I was a teen in the 1970s when we knew there were dangers out there and yet we were still a bit naive.
I took a bus to a doctor’s appointment in the city, I was 16 at the time. The appointment was much longer than I had anticipated and instead of using my remaining money for the bus ride home I spent it on lunch and decided to walk home. It was a 9 mile walk, around noon on a warm summer day. The roads I walked were very busy with traffic and I felt safe.
I noticed someone following me and chose to ignore him. Soon he caught up with me and started talking to me. I tried to keep things as short as possible but remain polite as I had been taught.
The busy road I was on passed a lake on one side and a patch of over grown weeds and trees on my side. All of the sudden he grabbed me, with his left hand over my mouth he dragged me into the weeds. He told me that he had a knife and that he would cut me if I didn’t do what he told me to do.
I was completely unarmed, or at least I had no weapon.
The only protection I had was in the Lord. I prayed that God would give me one little thing to get myself out of that situation. He gave me two. A spider and a comb.
A large spider was crawling up his leg, I pointed to it and he moved the hand which was behind me and I saw he had a comb in his hand, not a knife.
I ended up biting him and escaping.
That whole time no one stopped to help me on that busy road and I know that, at the age of 16, I would not have been allowed to carry a firearm anyways, but it taught me that I needed to be more responsible for my own protection. I had been a prayer away from being sexually assaulted or worse and that really opened my eyes.
Since conceal and carry was not an option at that age I took martial arts training and listened to others that taught self defense. I learned to be more aware of my surroundings and any possible threats.
I still do not have my conceal and carry permit (my husband is working on getting his first) but I am learning to shoot for home defense. I have friends that conceal and carry and I can tell you that when I go out with them, even to a fast food restaurant, I feel very safe. I know that as I grow older my martial arts training will only help so much and times truly have changed with more criminals carrying guns and mobs of teens roaming around looking to beat people for sport. No amount of martial arts training would help me if I was out numbered 5 to 1, but I know that if I were to carry even a six shot revolver the odds would be equalized.
Now to address the most common argument, “What if someone takes your gun from you and uses it on you?”. This is what most anti-gun nuts think will happen.
I am not an expert and maybe I would revise this after I take my conceal and carry course, but the way I look at it is, no one would know I have it unless I absolutely had to use it. I would move to avoid conflict (be aware of your surroundings), face a potential attacker and say “stay back”, if they keep coming at me, they’re intent on bodily harm and I have to make a choice, where to aim.
It is my Constitutional right and my duty to protect my family and myself. I believe that more women should be more active in their own defense. If we saw more headlines that read “Rapist Shot by Intended Victim” we would soon see fewer headlines that read “Body of Rape Victim Found”.
With that I say “Annie, get your gun!”