Winning the Culture War on Self Defense

In Michigan, following the kidnap and murder of an Arkansas real estate agent, a number of women real estate agents are studying how to effectively control their guns in a deadly force situation.   The person who is encouraging them is the petite, attractive, Shelley Gottschling, pictured above.

There is nothing particularly unusual about this.   Firearm instructors have long noted the ability of women to become excellent shots, and the fact that women do not bring the macho baggage to the range that some men do.   Shelley's mentor, however, notes that she is exceptional.  From mlive.com:

"I haven't seen too many women who can handle a .45 like she can," says Ray Rocha, Gottschling's shooting mentor.

Since obtaining her concealed pistol license in May 2013, Gottschling has worked to improve her shot in an effort to feel more safe and prepared on the job. Now, in the wake of the kidnapping and slaying of an Arkansas real estate agent, she's encouraging other real estate agents to do the same.

What is noteworthy is that this article was published  in mlive.com, a somewhat "liberal" mainstream publication.   There is no obligatory disarmenter comments about how "she will have the gun taken from her and used against her"  or the ever popular, and false "a gun in the home is 22 times more likely to be used against you than for self defense".

Those discredited bits of propaganda simply are not there.  The underlying assumption has come much closer to reality.    A gun in your possession increases your options, and can be used to save your life if you are threatened.

That is a sea change in the attitude of the old media.  It did not happen overnight.  It took 25 years of activism to force the old media to notice.  There were 25 years of desperate struggle on the part of the gun culture before that, merely to prevent legislative annihilation, fighting defensive battles.

Today, the culture is in a different place.   The gun culture has developed enough of its own media, that the old media has had to pay attention.

When petite Realtors preach the values of the .45 over the 9mm, and are published in mainstream publications, the gun culture is winning.

 "Personally, I like the .45 because if I'm in a situation where someone is banging on a door and I'm trapped, I have the confidence it can shoot through that door," she said.

Accept that guns are legitimate for self defense, and the gun culture has won.  Everything else is simply the details.

  Definition of a disarmenter

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

Update: Sources for refutation of the 22-1 ratio, or 45-1 ratio or 3-1 ratio.   They all have been widely discredited.

  Specifically on the Kellerman paper, the source of most of these ratio cites.

General refutation of the entire "guns as a health risk" literature, very detailed.