A Tribute To The Women In Firearms

This weekend I worked at the range. At the end of the course someone mentioned the name of my blog(no, it wasn’t me). The class was all men and one of them said, “Oh, so you are in competition with LimaTunes

He was being funny. He is a nice guy and I enjoyed spending the weekend with all the students, but on the way home his comment was the topic of a discussion I had with TSM.

The idea that women in the industry are in competition with each other. To some extent that is true. People are competing for business, but I not in the way that joke was made.

First, I have no goals in the firearms industry. I am not really trying to be an instructor. I took the NRA course because I was asked to and in order to have some creditably at the range, but I do not envision me doing any more than I do now. For one thing I do not have the time to dedicate to it in order to be qualified in a manner I believe instructors should be. For another, I have other goals.

Secondly, I don’t actively try to build up my blog or FB. One of the things I love is that my blog is a true reflection of who I am and in the process several folks have come along for the ride. They have shared with me, taught me, supported me, and let me into their lives. It has been a blast, but becoming a big blogger has never been my goal or desire.

However, one of the things I have found to be unique among the female firearms professionals is their amazing support and promotion of other women in the industry. I have worked in a variety of professions and while never directly been a target I have seen competition and desire to get ahead bring out the absolute worst in some women. Catty, back biting, gossip, jealousy, undermining…

Ambition, the desire to be the best, to succeed, to grow, to make money are excellent! Nothing wrong with those, but one does not have to step on others in order to get there.

Every single woman I know(that I personally know) in the profession of guns, instruction, firearms gear, self defense, Second Amendment, blogging etc., has been overly supportive of other women. They promote other’s ideas, their courses, their conferences, their books, their blogs, their growth…

I would like to take the time to thank these women(you know who they are) for their support and encouragement of me. It has been my privileged and honor getting to know each of you.

 

24 thoughts on “A Tribute To The Women In Firearms

  1. I hope this doesn’t publish twice. I keep being told I’m not on the internet every time I hit publish.

    I’m not a professional. Sorry ’bout that.

    But I believe if MORE women carried, we’d be safer.

    Men “seem” to (on a large part) look upon their weapon as an extension of the Rambo philosophy and can’t wait for the chance to use it.

    Women, on the other hand, give more forethought to the possibility they MIGHT have to use it, before they even leave the house.

    • I meant all women that I know connected to firearms…that means bloggers and even the those that are kind enough to stop by and leave a comment. I meant you!

      This was not a dig at men. I have primarily been taught by men and have great respect for them as well. Lauding one is not a dis at the other:)

  2. Great post, sometimes people will make silly comments, thinking their joking…..when in actuality all they really did was open their mouth and insert their foot.

    Like you, I don’t have to step on others in order to become successful, ambitious.

    Life is good!

  3. I think his comment partially comes out of the ( generally ) unspoken understanding that blogging is, for some people, a popularity contest, and an exercise in vanity. It isn’t as much as a sharing of ideas and interests as it is a “Hey, Look at Me!!1!” effort to appear younger, faster, smarter, sexier, wiser, prettier – you name it – than the next blogger in whatever your chosen blog topic might be. It is unfortunate…but it is true. The “Read me! Comment for me! Follow me!” mentality isn’t limited to female bloggers, but I’ve observed the competitiveness is often attributed to female bloggers. Sometimes rightly so, sometimes not.

    You are a blogger? Then you must be competing for followers and traffic count.

    • Well, that is unfortunate. I realize not all bloggers are nice and I have seen rude, snotty and plain mean comments before, and have on rare occasion been the target, but I wasn’t talking about those people as they are not people I “know”. The people I know are beyond supportive and professional.

      • I understand what you mean, and hear you are saying.
        I started blogging because I wanted to share what I’ve learned about Clean Eating. Reaching out to fellow “Clean Eating” bloggers has been like pulling teeth. For the most part, they aren’t interested in “sharing the spotlight” with anyone else. In the gun blogging community, I’ve seen and witnessed some of that as well – but there are some astounding examples of women who’s quest to share their knowledge and integrity is unmatched. I shouldn’t limit that statement to women; I’ve spoken with some amazing men, too.

        • People are goofy! They do not realize what a waste of energy it is to be spiteful and selfish.

          I am sorry for your experience. Your blog is full of great, very helpful info!

  4. When I started my website back in … hmm, I think 2003? … it was just about the only one out there that was written for women gun owners who wanted to learn how to defend themselves. There were a lot (I mean a lot!) of websites about women with guns, but most of those weren’t exactly for women, if you know what I mean.

    That’s definitely changed now, and it makes me very happy to see. It’s not nearly so lonely to be a gun-owning woman online as it used to be.

    I love linking to and spotlighting people who do good work, especially those who pay it forward by spotlighting others in turn. This isn’t a zero-sum game! The community of gun owners is growing every day. And women are among the fastest-growing segments of that community. Another fast-growing segment of the community: people interested in concealed carry. Both of these demographics were a very small part of the community a dozen years ago, but now both are quite commonplace among gun owners, and there are more gun owners than ever before. That’s awesome. Again, it’s not a zero-sum game. The pie is getting bigger all the time, and each piece of the pie is getting bigger too.

    When we act like we’re all chasing a limited number of potential readers / students / shoppers / whatevers, it only hurts ourselves. That’s because when we tear down others, it drives our own potential friends completely away from the community as a whole. In a way, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: we’re afraid that we won’t have any audience, so we attack (or simply ignore) others within the community, and – lo & behold! – we don’t have any audience and barely any community either. That’s just sad. The world is big enough for all of us.

    Some people will never link to others. Some will rewrite other people’s work without giving them any attribution or acknowledgement. Some will use another writer’s ideas, and give the writer only a bare mention without a link back. That’s not okay, but I understand why some people are like that. The reason is enough to hurt your heart: these people live in a place of fear. They are starving for attention, for fame, sometimes for money. And they don’t think it will come to them unless they steal it from someone else. They want to snatch their one little corner of a tiny little pie, and then they huddle over that piece like a starving dog with a meatless bone. So lonely, so sad.

    That’s why I appreciate your work so much. It’s why I’m a big fan of women like you, of bloggers like you, people who are brave enough to say, “Here’s something good and here’s where I’ve learned it” – instead of trying to con or market your audience into believing that you never learned a thing from anywhere else, and that everything you ever wrote just sprung completely formed from the brow of Zeus! 😉

    I love your work because you are both brave and kind, and that’s a good thing.

  5. I think that we all inherently understand that we have to support each other. Yes, there are a “lot” more of us women gun bloggers now than there was when Kathy started in 2003 and when I started in 2008, but it’s still a pretty small community. It wouldn’t serve any of us to tear each other down or “compete” with each other.

    That’s part of why I love our community.

  6. “Competing against Lima”

    Yeah…so is it wrong that I’m thinking A-Gril vs Lima in a MMA style Jello fight?

  7. You guys are just bad!

    One thing I’ve always wished I was better at is collaborating with other women. I, too, have been overwhelmed with the support and LACK of catty-ness between the “gun gals” of the internet.

    Personally, I’ve never felt as though I was in competition with anyone and, like you, I’ve never felt the desire to best anyone. I just want people to get good information and I don’t care what source they get it from.

    I’ve seen other blogs, pages, whatever grow much further than mine and I’m happy for them… let them deal with all the nay-sayers..lol

  8. I’ve always believed that if women spent more time building each other up rather than tearing each other down we could rule the world. I do a lot of lurking and learning but I always experience positive encouragement and education from the female gun bloggers online. You’re doing a great job 🙂

  9. I was certified to instruct last April and my biggest concern was finding business among some very reputable instructors. I was pleasantly surprised at the support each fellow instructor (men and women) offered. I even got to collaborate with a husband/wife team. (I was so stoked!). I have a ways to go in my own instruction, but am thankful for the ladies mentioned here and honest opinions they offer. It’s pretty awesome to see girls playing nice together (especially with guns!)

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