Self-defense Strategies for the Family

Earlier this week, Natalie Foster, creator of Girls Guide to Guns and host of Love at First Shot, had this article at America's 1st Freedom on the subject of Moms and Armed Self-defense.

The firearm, the safe, the training—it’s the holy trinity of gun ownership. Across our Second Amendment-loving community, there exists a general consensus that these three elements shall not be separated. I learned this the day I was given my first gun, and have abided by it ever since. And like many single women, back then I obtained my concealed-carry permit, was diligent about my own safety and maintained my gun training religiously. Situational awareness was always paramount in my thinking, as my trainers, colleagues and family had preached. But those were the days before I became a mom.

Yes, I’ve still got the guns and the safes, but my training needs an update. Sure, many of the basic skills I’ve learned over a few years of training still apply, but when I’ve got my son with me, the rules change altogether—and not in my favor.

For example, when you’re alone, getting into the car in a parking lot is simple. You’ve got your situational awareness radar up and keys in hand long before you approach the vehicle. You walk quickly and confidently toward the car, press the unlock button on approach, open the door, sit down and lock it. You’ve moved safely from parking lot to secured vehicle in a matter of seconds.

Now add a kid. The task list becomes much longer: Lock stroller wheels, place child in car seat, buckle car seat, throw diaper bag in the floorboard, open trunk, fold stroller, heave stroller into trunk, close trunk, rummage inside diaper bag for the snack you swear you packed, hand child the snack, grab bottle (is the temperature ok?), hand cold bottle to the child, close all open car doors, walk around the car, open driver door (shoot, where are the keys?), find the keys, seatbelt, lock door. Whew.

She goes on to talk about the special needs of the mom, and how, with a couple of exceptions, there is very little defense training tailored to parents.  She ends the article by imploring trainers to develop training that addresses the special needs of a moms and dads with children.

Apparently Foster is not the only person thinking about this topic.  On the same day her article was posted, I received my weekly email from DownrangeTV that included the below video on family self-defense strategies.  In the video, Michael Janich of Spyderco, Inc., discusses how one of the things the family primary defender should consider is to make sure you have at least some type of a plan that allows your family to get to safety while you take care of business.

 

Natalie Foster on Buying Your First Handgun

Woman are the fastest growing segment of the gun owning community.  But what if you've made the decision to own a firearm and have no experience on what to look for in that first purchase?  A trip to the gun store can be overwhelming if you’re buying your first firearm.  Girls Guide to Guns co-founder Natalie Foster follows two first time gun buyers as they take their first steps toward gun ownership.

NRA and Moms

Fastcompany.com has this article about NRA's marketing and suggests they are targeting moms as a response to the supposed success of Moms Demand Action:

The National Rifle Association doesn't make its demographic makeup public, although you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who wouldn't concede it is overwhelmingly white, conservative, and male. (Gun ownership data published by Pew Research seems to support this.) But lately, it seems like the NRA's leadership is especially interested in courting a new and very vocal demographic with considerable household influence: moms.

I don't know that NRA is specifically targeting moms, but with female gun ownership at all time highs, it only makes sense that the NRA would reach out to women.

That same article included a graphic from Dave Kopel's new piece in America's First Freedom about Shannon Watts, the head of Moms Demand Action. Apparently, Fastcompany.com didn't like that Kopel exposed the facts about Shannon Watts' background because they referred to the article as a "hit piece."  Apparently, Shannon Watts isn't very happy with how the NRA depicted her in that graphic either.

It's probably no accident that this attention to NRA's marketing comes on the heels of NRA unveiling a new membership campaign which features a number of women, one of which is below.