Women and guns
By Massad Ayoob
In a time when what used to be called "the women's liberation movement" has achieved many of its goals in terms of equality and empowerment, the concept that guns are somehow evil icons of male brutality has managed to survive as the longest-standing relic of the old "Suzie Housewife mentality."
Political enfranchisement? Of course! Entry into previously male-exclusive job markets? A done deal, for the most part. Economic power and self-determination? You bet.
But defend yourself and your loved ones against a deadly criminal, by resorting to a gun of your own? "OMG!!! You're just surrendering to the brutal male mentality!"
If I may say so in a family magazine...What A Crock!
The attitude part
In almost thirty years of teaching female armed citizens, and longer than that teaching female cops, I've come to the conclusion that once you get past old-fashioned cultural predispositioning, women may actually be better and more decisive students of the gun.
You don't jump up on a chair and shriek when you see a mouse in the kitchen? You don't exclaim, "I declare! I do believe I have a case of the vapors coming on," and faint when there's trouble? Good—indications are that you're on the way to getting past the cultural canard that women are supposed to be helpless and totally reliant on men to protect them.
Most firearms instructors agree that women have a faster learning curve than men in this discipline. They tend to have better fine motor coordination, as a rule, and pulling a trigger without deviating the muzzle off target is most definitely a fine motor skill. Their biggest advantage is that they are not born believing that because of their gender, they automatically know how to do something masculine. I've found that the female student more than the male wants to know, not just "how do you do that?" but "why do you do it that way?" With a proper explanation, she follows instructions, finds the results good, and moves on. With some of the males—not all, certainly, but some—the reaction is, "Ungawa! If Mongo do what instructor say, Mongo become ‘beta' and instructor become ‘alpha.' I, MONGO, am alpha! Mongo must keep doing it Mongo's way! Ungawa!" It's like de-programming cult victims sometimes...
Read it all at Women and guns
