I have never been a fan of guns. I grew up in a city with a lot of gun violence and have always been an advocate for stricter gun laws. So why am I considering learning how to shoot a gun? It’s pretty simple: protection.

I hope I will never in my life need to fire a weapon at another human being but, in a worst case scenario, do I want to be pacifist who doesn’t know how to use a gun and face potential harm because of it or a person who has trained to know how to protect themselves and others?

Valid Points

My stubborn streak is strong and my husband I have gone back and forth for years on this topic. I have always been a hard fast “no” when he brought up the topic. I would say no, I don’t like guns, I don’t need to know how to shoot. Any time there is a news story where an armed civilian has taken down a perpetrator potentially saving many others lives my husband is quick to point it out to me that this is why I need to know how to shoot.

Now that our daughters are getting older we have had a heightened awareness of all of the sex trafficking stories that have been popping up on our local news as well. I want you to be able to protect yourself and the girls, he tells me. This is a valid point and I still always said no.

I’m Listening

Last month there was an active intruder lock-down at my daughters’ school. Luckily it was a false alarm and the local authorities response to it was amazing, but for 45 minutes those students and teachers had to treat the situation as if there was someone in their school with the intent to harm them. For me, that’s when it felt real.

I felt the anxiety my husband did about being defenseless in a terrible situation so when he brought it up again I said: “I’m listening”.

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It Will Be Fun

You can go with a friend he suggested, “it will be fun”.

I told him no, I want to go with you and I want to take it seriously. Owning and knowing how to use a gun is a huge responsibility that I would not take lightly. Our next date night might just be at the gun range; maybe I’ll actually enjoy it aside from learning how to shoot for protection.

When our girls get older, I think I might be taking them to the range as well.

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