Getting Your Wife to the Range – by Terri Strayer
A lot of women will tell you that if someone was going to do their child bodily harm, they would defend their children. Then you ask them, if they were harmed or killed would not that cause harm to your child also? But when you ask them how they would carry out that defense, everything changes.
Do you carry a gun? Do you carry a knife and know how to use it? Do you have any hand to hand training?
That brings up another question, are you aware of your surroundings? Will you have time to react should trouble come your way?
I found discussing actual events with people where the victim either did not react or did not have the ability to react (gun, knife or physically), really brings self defense to the forefront for women. It makes people think about what happened: How could I have prevented this? How could I have defended myself?
Some excuses:
- “My husband always carries a gun.”
- “I have a gun in the car or in the house.”
Are you always at you husband’s side?
What about a girls’ day out or the gym?
Do you take your car in the store with you?
Have you ever thought about how long it would take to get to your car from inside the mall or just the convenience store when there is an attacker between you and your car?
Your wife has made the choice to carry a firearm for self protection? Guys, we need some help here. We need to practice and learn to be proficient with the chosen firearm. You’ll encounter excuses here, too. “Too much to do (taking care of the entire household is damn near a full time job in addition to work).” “The house needs cleaning, there are dirty clothes stacking up, there dirty dishes to be washed, dinner to prepare, etc.”
How about a little help around the house to free up a little time to get to the range and not be thinking about all that is waiting for her at home? That will create an opportunity to focus on learning the marksmanship skills that are needed.
Now that we have the time and mindset of learning to shoot this is going to bring up a difficult subject:
Teaching Your Wife to Shoot
The dreaded words, you’re teaching your wife to shoot. Yes it is better if you can get someone else to teach your wife to shoot! But maybe there are no good teachers around your area. Maybe the cost is a major issue. Whatever the reason, now it is up to you.
I have watched my husband teach women and he is great at it, but when it came to me he SUCKED.
Think of it like a date. When you took your wife out the first time you wanted her to have fun and hopefully, get another date. Or to put it more in your perspective (the man’s) get past first base… and hopefully score. Well, take your wife on a date to the range. Make it fun. Do not bark orders. Slowly show her the right way to do things to get better results. If it feels good and does not hurt her she may want to keep doing it. As she improves she will be willing for more.
Take the time to EXPLAIN why to do it this way. PATIENCE! Then give her time to adjust to that. Remember when you started shooting you did not always have the perfect stance-grip-sight picture-trigger squeeze. So be patient, if you have her working on one thing don’t bark out other commands. Wait then slowly add to the work in progress.
Also remember that everyone is different. What you think would work best may not always be the case. Then stop and do some easy fun drills. Then stop. Remember you want to get lucky tonight. Go to dinner. Go home. Cook on the grill. Sit down and spend time together. Then she just might be willing to go on a second date.
