If you do not follow The Cornered Cat on FaceBook then YOU SHOULD.

She posts the most thought provoking ideas, articles, and questions of anyone I have ever read.

She posted this article today and I thought it was so profound.

It goes back to every thing I have been taught since the very first day of my Conceal Carry class: it starts with THE MIND.

If you are a gun person or a man then that is most likely very obvious to you, I am sure, but if you are a woman, especially one that was not fortunate enough to be raised by parents who taught her to fight, then, it just isn’t that obvious.  In fact, for me, it’s always been the opposite.

The obvious thing for me to do was nothing, was not to fight.  Not fighting was the most natural thing the world to do.

It was so ingrained in who I was.  If someone came at me, I never even flinched.

I may have shared this before, I used to be a youth leader at a local church and one day we all went to another leaders house for a party.  He had a pool and everyone was swimming except for me.  I was dressed, as I usually was back then, in dress pants, dress shoes and a very nice top.  I was standing by the pool with my back turned to the crowd and a lady came up behind me and intentionally pushed me in.

I don’t remember thinking anything.  I wasn’t afraid and I wasn’t concerned, I just fell right in.  I didn’t try to grab for anything.  I didn’t, by instinct, reach out and try to pull her in.  I just fell exactly where I was pushed.

Even after I realized what had happened I did not get upset or complain that my new shoes were ruined, I just smiled and made a joke.

At the time, I actually thought what a nice person I was. I cared more about people and their feelings than to get upset about something that didn’t matter anyway, like shoes.

But, today I see it much different.  Not so much the reaction afterwards, but the lack of instinct to fight in the first place.

What happened to this woman in the article Betrayed by the Angel is much worse than anything that has happened to me, but I think we share a mindset, a mindset that, has not served either of us well.

After I read this article I posted this comment on The Corned Cat’s page…

Betrayed By The Angel

Last week a lady left a comment on my Girl And Her Gun Facebook page.  Her comment was something to the effect of “though for different reasons than you, I too, recently came to be interested in guns.”

If you have been reading this blog long then you already know I love people.  They fascinate me and I love to hear about how they became to be who they are, so I asked her if she would mind sharing with me how she found her way into the world of firearms.

She didn’t mind and she did share.  While reading her story, I wondered if she would mind if I shared it on the blog, so I asked and she didn’t mind. 

I enjoyed hearing her story so much that I came up with the idea to make it a feature on the blog. 

If enough woman are interested I will start a new feature on the blog that highlights women and how they became a “Woman With A Gun”.

So, if you would like to be a part of empowering women and wouldn’t mind sharing with all of us your story please email me at [email protected]

I think that my blog, in particular, has several women readers who are venturing into guns for the first time and, much like I was, are apprehensive.  I think it would be great if they could come here and read stories of the women that came before them and hopefully find a woman or a story that inspires them in their journey.

I will present the stories just as they are told to me and I will refrain from elaborating as I want to let everyone think for themselves without my color commentary, but I think it would be nice if you all left a word or two to those who share because it is always nice to hear an encouraging thoughts from others.

So, come back tomorrow to meet the first “Woman With A Gun”.

Thank you for your generous donation to Wounded Warrior Project. Your gift enables us to provide comfort and aid to the wounded and families in need.

Your information is as follows.

Your Information

Payment Date: 11/11/2011 9:35:43 PM EST
Donation Amount: $705.00

Wounded Warrior Project is a public charity as described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Your gifts are tax deductible to the full extent of the law.

Thank you again,

Wounded Warrior Project

The winner has contacted me and has asked me to donate the money for her training to the Wounded Warrior Project.

I am a very big fan of training and hoped to contribute towards that, but this person insisted I give the money to the project, so I will. She feels that there is a great need there and I will honor and respect her for that.

That brings our total to $705.00! I think that is very cool!

I asked our winner if I could share with all of you that her donation was $5. I wanted to mention it because often times I think people do not give unless they can give big, but anyone who depends on the kindness of strangers and their donations will tell you, that every single dollar counts.

If you do not have a dollar or five to give then you shouldn’t and one should only give out of a genuine desire to do so, but if one thinks a $1 or $5 doesn’t count, you could not be more wrong.

Thank you again for giving to this fundraiser or someone else’s fundraiser or for supporting the service members in whatever way you do!!

Have a most fabulous weekend!!

Next week I have a new surprise feature that I am excited to share with you all!

Together we raised $405.00 for the Wounded Warriors.  Thank you so much for joining with me to do what we can to help someone else.  It doesn’t really matter if you give $5 or a million, that you gave at all is what matters.

Congratulations Mrs. Adams.  Contact me so I can get you details on the holster and other prizes!!

The drawing for the Wounded Warrior Project will be at 8pm this evening, so you have until 7:59 to enter. Thank you again to all who have already donated and good luck!!

I always struggle a bit when I am trying to speak about those in the military. I never want to sound trite or cliche, but I think it is worth my effort to try to say something that honors them.

When my husband first joined the Marines, The Gulf War had just ended. He was in boot camp when it started and it was over by the time he graduated.

Naively, we thought that would be it.

I was all of 22 and lived a fairly sheltered life in small town Iowa. I valued what those in the military did, but most of the folks I knew in the military were older men who had long since retired and I didn’t think anyone in the current Armed Forces saw much danger.

Of course, now, I realize that much was being done, but truth be told, most of those in the service for a long time, didn’t see much action.

I used to take my kids up to Walter Reed for appointments and it was mostly filled with other moms and their kids.

Now when we I go, it’s hard to look in any directon without seeing a service member on crutches, missing his leg or in a wheelchair, or missing an arm.

Often times my kids sit and wait for hours for an appointment we made months earlier with their ENT because he got called off to surgery for a wounded soldier or Marine.

Our ENT, who is like family to us, once told us, he rarely sleeps any more because of the images that run through his mind. He hasn’t seen combat, per se. He hasnt been to Iraq or Afghanastan, but he has seen plenty of the results of war.

His most vivid image is of the time, a neuro surgeon held up a young man’s brain with his hands, so, our ENT, could get in there to do whatever he needed to do.

The Marine was missing the entire left side of his head.

Whatever luxury I once had to pretend the military was not all that dangerous a job, is no more and it hasn’t been for a while now.

It is patently clear the sacrifices that are made, daily, on my behalf and on yours.

Some sacrifices are easily seen like the scars on their bodies or the missing limbs, or the empty chair at the dinner table, but many of the lasting impressions of combat are not so easiy seen.

The ones that keep them up at night. Those are harder to spot, but leave their mark equally as deep.

I would venture to say, the worst memories of my husband’s life are from his time in combat.

Ironically, I would say that some of my husband’s fondest memories are of his time in combat.

There is a bonding that occurs in that kind of environment that fosters a love and a courage and yes, even fun, that can not be understood by those who haven’t been there.

It’s a kind of sacrifice and commitment that inspires me to live a fuller life. One of humility and gratitude.

It often leaves me speechless, but today I want to say…

THANK YOU!

THANK you to all who have served and who are serving.

I wish you a wonderful Veteran’s Day!! I pray that you feel appreciated and valued!

God Bless.

Not too much to report today, but there a few things I wanted to share.

I signed up for my second gun training class.  I will be attending a 2 days course in Tennessee at The Range Master facility.  The course is taught by Kathy Jackson aka The Cornered Cat.  I am very excited about this for a variety of reasons, one being that all of my firearm training has come from men.  I like men and I have had the best most supportive group to teach me, but I am looking forward to a woman’s perspective. The class isn’t until February, so I will talk more about that as it gets closer.  However, if anyone knows the area and can give me any suggestions on hotels I would be most grateful.

I also took the suggestion of someone who left a comment on the blog, Secret Squirrel, and I looked into joining a volunteer rescue group.  The one that is closest to me is the Shenandoah Mountain Rescue Team.  I been have emailing with one of the guys from there and I will attending the new member meeting and the business meeting at the end of the month.  We shall see what comes of that.

Lastly, if you are a woman interested in conceal carry, Lima posted a new video on You Tube, you might be want to take a look at.

I am now off to vote and celebrate my freedoms by taking my daughter to the range. 

I became a gun person out of a need, but became a gun nut because, well, guns rock and shooting them is just crazy fun, but fun is not the only thing to come out of my experience.

I have learned that the gun community is a passionate, supportive, giving community. Not only has almost everyone I have reached out to been more than helpful, I have had people’s reach out to me to offer me help, advice, support. It has been amazing!

I have also learned that this community is staunch in it’s support of freedom and those who protect it.

When I started this fundraiser, my goal was a modest one of simply matching the prize I was giving away. At that time the only prize was the $300 I was giving toward a gun training class, so that meant I was hoping to raise $300 for the Wounded Warriors Project.

I want to say a big THANK YOU to all that have already given and let you all know that together we have surpassed that $300 goal. I am very greatfulafro that, but I sure would love to give them more, so if you are feeling generous today, please click on the button to the right and donate for your chance to win 2 gun training courses and a gorgeous holster.