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The Gun Show

A Girl and Her Gun: The Gun Show

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The Gun Show

Due to a couple of incidents that put my personal safety and those of my family in potential danger, I was forced to confront the realities that I had no real way to defend myself or protect my children.  After a life long aversion and fear of guns, I began a quest to learn about different ways to accomplish that task, the one of protection.  Naturally, part of that quest led me to guns.

It took me about a year to even accept the idea that I would one day have a gun or that I might actually have to seriously consider having one in my house.

That year was an emotional one for me as I confronted my fears and my previously held views on guns, gun control, and people who own firearms for anything other than hunting. As with any belief that one subscribes to for any length of time, letting it go, is not easy.  Even when I logically was able to accept and even believe that my thoughts and feelings were  unfounded, I couldn't help, but feel like I was doing something wrong.  Something irresponsible.  Something that was contributing to the violence that I was striving to avoid.

My emotions were not easy to control.

I began on a journey to find out everything about gun laws, different kinds of guns, what all the lingo meant, accidental death statistics that involved guns & children and just who owns all these guns anyway. I read everything I could get my hands on and I watched everything there was to watch on the internet and I attempted to talk to everyone and anyone who had any knowledge on the subject at all.  There is so much information, but much of it incomplete and confusing, so I decided to try to contact some local gun clubs, guns stores, pawn shops, outdoor sports stores, and ranges in the hopes that responsible gun owners would relish the fact that I was interested in learning.

Not so much.

I had questions and no one, not one single person was interested in answering me.  Sure there were some polite sales people that attempted to humor me, but mostly they just rushed me along.

I was in the possession of this brand new gun, but I possessed very little knowledge and I became increasingly frustrated and scared that I could not find anyone or anyplace that could help learn how to be a responsible gun owner.

I had signed up for a gun safety and personal defense class, but that was weeks away and in the mean time, I couldn't just sit around and wonder what to do and how to handle this awesome responsibility.

One of my many frustrations revolved around my inability to find a holster that would meet the requirements of the course instructor for my up coming self defense course.  Actually, I had found several online, but they were all back ordered and couldn't be guaranteed to arrive in time.

As luck would have it, there was a gun show coming to my town and I was determined to go and find an acceptable holster.

What I found was much, much more.

4 Comments:

At January 8, 2012 at 6:45 PM , Blogger GunDiva said...

I am so, so sorry that you couldn't find anyone to talk to you. I was unbelievably lucky to find my gun shop and the guys were so female friendly - they loved to talk and to teach.

I know that my first gun shop experience was not the norm, but I wish it was.

I've been shooting seriously for about eight years, have worked at a gun shop, have been trained by some amazing people and have a fair bit of gun knowledge. Yet I *still* have to take a male into Sportsman's Warehouse with me to get any service and even then, they'll direct all comments to the male I'm with, even if I'm the one asking questions. Things like that frustrate me to no end and there's really no excuse for it.

 
At January 9, 2012 at 5:45 AM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

GunDiva, for the most part, I have been blown away by the support the men in this community have given me, but it was very rough in the beginning.

I don't get it. I mean, yes, absolutely I was totally clueless. Probably not many people more clueless about guns then I was, but I think we can better when it comes to helping people like learn.

The good thing is that the not so nice guys are the exception to the rule, but unfortunately for me, in the beginning, they were all at my local gun shops:)

I am very thankful I am finding blogs like yours and many other women(love the guys blogs too, they have been awesome to me)to help me get a better understanding of things.

 
At March 13, 2012 at 4:48 PM , Blogger Alex said...

Kudos to ya. Seriously... a gun is such a small tool in our hands, but it carries a lot of weight. Sometimes the ownership and responsibility of having one seems like a tough path to cross, as if there's a big wall ahead. It's good that you managed to get past that, and it's great that you found a crowd that helped you out in that regard.

- Alex Galletti

 
At April 2, 2012 at 11:19 AM , Blogger RMTactical said...

Glad to see a woman getting involved with firearms.

 

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