Moms? In a gun column? Why NOT?
Many a mother has used guns to protect her young, and to teach them responsibility for their own safety and for that of their children when they became parents themselves.
My significant other, a mom and grand-mom, taught her young to protect themselves. One of her kids is today a competitive pistol shooter, and all of her children gathered an impressive array of Tae Kwon Do trophies over the years.
My own mom absolutely hated guns, but she understood the need for them. She knew that a gun had saved my dad’s life before she ever met him, and she was supportive when I became involved in firearms at a very early age. When I started shooting bulls-eye pistol matches in my late teens and mentioned that my old Colt Woodsman wasn’t quite keeping up, my mother held her nose and went into a gun shop and bought me a state of the art High Standard Supermatic .22 pistol.
When my then-wife learned that our older daughter wanted to come with me to Africa on safari, it was one of the great arguments of our 30-year marriage. She finally agreed to let Elder Brat go, on the condition that she be able to carry a gun and pass a police qualification course with it. The kid passed it with flying colors, and at age ten carried a loaded .38 Colt Police Positive Special customized to fit her hand by two of the all-time greats, pistolsmith Fred Sadowski and stock-maker Fuzzy Farrant. In her three weeks in South Africa and what was then Southwest Africa, her shooting prowess amazed the grownups. It wouldn’t be too many years before she and her sibling, Younger Brat, both won national pistol shooting titles while still in their teens. If there was anyone prouder of that than their father, it was their mother.
So, today, a tip of the hat to wise, protective mothers everywhere.
I bet you have some great moms-and-guns stories too.
Please, share here.
Years back my then-wife and I had not made guns a mystery for our son. He learned respect from both of us, and his Mom (being a former Marine) made certain he learned important skills such as to ask “Have you cleared that weapon?” or “Have you checked to see if that weapon is unloaded?” which sounds odd coming from an 10-year old, but with his little crossed arms and determined face, we figured he understood the lesson.
The biggest test came a couple years later when I got a phone call after his Mom got home from work (I worked 2nd shift those days, and he was home by himself for a bit between parents). She said “YOU SON wants to talk to you” which is never good…
I heard “Dad, you were bad. You left a gun in the couch!”
Short story is that after a range trip I cleaned at home and packed up quickly before work, but my black powder Colt Navy .44 (unused that day) had fallen between couch cushions and I missed it in my cleanup. The boy came home from school, sat on the couch and felt what was there, then sat on the floor until his Mom came home. He pointed to it, I got the phone call, and that was that.
The then-wife asked me “You’re not gonna punish him, are you?” I said “Why? He did EXACTLY as we’ve been telling him to do!” I made a big show of punishing *myself* for doing the wrong thing, and despite how many Dads might look forward to not having a nightly loss-fest of video games with their kids, I endured that “punishment” to show that he did just what his Mom and I had taught him to do!
BTW, props and Happy Mothers’ Day to my Mom and to my current MIL, the latter of whom had a family tragedy with firearms but is well aware that I own them. She even visits us frequently and has no issues as some do with them being in the house. I figure if she and I can close a serious political gap between her Upper West-side NYC and my “wilds” of CT mores, then anyone can if they try!
I have nothing to add as nearly as interesting as your story, Mas. I got my first firearm when I was about 13 (a Sears .22 rf bolt action rifle) and my mother tolerated that. My father was a gunners mate in U.S. Navy during WWII and had his fill of firearms. My step father had no interest in guns at all. I used to take that .22 down to the woods and river and shoot at the snapping turtles, they sure could absorb a lot of lead. I didn’t get my first handgun until I reached the ripe old age of 21. When my son was about five I took him down to the basement, and filled a soda can with water and fired a .22 magnum from a Ruger single six with convertible cylinder. That was an eye opener for him as to the damage that a firearm could do.
Today the 3 of us shoot GSSF together. Twice we have shot as a team.
Yesterday I was entering some things for sale on Gunbroker and I had my S&W compact 9 sitting next to me. My wife started eyeing it for herself.
Two stories a out my mom – first, she was a tiny lady, about 5’3″ and a wisp of a thing when younger. Early in their marriage, Dad was a farmer and out in the fields and Mom was home alone. She received word that a group of drunken men were on a bit of a rampage and sure enough, they came through the farm. Mom chased them off with my Grandfather’s Colt 32 auto. Some years later as I became an avid hunter, the local (I say local – it was 45 miles away) gun shop had a sale on shotguns and I’d finally graduated from a borrowed 20 gauge to getting my own gun. Mom had to drive me (I was 12 or 13 at the time) and sign for the Ithaca Model 37 Featherweight. She used to kid me about “her gun”. Mom was taken by cancer in 2007 but that Ithaca still represents itself well in the dove fields. Happy Mother’s Day to all Moms.
Guns were always a part of our home. My first toys were cap pistols and a Daisy “Pop gun.” Looked just like their BB guns but only made a noise when fired. Mom had no problem with any of that. She was raised on a farm and knew that guns were a necessary thing to have around. Dad bought her a Winchester Model 12 in 20 gauge, think the family story is that he paid $75.00 for it. She hunted pheasants, ducks and geese with it for years. I have a lot of memories from when I was a kid of family hunting trips that prominently include that Winchester.
I’ve turned down (this was probably 30 years ago now) a brand new, in the box and unfired Belgian Browning A5 a gunsmith wanted to trade me for it. I told him it isn’t for sale at any price. I still hunt pheasants with that shotgun and every time I pull it out somebody tries to buy it from me. I tell them, “Sorry, you don’t have enough money.”
Mom’s been gone for some time now, but that Model 12 brings her back every time I look at it.
My wife was mildly irked when she asked for a revolver in the answer-the-door drawer and I left an auto. The situation was corrected.
Another great read, Mas! We all should know that to keep the Second Amendment “legal” on the books, we need the NRA and women.
Thank you Mas for writing to all us Moms…Sorry I really don’t have any good stories to share.
The only thing I would like to say is that I am grateful for the support of my husband and family who support my self-defense training even though I have been unsuccessful getting him interested.
I appreciate being able to carry etc. with all my traveling during the night as the primary wage earner for the family. Often I have to fly and drive to odd places late at night in my business. The training I got from my MAG40 course most certainly increased my confidence and skills.
I had an near miss encounter in Corpus Christi early in the morning before dawn when two men charged at me just as I was in the process of almost getting out of the rental car and without having seen those DVD’s from the Armed Citizen’s Legal Defense Network I would not not recognized what going to happen. I saw the one man do the weapon’s check the other was flanking moving in. Needless to say I did not continue getting out of the car but quickly got that car going left quickly.
Being a beginner myself I’ll just have to keep working at it and keep training. I am enjoying IDPA now and having a wonderful time developing my skills
Thank you!
A little over a year ago my daughter with my one year old granddaughter was waiting for a maintenance man to fix a leak in her apartment. Her husband was deployed to the Middle East at the time. When the knock on the door came she looked through the peep hole and there store a guy in a uniform shirt, as she opened the door he rushed it trying to push through. She had been taught to keep a foot against the door anytime she opened it and as he was trying to force his way in her 9mm came up into his face as she stated “I am going to shoot you” I told her she should have just fired, but in any case the attack ended there. The police believed someone from the maintenance dept. of the apt. was feeding info as to where single women were living in the complex, but no info as to his ID was discovered. We can speculate as to what may have happened but we believe that she is here to celebrate Mothers Day with us thanks to taking that 9mm anytime she went out or to answer a knock at the door.
Hmm, stories about my Mom and guns? Not a lot but I do recall my dad and uncle (Mom’s brother, the Marine) lamenting that Mom could outshoot them on a daily basis. When first married they were to poor to afford dirt so Mom and Dad did a lot of subsitance hunting. Mom used dad’s guns.
Mother’s Day this year, Dad asked me if I could make a holster for the .25ACP that i gave Mom years ago. Yes, it is only a .25acp but it is all her athritic hands can handle. Still don’t want to be shot by one.
The Mother of my children (31 years and still going) was not into guns. I thaught her to shoot my revlolvers which the same day meant I had to buy her one of her own. Expensive shooting lesson. She used that revolver (Taurus 85) to defend herself and my daughters one day when I was traveling. A former babysitter (ex-con and drug addict) was trying to break into the house looking for money. Wife took the threat seriously, put the kids in the bath tub, locked them in and then took an ambush position with revolver in hand while waiting for the police. No shots fired, babysitter arrested. The police made sure wifes gun was actually loaded and clean before they left. My wife said having the gun and knowing she could use it gave her the clarity of mind not to panic but to do what needed to be done to keep the kids safe.
My Mother grew up in Nebraska during the Great Depression, and had four brothers. She lost her little brother, Dean, to an “unloaded gun” accident at a very young age. I guess I never imagined what she must have gone through as my Dad, a former LAPD reserve officer, taught my brother and me about gun safety, lovingly refinished an ancient .22 single shot for my 13th birthday, and took us to the police gun range for practice.
It was a different time, and firearms just weren’t for my Mother. But she wholly trusted my Dad to teach us well. She proudly supported us as we earned our awards in Boy Scouts, and my NRA Safe Hunter patch is one I still treasure today.
In her own way, Mom’s loving support became part of my formative years in my love and appreciation of guns and our Second Amendment. I just never put it together until I read your column. Thanks for the memory nudge, Mas.
What I want to say is utterly off-topic, but I’ll preface it with this remark about mothers to give this a veneer of justifiability: My late mother (apropos of nothing, also a liberal) was, with no training or time on the range, the most accurate natural shot I’ve ever seen. Using a BB gun or a .22, she was more consistently accurate just from the shoulder than I or my father was using a rest.
Here’s what I really want to say: Some people don’t need guns, as typified by the guy in this story:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/05/13/police-chase-bears-hatchet-drunk-massachusetts/27224103/
The story starts with this: “Police in Massachusetts offered some words of wisdom Monday night: Getting drunk and chasing bears through the woods with a dull hatchet is ‘not advised.'”
Over the Mother’s Day weekend I attended the first annual USCCA Expo which was held near my home in Wisconsin – an extremely good event, especially for their first. (Mas, your old buddy and my MAG 40 instructor Dave Maglio was there representing your excellent courses.)
I was encouraged by the large number of moms in attendance – close to 50/50. During lunch I sat at a large table of about this same mix. The men were quietly eating but the women were having quite a conversation on the merits of revolvers vs. autos and .380 vs. 9mm. It was a very well informed discussion. As I left, I commented to the ladies how grateful I was for their participation and what it said for the future of the 2nd Amendment and our shooting sports. Then it was home to take our family’s lady out for dinner and a movie.
GOOD POST VERY GOOD JOB
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