Thanks to this man giving me a shout out to his friends, I have had a crazy amount of people visit my blog over the past few days.

Both Say Uncle and Gun Nuts linked to my 7 Days Of Conceal Carry post.  Due to the enormous amount of people that have clicked over to ready those post, I thought I should explain what happened to day 6 & 7.

If you are one of the people who came to see the 7 days of conceal carry then you realize there isn’t a day 6 or 7 and that is because I realized my wardrobe doesn’t change all that much.  In the summer I wear shorts, a light t-shirt, the occasional skirt and in the fall/winter, I wear jeans a t-shirt and usually a jacket of some kind.

Days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 pretty much covered that, but in the past 8 months I have learned a few things about carrying concealed, so in lieu of me showing you yet another outfit with me hiding a gun, I thought I would share a little of what I have learned.

First, contrary to all the heck I went through trying to find clothes that would cover my gun, in the end, I wear the same exact clothes I wore before I ever bought a gun.  The same shirts, the same pants and rarely do I wear a cover garment, unless I am wearing a skin tight spaghetti strap shirt, my regular t-shirt or dress shirt covers fine, even my Glock 27.

The disclaimer to that is, my Glock is not a full size handgun.  It is a subcompact, but on my small frame it is still a big piece to conceal.

What I did learn was that my holster was crucial to concealment.  I know obvious, but it wasn’t to me.  I have a drawer full of holsters that are worthless.  They may be great holsters, but for me they just didn’t work, at all.

I wear a Crossbreed holster everyday.  Regardless of the gun I am wearing, I have a Crossbreed holster for it, unless I am wearing a dress or skirt, then I am wearing my holster from Chick Holsters.

The Crossbreed holster I bought, I bought because some guy at Dick’s Sporting Goods told me too.

There is a long wait period between order and delivery, so in the meantime I bought pretty much ever other kind of holster within a 60 mile radius of me.

When I was ordering my Crossbreed, I went to the web site not understanding a single thing of what I was doing.  I read all the options and had no clue what any of it meant, so I bought the basic model, as is.  If you have one or go to their site you will there are a variety of options to chose from.  This was lost on me.

When my holster finally arrived, I did nothing to it.  I put it on and tried to work around whatever issues it presented me, like riding up to high.  I did not understand cant and I didn’t understand how to adjust the holster to meet my needs.

I took this brand new holster to my 2 day Conceal Carry class and quickly learned tht I should have taken the time to figure out more about my holster and I should have ordered the combat cut.

This is my husband’s holster.  The top part of the hostler was a nightmare for me because as I practiced drawing the gun from the holster, my thumb rubbed against it and after 2 days, I had no skin left on it.  A little blood is fine, but it was annoying.

The good news is that after a while your skin toughens up and the pain really isn’t an issue, but time is.

No matter how much I practiced drawing from my holster, I felt like I was losing time and was just not as efficient as I could be, so eventually, I did this…

I cut the top portion off with an exact-o knife.  This was a huge improvement for me if for no other reason than I felt like I was more effective in my draw and as we all know, the mind is the first thing that must work.

The next thing I did was play around with the ride of the holster.  I moved the clips in every possible place, tried it on and kept doing that until I felt a good fit.

Again, this may seem obvious to most people who have been around guns for a while, but for me everything was so foreign and I was afraid to do anything, even move the bolts on my holster. 

As is a constant theme of my blog, fear is the enemy.  Caution and preperation are very wise, but fear simple holds you back.

With something as simple and harmless as a holster, my fear cost me a lot of time, stress, energy and money.

The other thing I learned was that the more comfortable I became with carrying a gun and the less conscious I was, the less I felt a need to cover it up.

Of course, with conceal carry the entire point is to cover it up, but when I first started carrying, I didn’t want any print at all.  Even if it just showed a bump and one could not tell it was a gun, I knew, everyone knew it was a gun.  They didn’t.

As I became more comfortable, the less I needed to do.  It just became a part of me and my everyday outfits.

Now when people ask me about conceal carry, my advice to them is do not worry so much about the right clothes, but the right gun

The focus should be on a gun. Finding one that you will carry and shoot.

Some great advice on that can be found here.

Of course, part of buying a gun is going to take inconsideration your lifestyle, body type etc, but I think that  one can work around most of those issues with relatively minor adjustments to their wardrobe.

Now, if you are 5 feet, 98 lbs and you want to carry a full size 1911, you may have more of a challenge then simply finding a good holster.

For me the gun is first and foremost, then I would spend time really investigating and investing in a good quality holster and then play(with the holster not the gun).

Grab an outfit that represents your style, empty you gun, clear it, check it and recheck it to be sure it is empty, remove all ammo from the room(advice I got from a newsletter by The Cornered Cat  )  and then try your holster on in every single way it will allow you.

Adjust all the position in every combination and try it on with your clothes in your closet. See how it works with the wardrobe you currently have.

You may find like me, that what you have will already works perfect and you just might save yourself hundreds of dollars in useless cover garments that only serve to make you look like you are constantly heading out on a Safari.

My legs have healed enough from my time in the woods, that I can shave today!!

Ok, that may only be exciting to my husband, but let me tell ya, he is very excited!

Even though, I have only take one formal gun training course(it was a good one though, 2 days, 600 rounds!), I am a nuts about learning and practice. 

I would take every single class offered, pretty much anywhere, if time and money allowed.

However, since both, time and money, are precious resources, I supplement with reading, time at the range, drying firing, etc. 

But, I am getting antsy and it really is time for me to take another course.  I want to take the advanced course that is here locally, but the timing hasn’t worked out, so I thought about taking another basic class.

I was having this discussion with my daughter and one of her friends and my daughter said, “Another basic class, “Aren’t you passed that?”  and her friend was on my computer reading the description for the advanced class and she said, “Don’t you think that is to advanced for you?”

Ironically, the answer to both of those questions is no.

I suppose there might be a time when a basic class is no longer useful, but I am not sure that will ever apply to me.

I taught college for many years out in California and you would be surprised at the number of times I learned things from my students in the basic class.  Every once in a while a student would ask a question I hadn’t thought of before or just didn’t seem to get a concept I thought was basic.  That would challenge me to come up with a new way to explain it or a new technique to help it process in their mind.  In their learning, I benefited, I grew, I became a better teacher.

It is obvious to anyone reading this I am sure, that me being around guns for a mere 8 months, I am someone who could absolutely benefit from another basic class, but I wanted to make the point that even if one is “passed” that beginner level, there is always something to learn, especially if it is from a new instructor or new way of teaching the same old stuff.

As to the second part, is the advanced class to advanced for me? 

Again, from my teaching experience, I have learned if you wait til you are ready, you never will be.

I taught American Sign Language and I would tell my students if they wanted to learn the language they would have to go out and use it with the folks that use it.

100% of the time they would say, “What?” “NO. way, I am not ready!” 

They were ready. 

Did they know the language?  Would they understand much of what was being said to them?

No, but they had enough of a foundation that they would grow from the experiecnce and little by little, they would gain the knowledge they needed to eventually master the language.

The brain is funny.  We remember what we experience.  If there is a significant event that happens to us, our brains are able to recall the event much more easily then if we simply are exposed to the information.  There is something about us going out and struggling that gets those neuro pathways all excited and that helps kind of cement things into our brains.

So, do I have the skill to master an advanced class?  Umm, no, not evern close.

Will I struggle and become frustrated?  Umm, yes.

Will, I come out of there knowing everything there is to know?  Umm, heck NO.

Will I come out of there knowing more than I knew when I went in?  Oh, YES!!

In short, I have so much room to grow and learn that a basic class is absolutely not a waste of my time, but I do believe I have enough of a foundation that I can put myself in an environment out of my reach, so that I can push myself and thus growth can occur.

Plus, seriously, who doesn’t think skulking around at night trying to kill the bad guy doesn’t sound like hum-dinging good time???

Every year the PTA board at my children’s school puts out a list of different activities that they will be sponsoring for the year.  The leadership is always looking for a chairman for the different events.  Every year I chair 2 events. Teacher Appreciation and  the Veteran’s Day Luncheon.

I cook my world famous(by world famous I mean the 150 or so folks at my kids school) pulled pork, with home made bbq sauce, corn casserole and coleslaw for around 130 people, although it grows every year and I am expecting closer to 150 this year.

Our local restaurants are more than willing to donate food for our events, but I like to cook for this event.  It is a lot of work, but it is one very small way that I can show my appreciation for what the men and women of our Armed Services do for me, for all of us.

 

My husband with our daughter at last year’s event.

I bought a banner to hang up in the gym that says “With Gratitude and Humility, THANK YOU!” 

That is what I am always striving for.  A way to show my gratitude and also how humbled I am by how I have been served by these fine men and women.

This year, I wanted to do more.  I wanted to find a way to give back on a grander scale and also to encourage folks to take a larger role in being more resposible with the life and freedoms they have.

Thus the Wounded Warrior Fundraiser.

My hope was to get  people to donate at least $5 to give back to the few that give so much and in gratitude I would offer a way to help him/her gain more training in defense of their selves.

I have been completely overwhelmed by the support of other and how they have reached out to me.

Talking about being filled with gratitude.

The gentelman over at Dragon Leatherworks, has offered one of his beautiful handmade leather holster  as part of the prize package.

 Gorgeous, right?!

So, for each $5 donation you make to the Wounded Warrior Project, you have a chance to win 2 gun training courses and a holster.

I will donate up to $300 towards a gun training class of your choice, plus,

John Murphy has donated one conceal carry training course, plus,

A gorgeous holster donated by Dragon Leatherworks.

I would be most grateful for any donations and for spreading the word about the fundraiser. It’s a great way to start of the holiday season of ding for others. Nothing feels better than to give and to do it together, is the best!!

*****A little disclaimer, John’s course is in Virginia, so to access that prize you would have to come to Virginia.  No cash equivalent will be given and no other course can be substituted.

The holster is handmade and takeS up to 8 weeks to be made.  If you win, you will work directly with them to get your prize.******

I changed the title of this post from Two Steps Forward, One Step Back, to Another Step Forward, because I realized I didn’t take any steps back.

I am forever working on my mind and being more and more prepared. I am consistently forcing myself to face my fears and to move forward. This realization is just another step forward in that process. Now back to the post…

Today, a very generous man contacted me and offered to donate one of his beautiful handmade holsters to my fundraiser for The Wounded Warriors. There will be more on this later, but check out his site at www.dragonleatherworks.com.

I just met him, but his heart is a giving one and he wrote some of his friends about this blog and he cc’d me in his email.

In his introduction of me he said, ” she was involved in a mugging that could have gone much worse”

I said to my husband, “when was I mugged?”

He said, “Babe, when you are standing in a parking and a man intimidates you and forces himself on you for money, that is being mugged.”

I said, “oh my, oh my, I was mugged.”

I have never ever thought of it in terms of a criminal act. I have always tried to be very careful not to over dramatize it or make myself seem like I was a victim. There are so many people who have been on the wrong side of a bad guy and I have never, ever wanted to take away from their experience.

I was scared by the event, but I have always viewed it as my weakness.

In all that I have gone through these past few months, I have never once thought about what this man did to me.

I have always thought, I screwed up.

Now, the reality is, I did. To allow myself to live in a state of ignorance and blind faith and to not take responsibility for my safety and that of my children was a mistake, one I have tried to rectify, but tonight I am experiencing a new emotion.

Anger.

In my ever present attempt to train my mind, I am going to face this emotion head on.

I will move from anger back to determination. I will not let it affect my judgement, but I will also not let myself keep pretending.

I can’t guarantee that another bad guy won’t try to do me harm, but I can gurentee that I will do everything I can to keep that from happening.

For me it starts with my mind and, at the very least, includes a Glock 27.

Last Tuesday I woke up to a breaking news alert that a young boy in our area was missing and that the police were asking for volunteers to come help in the search.

On Sunday, he wondered off from his father on a hike in the woods and due to the mass amount of ground to cover, the police decided they needed help.

Even though I had never been a part of a search and rescue team before, I decided to get ready and go.  I took a shower, put my hair up, grabbed some old tennis shoes, 2 bottles of water, some trail mix , some cotton gloves, and a flash light.  As I was heading out the door, my husband suggested I grab a hat.  I don’t wear hats, but he is smart man, so I said ok, grabbed one and left.

I drove about 40 minutes south to the staging area, parked and stood in line.

I had absolutely no idea what to expect, but I did not anticipate waiting for 3 hours in the hot sun.

The original set up was for people to come, fill out paperwork, get a badge, sit through a 45 minute class, then be assigned to a group of 65 and head out.

What do they say about best laid plans???

The fine folks who organized this search were completely overwhelmed by the number of people who showed up to help.  History tells them that not many people show up and even less show up in bad weather and even less in difficult terrain.  So, when nearly 900 of us showed up, they were not prepared to deal with us.

I got there at 8:30 in the morning and did not get on to a search site until 230, but didn’t really do much searching because I was in a group of 119 people.

One can not lead an effective search line in the woods with a group of 119.  We were very ineffective that day.

Tired and discouraged I wasn’t sure I would return the next day.  I felt like this poor boy was in a heep of trouble if he was depending on us to find him, but I woke up the next day, got ready and headed out again.

This time with a bit more gear.  The hat my husband suggested was the second most important piece of gear I took with me, the second was gloves.  The first day I had a pair of cotton gloves.  I am not even sure why I picked them to take.  I think because it was chilly and I thought my hands might get cold, but in the environment I was in, a good pair of gloves was essential.  I fixed that by day 2.

We were in the Virginia woods.  Woods without trails and full of thicket and briar.  We went under barb wire and over downed trees.  We wadded through swamp and in and out of sludge.  My cotton gloves were not making the grade.

 The brown gloves off to the left were the ones I took from day 2 on and the were invaluable.

 Sad cotton gloves

Life saver hat

When I arrived on day 2, no one was there.  I zipped through the line partly because I was trained and didn’t have to wait for registration and partly because no one else decided to come, but a few hundred of us.  Fortunately, they put out an alert for more people to show up and they respond.

Whatever had gone wrong the first day was corrected by day two.  The entire operation was streamlined and revamped. I went through the check in tent.  Showed my badge, got water if I wanted it(I brought my own everyday), got an MRE(I never ate mine), sprayed with bug spray and then got in line to board a bus. I was on a bus by 8:30 and on my way.  This time a team of 30 with 3 guides.

Again, the area we were searching was rough and not to far into our mission we had a significant injury.  One of the team members popped her knee out of place and she had to be carried out on a stretcher.  My job was to cut through the extremely dense woods to make a path for the stretcher.  The only cutting tool anyone had was a pair of scissors found in a small first aid kit.  I had to cut through the trees with scissors. Mostly I used that for the small briar branches and used my arms and body to break the branches off the trees.  We got her out and went back to the search.  The first part of the search we went 3.1 miles and it took us 4 hours and 5 minutes.  It was slow because we were being very thorough, looking not only for the little boy, but also for any signs that he might have been there.  Anything that might help direct us to where he was.

That was a very good day in terms of searching.  We covered a lot of ground and had an excellent to team to work with.

The next two days were wet and cold, so I brought more gear.  First and foremost my knife.  I have no idea why I didn’t bring it, in the first place, but I quickly learned I should have.  I also brought extra socks because my shoes got wet, often.

More gear

In the wet and cold layering is important, but also just being in the forest it was important.  I wore 2 thin long sleeved shirts everyday, even when it was crazy hot, because of the environment.  I was very thankful for this and wish I would have had the same kind of foresight for my legs.  By the end of the week, I was covered in ticks, gashes in my legs, scrapes up and down my body and I am covered in some kind of fungus rash that itches like a son of a gun.

That week left me tired and emotionally drained.  I tried very hard to stay focused on my mission and not think about how scared or hungry or wet or cold this little boy might be and I tried very hard not to think about my own kids in that kind of situation, but it was draining.

I was fortunate to have met some amazing people that week.  People who lead my well and those who worked beside me were dedicated, uplifting, helpful, and fun.  It’s a strange kind of bonding.

Due to the fact that many times these kinds of events turn out for the worst and often times have the family involved, many people asked me why I kept going back.  My answer was simple…

“I think that most of us believe the outcome will not be a good one and we are aware of the odds that someone isn’t telling the truth, but I show up because I think this boy deserves the effort and if he is out there, then he deserves that I care enough to not care about the odds”.

And it is a very good thing that I and the others had that kind of attitude because on day 6 of the search, he was found, alive, no foul play involved. 


He is still in the hospital recovering.  Physically, he will be fine, but mentally, this will be an experience, I am sure, he will never forget. 

Nor will I.

Let me first say, you people rock! The donations for the Wounded Warrior’s Project are pouring in. Thank you for supporting those that have given so much for all of us.

Second, I am very excited to announce a NEW PRIZE!!

John from FPF Training(www.fpftraining.com)has donated a conceal carry class!!!

So, now for a $5 donation to the Wounded Warrior’s Project you will have a chance to win 2 firearm training classes.

I will cover the cost, up to $300, for the course of your choice and if you live in Virginia or want to come visit(remember we are for lovers and um, shooters)you can attend one of John’s conceal carry classes.

FPF is the course that I attended and If you have been reading long, then you know how I feel about that class, the other students who attended that weekend and the instructor, but incase you don’t, this is a course you want to attend. I don’t care if you are a novice like I was( stil am) or not, you will gain much from attending one of John’s classes.

I have an awful lot of new readers, so for the those who might not know, I will give a brief recap of my story, although honestly if you want to know me, it is worth going back and reading my old posts.

Anyway, 7 months ago I stood in a parking lot with my 7 year old daughter and was approached by a guy who was asking for money and who would not stop coming at me when I asked him to.  He came at me quite aggressively, but by the grace of God, 2 cars pulled into the parking lot, he grabbed the money I tossed at him and he ran away.  I was left shaken and with the realization that I had zero skills and no way to keep myself or my daughter safe.  I stood there completely helpless and I decided that I would not be in that position again.

Before that I day I was very anti-gun. I didn’t want them in my house and I was very afraid of them.

After that I day, I went through quite a transformation.  I went from fear to freedom in a relatively short amount of time.

I started this blog as a journal to my daughter, who being raised by me, believed guns were bad and scary, so now that I was carrying one, well, it rocked her world.

I wanted her to see the struggle I went through and how I came to carry a gun. I didn’t want her to think it was casual or that she couldn’t trust me or my opinions.  I was very nervous that she would doubt everything I said because I had changed my mind on an issue I felt so strongly about.

I had no idea when I started this journey that I would change so much.  That I would actually enjoy shooting or that it would become a passion of mine and I had no idea how my daughter would feel about me or guns.

Over the past 7 months, she has read my blog and we have had countless conversations about guns, but we have had more conversations about self worth, fear, safety, courage, and responsibility.

We both have gone through a lot as we have dealt with what happened in that parking lot.  Each of us has let the other deal with it how they needed to and we did it with love and honesty.

I let her hate guns and she lets me love them.

Slowly as she watched me go from a quiet woman who needed to be protected and who was afraid of what was lurking around the corner to someone confident and strong and who was cautious, but not scared, she began to change. As, I grew, so did she.

She started to have conversations with people where she was the one defending the rights of gun owners.  Even though she would never shoot one herself, she was adament about defending the rights of other’s to do so.

Then she started to become much more aware of her environment and sometimes when we would leave a store, she would say something like “Mom, did you notice that guy was in every aisle we were in and then he followed us out of the store?”  And one time in the car we went down a wrong street and she said “You have your gun right, mom?”

Her mind was beginning to change.  Her mind was becoming a weapon.  She was learning to take responsiblity for her life.

Then it happened…

Whenever I go to the range I ask her if she would like to go and she always says “No thank you, but have fun.”

So, this morning, she was on the bus heading to school and she sent me a text that said Looooooooove yoooooou!”

I sent one back that said the same thing and then just cuz I said “Hey, dad and I are going to the range.  Do you want to come?”

and

she

said

“Sure.”

I tried not to act surprised or overly excited, but it took some effort. 

“Sure, you want to go?”

 “Yea.” She said.

“Do you want to shoot my gun.”

“Yeah, I will try.”

This child, this amazing young woman, said “Sure, I will try.”

I am so gosh darn excited!!

I am excited because I get to share something that I love with someone that I love, but I am even more excited that my daughter is facing her fears and taking a step forward in becoming more prepared.

I honestly wasn’t sure this day would ever come, so wish me luck, say a prayer, and keep your fingers crossed that this is a positive experience for her and that someday she decides she isn’t afraid to be…

Mean.  I Mean Plum Mad Dog Mean!

Wounded Warriors

All of my life I have believed in giving back to those that inspire me or are in need.

I have especially been moved to give to those who sacrifice for the freedoms of this country was built on and I am always looking for new ways to do this.

Over the past 7 months, I have been made patently aware of the awesome responsibility it is to have the courage to fight for one’s life and to honor those who do it on a daily basis, so it is time for A Girl and Her Gun’s first fundraiser.

From now until November 11th, in honor of Veteran’s Day, I will be raising funds for the Wounded Warrior Project.  For every $5 donation you make, I will enter your name into a drawing for a gift certificate towards any gun training course up to $300.

This is a perfect way to be a responsible gun owner and honor those who have fought and paid a high price to protect all our Second Amendment Rights.

If you would like to donate then click on the Wounded Warrior Fundraiser link to the right and donate through your pay pal account.  (This is purely volunteering and no tax deduction will be given.)

If you win, once you chose a course and sign up for it, you will send me the contact information for the course and I will send in the money, up to $300 in your name.  If you feel you have maxed out in gun training(and believe me. no one has) then you can gift your winnings to a person of your choosing.

P.S.  100% of the donations will go to the Wounded Warrior Project. The $300 for the prize is coming out of my pocket.  I would love to able able to donate at least as much as the prize I am giving away, so please, please spread the word on your blogs, FaceBooks etc.