All too often, among married couples, the husband is the firearms enthusiast and the one interested in personal defense, while the wife relies on that protection. But, unfortunately, things don’t always work out well when that kind of thinking prevails.
With a home invasion or any attack when a couple is targeted, the crooks will be focused on neutralizing the man as quickly as possible because they see him as the primary threat. Whether we like to think about it, what that means to us guys is that we may be the first to hit the ground with a debilitating wound. So what is the unarmed, unprepared woman going to do then?
If the woman is encouraged to take part in the training and the preparedness, we now have a defensive team that multiplies our chances of prevailing when attacked. She becomes the wild card in many situations. The crooks pay little attention to her because they expect her to run scared. Instead, when she takes a fighting stance and looks at them over the gun sights, it may well mess up their whole battle plan to where they decide the best thing to do is leave.
Crooks pay little attention to your spouse because they expect her to run scared. When, instead, she looks at them over her gun sights, it will ruin their whole day.
In the days of the American frontier, women were always a significant part of the defensive situation. They had to be simply because there was no other choice. And, though history rarely reports it, the woman was often the better shot. The entire family had various assigned duties to perform when the homestead was under attack.
Fortunately, today, we see women’s interest in personal defense increasing. These efforts must be encouraged. More than that, we can use our influence to organize women’s classes and clubs in our area.
We work with the women in our lives to truly develop as a team. That requires established methods of communication, verbal and non-verbal, as well as working out ways to provide support to each other. She may not be interested in becoming a firearms enthusiast, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t interested in protecting herself and her family. If we make sure that we use the same defensive handgun, in the same caliber as she does, that will simplify logistics. It will also mean that both defenders can function with whichever firearm we can get our hands on.
If you’re a firearm enthusiast, it is incumbent upon you to ensure your partner is adequately trained. Then, she can be the best defensive partner you could hope for, and she may save your life.
A version of this article appeared in Shooting Illustrated.
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