Women

Def Leppard. One of my favorite rock bands (no; not that kind of rock - & that'll be the last time I use that joke tyvm). No commentary this time. Just listen if you haven't before. Here's the vid.

I've (along with many other male gun bloggers) talked quite a bit about the importance of encouraging women to become proficient with arms. I'm just going to repeat myself here, albeit briefly & hopefully more concisely.

It comes down to a few very simple premises. If you're bothered by your lady (or sister or mother, etc...) possessing the means to resist or inflict force then either you don't trust her or your motives are suspect.

If you have a lady in your life that you think is not to be trusted with the moral responsibility of arms ownership then (unless she's incapable of emancipation) she shouldn't be in your life. It's that simple.

If however she can be trusted with weighty moral matters & you still don't wish for her to be armed then excuse my simplifying the matter but you're either incapable of grasping that anyone can make the correct decisions or your intent is less than honorable.

Christopher Titus talks in his act of his mother killing a step-father of his. The short version is that the son-of-a-bitch she married beat her to a pulp, so she shot him 3 times resulting in his death. Titus sums it up by saying, "I guess she didn't want him to do that any more". & that, in all its redneckish comedic glory, is the essence of it. If you trust your lady then you shouldn't have a problem with her being capable of making sure you don't abuse her. If you don't intend on abusing her but don't trust her then it's arguable that you made a bad decision in a partner.

But that's just me. I'll grant there could be some situations where you wouldn't trust someone you're with in such matters but would not feel free to abandon them (such as during severe depression or some other emotionally or mentally incapacitating event).

In any case don't take it personal. I'm just trying to stress the point that if a lady meets a man who doesn't like the idea of her being a gun owner then I'd advise her to reconsider her association with the fellow.

I've taken several ladies shooting over the years & 2 of them even walked away from our associations with a firearm (albeit one was just a long term loaner). If they just didn't like or enjoy shooting I'd have let it drop, but if for some reason I felt they weren't stable enough to own a firearm then I'd have quickly moved on. It's not so much some kind of gun nut prejudice, but a gun is a very simple device to use, both physically & morally. I could say the same about a car or a knife - if I felt they were incompetent in their capability of using any of those things then I'd have not been able to consider them for anything beyond a very casual acquaintance.

The political aspect is there to be sure; if women as a group become more apt to participate in shooting sports of some sort (or simply own firearms themselves) then they'll be less likely to fall for gun control pushing politicians. But honestly that's a secondary or perhaps tertiary aspect of it for me.

See when I was growing up I had a lot of friends that were ladies. In fact most of my friends past & present have been women. A good portion of those friends ended up calling me in the middle of the night on at least two occasions to tell me that their "man" (& I use the word oh-so-loosely) had hit them, or beat them up, or assaulted them. After a few years it dawned on me that if they had been more active in shooting or some other martial act then maybe they'd have had the determination as well as the means to stop such attacks. Because of the responsibility involved firearms use (when taught & practiced correctly) can build up confidence & self esteem as well as provide the ability for a 105 pound woman to not have to submit to a 200 pound jerk.

So if you haven't already, do try to encourage the ladies in your life to hit the range with you. & if one of them calls you up one day to tell you about this "wonderful" guy she's moving in with but who hates the idea of her having a gun in the house, then advise her as best you can to reconsider her choice in men. Those middle of the night phone calls (like I discussed above) just aren't fun for anybody.

Posted by Publicola at May 18, 2007 05:33 AM | TrackBack