter arms, nor the reach to the pedals for her shorter legs. It might even get to where she's not safe for herself or others running that poorly-fitting machine.
It's exactly the same with guns. When I learned that editor Annie Tuttle — a willowy, petite female herself — wanted an article on this topic, the same week I was in court for the above-mentioned case, supporting information was more readily at hand than usual.
Basic physical differences
In Volume 66, Number Three of the European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Therapy, we find an article titled "Gender Differences in Strength and Muscle Fiber Characteristics" by A.E.J. Miller, J.D. MacDougall, M.A. Tarnopolsky, and D.G. Sale. They write of their research on the title topic, "The women were approximately 52% and 66% as strong as the men in the upper and lower body respectively. The men were also stronger relative to lean body mass."
As a rule of thumb, it seems that few experts predict a woman to have more than two-thirds of a man's strength, even if the woman in question is the same height and weight as the man. Where does upper body strength come into it? If you're firing a rifle or shotgun from what we call "offhand," the standing position, one arm (usually the weaker, non-dominant arm) is out in front, supporting the weight of the gun and trying to hold it steady on the target.
Accordingly, a rifle or shotgun that's lighter in the front makes sense for someone whose long suit isn't upper body strength.
There's also the element of stock length. Col. Charles Askins, Jr., the legendary 20th century gun expert, was sent to Vietnam to train our allies there in riflery back in the 1950s. He found a population of soldiers whose height, on average, was about that of the average American female. The US Army had equipped them with surplus WWII Garand rifles, long guns that weighed nearly 10 pounds loaded. Col. Askins experimented with shortening the stocks at the butt and found that it helped, but the guns were still muzzle-heavy and hard for them to hold steady on target from an offhand position. When I discussed it with him back in the mid-‘70s, he told me that the little M1 carbine — a much shorter gun, weighing only six or so pounds — was much easier for them to manage. The .30 carbine round was anemic compared to the powerful .30-06 cartridge fired by the Garand, but the Colonel wisely reckoned that a hit from the carbine would do a lot more damage to the enemy than a miss from the more powerful, larger rifle.
Shortening the butt
In days of old, the traditional way of fitting a kid to a rifle or shotgun was to carefully saw off the back end of the stock, perhaps in slices like sliced bread. As the youngster "grew into the gun," lengths of the stock would be glued back in place, like adding bread slices, until it was eventually back to full length. Spend enough time cruising gun shops and gun shows — or just checking the gun cabinets in some rural families' homes — and you'll see shotguns and rifles which exhibit lines on the stocks where those segments were glued back on. You can almost count them as growth rings, like the rings inside the cross-section of a tree trunk. Often, for esthetics, a slip-on recoil pad like the Pachmayr would be applied, covering the glue lines and softening kick a little bit. (Those slip-on recoil pads can be handy things, sort of like rubber galoshes for guns. Like galoshes, they look ugly and sometimes fit sloppily, but also like galoshes they more or less get the job done.)
By the mid-20th century it came into vogue for gun manufacturers to offer rifles and shotguns with "youth stocks," pre-shortened to fit smaller folks. The theory was, as the kid grows up, the parent simply removes the metal-ware, the "barreled action," and fits it to an adult-size stock.
It turned out that "youth stocks" tended to fit petite to average-size females remarkably well. That is still the case. And of course, since the adult female won't be getting any taller and her arms won't be getting any longer, the need to buy a longer stock in the future is eliminated.
Adjustable stocks
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| Telescoping stock of AR15 is a boon to petite females. |
1994-2004 was the decade of the late and unlamented Clinton Assault Weapons Ban, which among other things forbade adjustable length stocks for rifles like the ubiquitous AR15. The multiple-position collapsing stock allows it to instantly adjust for arm length. It is a simple and remarkably effective solution to the stock length problem. The most common caliber for the AR15 rifle is .223 Remington/5.56mm NATO, which most of us consider a bit light for a deer rifle, but the AR platform is available in 6.8mm, a cartridge more suitable for deer-size game. Ergonomic in most other respects as well, an adjustable stock is the key for fitting such rifles to the physically smaller shooter. The telescoping stock is available for some other semiautomatic rifles as well, including one of our most popular .22s, the Ruger 10/22.
Telescoping stocks are also available for slide-action and semiautomatic shotguns. They're a functional alternative to the youth stock, if non-traditional looks don't get in the way of the given shooter's enjoyment of hunting and shooting experiences.
The dimension we're looking at is called "pull." On the gun, it is measured from the butt to the trigger. The quick "rule of thumb" test in the gun shop is to confirm that the rifle or shotgun is empty, bend your shooting arm 90 degrees, and place the butt in the inside crook of the elbow. If the trigger finger comfortably reaches the trigger, its fit for that shooter is generally considered "good to go."
The Winchester Model 70 Featherweight bolt action hunting rifle has just been reintroduced in a short stock format. The manufacturers' PR folks write, "With smaller-framed shooters and those who like a lightweight compact rifle in mind, Winchester Repeating Arms has introduced the Model 70 Featherweight Compact. The new rifle features a 20-inch barrel, a 13-inch length of pull, an overall length of 39½ inches and weighs just 6½ pounds. The Model 70 Compact is the perfect rifle for ladies, young shooters, and those looking for a light-weight mountain rifle."
For a rifle or shotgun, that thirteen-inch pull measurement seems just about right for the smaller-statured shooter. The Model 70 can be had in such popular hunting calibers as .243 and .308. Most of the other makers of bolt action rifles produce similar-size guns in a similar array of calibers. If you prefer a lever action, Marlin offers a shorter-stocked version of their classic .30-30. Remington and other makers have "youth-stocked" autoloading and slide-action shotguns.
Short-fingered female Florida state trooper gets the feel of her new Gen4 Glock 37 .45 at FHP Academy in Tallahassee. Photo courtesy Harris Publications.
Handguns
Over the years, we've found some other handguns that work very well in smaller hands. One is a classic 1935 design, the 9mm Browning Hi-Power, now also available in caliber .40 S&W. Another, counterintuitively, is a classic "big man's gun," the 1911 pistol, a/k/a the Colt .45 automatic.
After WWI, the US Army Ordnance board conducted an assessment of small arms used in the conflict. Many doughboys complained that the trigger on the 1911 .45 pistol was too long. In the 1911A1 update of that handgun in the 1920s, the trigger was shortened considerably and the frame was niched out at the back of the trigger guard area, so the shooter "could get more finger on the trigger." This turned out to be an ideal trigger reach for short fingers. 1911s are also available in calibers that kick more softly than .45, such as .38 Super and 9mm.
As "pull" in terms of stock length is the key to the shooter finding a rifle or shotgun that fits her, "trigger reach" is the most important dimension for fitting the pistol or revolver to the hand. Holding the unloaded handgun with its barrel straight in line with the long bones of the forearm, the index finger wants to be able to comfortably reach the trigger with enough leverage to pull it straight back without deviating the muzzle off target.
That finger placement is in part dependent on the weight and length of the trigger pull. With a semiautomatic target pistol that might have a "light trigger" of less than four pounds pull weight, the tip or the pad of the finger may be sufficient. (The "pad" of the finger is generally described as where you would find the whorl of the fingerprint.) This is also a suitable finger placement on most rifle and shotgun triggers. However, if the shooter has something like a double action revolver whose trigger pull is long and relatively heavy, she'll want to be contacting the trigger at the crease of the index finger's distal joint. This will give the finger more leverage with which to bring that trigger straight to the rear while still holding the muzzle on target.
Petite teenage competitor Nikki Pinto deftly wields her S&W M&P 9mm, its backstrap adjusted for "size small" hand, at 2009 International Defensive Pistol Association's US National Championships.
Adjustable grip pistols
In addition to the older handgun designs mentioned above, it is definitely wise to check out the modern generation of polymer-framed semiautomatic pistols with interchangeable "straps" on the back of the grip-frame. The concept dates back to Walther of Germany in the early 1990s, and in addition to that company's products can be found on several more: the Smith & Wesson Military & Police auto pistol line, some of the Heckler and Koch pistols, the XD(m) imported to the US from Croatia by Springfield Armory, and the recently introduced Gen4 Glock series. The interchangeable hard backstraps allow the guns to be fitted to a wide variety of hands. The adjustment potential greatly improves the shooter's ability to achieve a trigger reach that fits her hand.
My friend Melissa Oman is in charge of firearms training for the Florida Highway Patrol. Not too long ago, her agency became the first department in the country to adopt the Gen4 Glock 37, a service pistol that holds eleven rounds of .45 GAP. The GAP (Glock Auto Pistol) round is a shortened version of the great old .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) cartridge which duplicates the ballistics of a full power, standard pressure ACP round. Melissa formed a selection committee that included veteran troopers and district post firearms instructors from all round the state, to evaluate a number of different firearms when it came time to select a new pistol.
The Gen4 Glock was the majority choice because, in part, of its interchangeable backstrap feature. It was imperative that the gun fit the hands of the many petite female troopers on the force. The committee felt that the Gen4 Glock achieved this better than anything else they tested.
Melissa tells me that since the adoption, virtually all the smaller-handed female troopers issued the new gun have gone with the shortest trigger reach its optional fit offers. Interestingly, a significant majority of larger-handed troopers of both genders have made the same choice.
Jennie Van Tuyl shows rapid fire recoil control with her short-stocked custom Remington 1100 20-gauge autoloading shotgun. On her hip is another gun that fits small hands well, a J-frame Smith & Wesson revolver.
The pool firearm
A "pool" gun is one that will be used by multiple people. The rifle and shotgun my department has in every patrol vehicle may on a given day have to be used by a day shift officer, an evening shift patrolman, and a midnight shift cop: therefore, each is a "pool weapon."
If a farmhouse has only one rifle or shotgun available, that's also a "pool gun" situation. When the fox is in the henhouse or when a home invader is kicking in the door, that gun may have to be used by six-foot Dad, five-foot Mom, or a responsible adolescent well-trained by parents in emergency management. The gun will have to fit them all adequately.
My advice for a pool firearm is this: SET IT UP TO FIT THE SMALLEST PERSON AUTHORIZED TO USE IT! Yes, the all caps and the exclamation point DO mean I'm shouting, because this point is deserving of special emphasis.
A stock that's too long for the shooter is absolutely destructive to their ability to effectively use the rifle or shotgun. Many of us have seen (or been) the little kid who fires Daddy's 12-gauge and gets knocked flat on his or her butt. The reason is that to hold the long-stocked gun up, the shooter has to rock her shoulders back. This takes her off-balance. I've seen physically strong but short-statured women trying to rapidly fire "man-size" 12-gauges with their front foot literally off the ground after the second or third shot. I've seen them staggered backward by the recoil. The reason is that the too-long stock forces them off balance.
A SHORTER than optimal length stock, by contrast, presents a much smaller problem to the larger shooter. One simply tucks into the gun. (Taking the shotgun down to 20 gauge, by the way, affords softer recoil, and still is amply powerful for many shotgun tasks.)
With handguns, a too-long trigger reach is destructive to accuracy because the shooter has to make one of two unsatisfactory accommodations. Either the finger isn't on the trigger enough, which will tend to cause the finger to "push the shot" to the left for a right-handed shooter (vice versa for a southpaw), or the hand has to twist around to where recoil is channeled painfully into the thumb instead of the web of the hand, which can severely impair recovery from recoil between shots.
However, when the gun with shorter trigger reach is in a larger hand, it's no big trick for the shooter to simply flex the median joint of the trigger finger outward a little bit, to make the trigger pull manageable. Thus, with handgun as well as long gun, the larger shooter adapts to the shorter person's firearm more easily and effectively than the smaller person can adapt to a firearm fitted for a larger shooter.
Bottom Line
Fit. It's a critical factor in the interface between us humans and the machines and tools we use. The firearm is a tool. Fit it right to the user, and it will serve you well
Massad Ayoob
Massad F. Ayoob is an internationally known firearms and self-defense instructor.
Massad Ayoob has authored several books and more than 1,000 articles on firearms, combat techniques, self-defense, and legal issues, and has served in an editorial capacity for Guns Magazine, American Handgunner, Gun Week, and Combat Handguns.
Massad Ayoob was former Vice Chairman of the Forensic Evidence Committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), and is believed to be the only non-attorney ever to hold this position.
http://massadayoobgroup.com/
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Monday, April 9, 2012
PolitiChicks - This Chick Is Packin'! GunChick Jan Morgan Talks Women and Guns
What is the historical position of the Founding Fathers on the 2nd Amendment and the American Citizens 'Right' to Arm themselves?Barack Obama has made it perfectly clear what his position is and even though Obama is purportedly a 'Constitutional Scholar' - his record, statements, actions and policies indicate he is 100% AGAINST the 2nd Amendment.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Doug Giles - Good Girl with Gun Lives, Bad Guy with Knife Dies
To make certain this occurs, the innocent party has to be able to do one or two things when the crap hits the fan:
1. Open up a can of whup ass and immobilize the foul weed, thus sending him to the hospital.
2. Double-lung the loser with a hot dose of lead, thus sending him to hell.
Yes, the one being preyed upon has to be able to do the abovementioned because the quickest cop on the planet cannot respond fast enough to save your backside should things go violently south. You dig? Oh, I know … it will never happen to you.
Of the aforementioned, an 18-year-old Oklahoma teen mom, Sarah McKinley, selected option #2 this past week. McKinley, who had just lost her husband to lung cancer on Christmas Day, was home with her 3-month-old baby boy on New Year’s Eve when two dillweeds decided they were going to break into her casa. Good Sarah was having none of it. Are you paying attention, ladies? You are? Excellent.
McKinley, upon hearing and spotting one of the Darwinian holdovers wielding a 12-inch hunting knife, cordoned off her door with a couch, put a bottle in her kid’s mouth to keep him calm and then proceeded to the sweet place where her 12-gauge shotgun and handgun reside. Smart chick. I bet Jesus really likes her.
Upon arming herself, she called 911 to get a green light from dispatch to dispatch the two dipsticks of bad intent. Sarah is both polite and deadly—a two-fer, boys. Upon getting the nod from Nine One One, McKinley then dusted the knife wielder, and the other bandit fled the scene and was later arrested when Goofy called emergency to report his dead buddy.
This is the kind of story that we should read about more often; namely, the evil SOB is dead, and the innocent girl and her baby are alive, and all of this occurred because the femme fatale had the wherewithal and the knowledge to defend herself with a lethal weapon—also known as my friend, the gun.
Check it out, mamas: I guarantee that as she was sitting there alone with her tiny bambino on New Year’s Eve, Sarah probably thought that things couldn’t get any worse after losing her husband on Christmas Day. And yet things did get worse. But, thankfully, she was trained and had a gun. This dire situation ended well for her and hers all because of her wood and metal amigo … the gun.
How would you fare, my dear reader, if you were tossed in that same situation? Would the headline read the same as dear Sarah’s does, or would the perpetrator gain the upper hand because you can’t or won’t protect yourself, your brood and your castle?
Doug Giles
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
'American Guns' Stars on 'Fox & Friends'
Wyatt Family owns Gunsmoke gun shopOctober 17, 2011
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Sunday, September 4, 2011
Wild Bill for America - "Gun Nuts and Skirts"
Respect for women, 2nd Amendment style!Related Post: Massad Ayoob - Against a rapist
Related Post: Massad Ayoob - Women and Guns
Related Post: Massad Ayoob - ALL WOMEN SHOOTING MATCH
Visit the Wild Bill for America Blog
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Sunday, August 14, 2011
Massad Ayoob - Women and Guns
In a time when what used to be called "the women's liberation movement" has achieved many of its goals in terms of equality and empowerment, the concept that guns are somehow evil icons of male brutality has managed to survive as the longest-standing relic of the old "Suzie Housewife mentality."Political enfranchisement? Of course! Entry into previously male-exclusive job markets? A done deal, for the most part. Economic power and self-determination? You bet.
But defend yourself and your loved ones against a deadly criminal, by resorting to a gun of your own? "OMG!!! You're just surrendering to the brutal male mentality!"
The Attitude Part
In almost thirty years of teaching female armed citizens, and longer than that teaching female cops, I've come to the conclusion that once you get past old-fashioned cultural predispositioning, women may actually be better and more decisive students of the gun.
You don't jump up on a chair and shriek when you see a mouse in the kitchen? You don't exclaim, "I declare! I do believe I have a case of the vapors coming on," and faint when there's trouble? Good—indications are that you're on the way to getting past the cultural canard that women are supposed to be helpless and totally reliant on men to protect them.
Most firearms instructors agree that women have a faster learning curve than men in this discipline. They tend to have better fine motor coordination, as a rule, and pulling a trigger without deviating the muzzle off target is most definitely a fine motor skill. Their biggest advantage is that they are not born believing that because of their gender, they automatically know how to do something masculine. I've found that the female student more than the male wants to know, not just "how do you do that?" but "why do you do it that way?" With a proper explanation, she follows instructions, finds the results good, and moves on. With some of the males—not all, certainly, but some—the reaction is, "Ungawa! If Mongo do what instructor say, Mongo become ‘beta' and instructor become ‘alpha.' I, MONGO, am alpha! Mongo must keep doing it Mongo's way! Ungawa!" It's like de-programming cult victims sometimes...
There is a misperception that women won't have the intestinal fortitude to pull the trigger when it's necessary. That's only true with an armed female who has bought into the "jump-on-the-chair-when-you-see-a-mouse" mentality. The female of the species, once she understands the situation, has no illusions that she's supposed to kick the knife out of the attacker's hand, or knock him unconscious with a right cross like the Lone Ranger. She's less likely to hesitate. An outdoorswoman who is hunting to feed her family is not going to break down in weepy-eye flashbacks to Walt Disney's film Bambi when the venison is in her sights; she's going to hold her aim steady, and smoothly press the trigger back.
The Hardware
The gunstock can be customized by a gunsmith (or by an individual who is really handy with tools and really knows the gun in question). Or, in many cases, it can simply be ordered with a "youth stock."
Why, you may ask, don't they ever call it a "women's stock?" Ah, a topic opens here. We are a nation that tries to put racism behind it, and can't quite achieve that. We are a nation that would probably like to put misogyny behind it, but can't achieve that, either. Historically and culturally, the gun has been perceived as a "male only" object. And frankly, in many respects, a male-only totem. How many young boys with even a hint of machismo about them would want a first-time hunting rifle or shotgun with a "women's stock" for Christmas? On the other hand, many slender women have grown accustomed to buying practical jeans in "boys' sizes," and more women have purchased sneakers or boots in "youth sizes," too.
It's a marketing thing.
If we can just set that part of it aside, the main point we take from it is: "youth stocks" fit smaller-statured people, among whom are a lot of women. Therefore, youth stocks are extremely useful for adapting shotguns and rifles to female shooters.
This makes an AR15 with a telescoping stock a "family gun," if you will. Momma Bear, Poppa Bear, and Baby Bear can all make it work if they know what to do with it, and in an instant can adjust the gun to fit them. We're seeing similar telescoping stocks made available for shotguns such as that classic "backwoods home" scattergun, the Remington 870 slide action. We're also seeing it available now for the popular Ruger Mini-14. It was not for nothing that one of the most popular models of Mini-14 was named by Ruger the "Ranch Rifle." Adaptability is good. In a rural family setting, whether the gun is needed to put food on the table, keep the fox from the chicken coop, or repel the proverbial wolf from the door, a gun which responsible young people, petite moms, and burly dads can all use interchangeably makes a helluva lot of sense, in this observer's opinion.
With handguns as well as rifles or shotguns, fit to the user is important. Nationwide, we're seeing a huge increase in not only sales of pistols and revolvers, but applications for permits to carry them loaded and concealed in public. Quite apart from what it says about social trends and crime predictions, for the self-sufficient rural family the issue is that when you need a gun, you often need it now, and don't have time to go back to the cabin, the tractor, or the horse to unlimber a long gun. A handgun on your hip or in your pocket is always with you.
Handguns—like long guns—tend to be designed and built "by fighting men, for fighting men." If you look at the history of "fighting men" (more in the police service than in the military service, actually) you find that larger males were given preference over the smaller ones for certain duties. At the time little Audie Murphy became the most highly decorated soldier of WWII, there were many police departments back home that wouldn't have hired him because he didn't make the height and weight requirements. Read this late, great hero's autobiography, To Hell and Back, and you'll see that Murphy's preferred fighting guns were the little M1 carbine (not to be confused with the much bigger, much more powerful M1 Garand rifle in caliber .30-06, which weighed nearly twice as much), and the Model 1911A1 pistol.
A "backwoods home" kind of kid, Audie Murphy had grown up feeding his family with animals he shot in the woods. He had become a deadly marksman. The little M1 carbine fit his small stature, and he littered the ground of Europe with German soldiers he killed with his. The M/1911A1 pistol had been redesigned from the original M/1911 after WWI to fit smaller hands, because in a time when the average male was smaller than males today, the first model's trigger had been too long to reach effectively. Today, in a time when the average adult American male stands much taller than his counterpart in the year 1918 (thanks to better nutrition, better prenatal care, and similar factors), most makers of 1911-style pistols have gone back to the earlier, longer triggers. However, short 1911A1 triggers are still available, and they perfectly fit small hands with short fingers.
The dimension called "pull" factor on a rifle or shotgun is best described as "trigger reach" on a handgun. It is measured on the hand from the center of the web of the hand to the contact point of the finger on the trigger, and on the gun from the center of the curve of the trigger to the backstrap of the handgun's frame. A person with large hands/long fingers can make do with a short-trigger-reach handgun, but a person with small hands/short fingers may not be able to get enough leverage on a gun that has a heavy pull and a long reach to even pull the trigger to make it fire.
The bottom line is a simple one: make sure the firearm in question fits the smallest person authorized to use it, and the largest person in the family will be able to make do with it. The opposite is not true.
(Yes, Audie Murphy won his Congressional Medal of Honor firing a humongous .50 caliber Browning M2 machinegun from the top of a burning tank destroyer. However, the built-in stand for the gun compensated for his compact physical size. Yes, Audie Murphy once wiped out a German staff car and all its occupants with a roughly 20-pound Browning Automatic Rifle he grabbed from a larger soldier as the vehicle loomed near...but neither you nor I are the reincarnation of Audie Murphy.)
Shooting Techniques.
Women tend to have less upper body strength and hand strength than men of the same height. That's not an advantage, from the standpoint of shooting a gun effectively. The other side of the coin is that women tend to have a lower center of gravity than their brothers the same height, and pound for pound tend to be stronger from the waist down. This is why the twin sister beats the twin brother in something like "Indian leg wrestling," and it's why women need to pay more attention to shooting stance than men of the same size.
The stance—the body position when you fire the
With rifle, shotgun, or handgun, if a 220-pound male body-builder with 7% body fat leans backward as he fires, the recoil force of the gun will cantilever him backward and send the muzzle jumping so high that the next shot might hit a duck in the air, but not a deer on the ground. However, if a 110-pound female shooter has her body weight maybe 60% onto a flexed forward leg, and is digging her rear heel into the ground with the rear leg's knee just unlocked, and her upper body is forward of center, her body dynamics will almost instantly overcome the recoil force of the weapon and snap her gun back on target for an immediate second shot if that is necessary.
Physically small people with limited body strength who know how to use what they have to work with, will almost invariably outshoot big, strong people shooting with old-fashioned techniques. (Umm...did I mention Audie Murphy already?)
The Proof Is Out There.
Do a Google search of winners of National Championship rifle matches in the United States over the last several years. Your research will show you that a disproportionate number of the relatively few women who compete against men have won the overall National Championship titles. Rifle shooting involves firing from awkward positions, such as sitting. Female flexibility has an advantage here. We've talked about the fine motor skill factor, but consider also that little thing called "concentration," which so many professional educators say favors the female over the male. Is concentration a factor in shooting well? Do bears go potty in the woods?
Shotguns? One name for you: Kim Rhode. This young woman has for many years been America's superstar in Olympic shotgun shooting.
The Bottom Line.
For God's sake, people, we've seen the role models here, in the pages of Backwoods Home Magazine, over many years. Jackie Clay takes her Winchester Model 94 .30-30, the quintessential deer rifle, into the woods and shoots a white-tail, cleans the carcass, and takes it home and butchers it into steaks and chops and stew and burgers with which to feed her family.
Annie Tuttle, our editor at Backwoods Home, not only takes over from The Patriarch and runs the whole damn magazine, but makes sure that she and her babies are safe at home while her husband serves his country overseas in the United States Armed Forces. Her home protection system goes up to and includes a Springfield Armory SOCOM-16, short enough for a petite female to handle with aplomb, and chambered for 7.62mm NATO, deadly enough to do a remarkably convincing imitation of what Audie Murphy did to that WWII Nazi vehicle and every enemy combatant on board, with a Browning Automatic Rifle. If any violent home invaders attempt to intrude on this little mother's nest of babies, I know the attackers' autopsy reports will be ugly to read, but my own final assessment would be "Cause of Death of Intruders: Sudden and Acute Failure of the Victim Selection Process."
The lioness is often more formidable than the lion. No instinct is stronger than that of mother protecting child. There is nothing unfeminine about strength and empowerment. One of the best informational resources I can recommend for either gender is www.corneredcat.com, by the formidable Kathy Jackson. Armed and Female by Paxton Quigley is another great read, and Gila Hayes' new book, Personal Defense for Women came out last fall.
End of discussion as far as I'm concerned...but you can always debate the issue with me on my blog.
Massad Ayoob
Massad F. Ayoob is an internationally known firearms and self-defense instructor.
Massad Ayoob has authored several books and more than 1,000 articles on firearms, combat techniques, self-defense, and legal issues, and has served in an editorial capacity for Guns Magazine, American Handgunner, Gun Week, and Combat Handguns.
Massad Ayoob was former Vice Chairman of the Forensic Evidence Committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), and is believed to be the only non-attorney ever to hold this position.
http://massadayoobgroup.com/
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Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Massad Ayoob - ALL WOMEN SHOOTING MATCH
A few weeks ago, I attended a way cool pistol match. Usually, I go to these things as a competitor. This time, my function was reporter, spectator, and “ammo boy.”The occasion was the first all-women’s event in the Glock Shooting Sports Foundation discipline. This Glock Girl Gala was the brainchild of Lisa Marie Judy, a gun enthusiast and activist for firearms owners’ civil rights in Reevesville, SC. Lisa Marie’s feedback from other women interested in firearms was that pistol matches, being generally male-dominated, seemed too intimidating to enter. An “estrogen event” seemed to be in order. She got permission from GSSF to host one, with the promise that if she got 100 entries, it would go on the calendar again.
She got OVER a hundred. From junior to senior in age group. Single ladies and married ones, professional women and housewives. It was a fun atmosphere, and a family one, with husbands, boyfriends, and dads along to assist and encourage. There was a substantial contingent of female law enforcement personnel, as well.
I noticed a very strong element of mutual support among the ladies, distinctly more than I usually see at regular matches among “the guys.”
As a father of daughters, I found it a joy to watch. A huge percentage of the attendees were shooting their first match, and Lisa Marie was gratified by how many said afterward that they wanted to attend more matches, “co-ed” or otherwise. The “Palmetto Glock Girlshootout” had proven itself to be a very effective port of entry for women into sport shooting. Look for a full length article on the match in the next issue of “Glock Autopistols” magazine; some of the photos here are used with that publication’s permission.
Check out the GSSF rules and regs at www.gssfonline.com. I hope this concept catches on. The world of shooting needs more such events, in this writer’s opinion. Congrats to Lisa Marie, the GSSF folks, and all the many volunteers of both genders who made it happen!
Shooters await their turn on the firing line.
Lisa Marie Judy and GSSF’s Scotty Banks break up a log-jam in the “waiting to shoot” list.
This uniquely-executed Glock 17L was the “auction gun” for the event.
This is the “Glock-M” setup, one third of the match.
Earmuffs in pink, Glock .45 in always-appropriate basic black.
Not without a whimsical sense of humor, Lisa Marie Judy ordered these porta-potties for the event.
Massad Ayoob
Massad F. Ayoob is an internationally known firearms and self-defense instructor.
Massad Ayoob has authored several books and more than 1,000 articles on firearms, combat techniques, self-defense, and legal issues, and has served in an editorial capacity for Guns Magazine, American Handgunner, Gun Week, and Combat Handguns.
Massad Ayoob was former Vice Chairman of the Forensic Evidence Committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), and is believed to be the only non-attorney ever to hold this position.
http://massadayoobgroup.com/
NOTE: To share or email this 'Specific' article, you must click on the Title of the article.
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