Women’s Empowerment

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“Trying not to over-think it, I raised the gun, located the target, and pulled the trigger of the .22. The gun barked, kicking in my hands. I hadn’t hit the black square in the center, but I wasn’t far from it. Roe kept coaching me, I kept firing, and 45 minutes later, when we switched to the 9-mm, which recoiled so markedly that I swore in surprise, I wasn’t half bad at it. In fact, I discovered, I liked it. . . .
“Equalizer. The word stuck in my mind. A handgun makes the short woman tall, the anxious woman less afraid. Right now, guns are a lightning rod topic, reviled and defended with equal passion. You can’t fire a gun without stepping into a war, without getting into the politics of it. Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that firing a gun made me feel powerful, if only for an afternoon.”
— Susannah Breslin, “A Girl And A .22,” Forbes

37 comments

  2. I read that this morning and was incredibly surprised that it was actually a positive story concerning guns. I hope she becomes a lifelong shooter after doing it and, apparently, enjoying herself.

  5. Right away in the comments over there was the inevitable “self-defense often doesn’t work” post. It’s true enough, but…

    I don’t want a guarantee. What I want is a *chance*.

    Without a gun a five foot tall middle aged woman like myself will only prevail against a geriatric criminal or someone in a wheelchair. Maybe a blind man. Oh… and the handicapped and aged want a *chance* too. (And Iowa is right about issuing permits to the blind because there *are* situations where you really don’t have to see your attacker to appreciate at least having a chance for self-defense.)

  17. Isn’t she Jimmy Breslin’s kid? Doesn’t she live in NYC? Shame, I was gonna recommend the perfect gun for her but she can’t buy it there.

  18. Whatever her other faults (and I can’t think of any), Susannah Breslin is an honest, hard-working, old-school reporter. God grant her long and profitable tenure at Forbes.

  19. 1) No.

    2) She doesn’t live in NYC, but Chicago, where things are almost as bad from the RKBA perspective (but getting better,)

  23. You mean that conservatism and women’s empowerment go hand-in-hand? That pro-woman policies are also conservative?

    I wish there were a term for that, something about conservatism and women, but maybe how we are feminine, too…..

  24. Gunny Hathcock killed a man at 2000 meters with a Ma Deuce. So a mile is certainly within reasonable possibility.

  27. Hathcock’s record stood until CPL Rob Furlong with the Princess Pats’ beat in in Afghanistan with a McMillan.

    And his stood for about six months until a British sniper beat it with a .338 Lapua.

  28. There’s no specific term for it because conservatives don’t break down people into officially sanctioned groups, from which they derive identity, legitimacy and rights.

    Sorry, but you’re just another person with the same rights and responsibilities as me. Although certainly a whole lot cuter.

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