you go, girl.

I'm not sure I know who Ann Barnhardt is, but I think I love her.

Also? this is her rifle:

Yes, really.

.38 1-eighty

You know, now that I've had a few weeks to mull it over, I think I've changed my mind about giving a new woman shooter a .38 airweight revolver.

In fact, I now believe that a snubbie is the perfect gun for everyone. Young, old, male, female, newbie or experienced shooter, get yourself the lightest snubnose you can find and load it full of +P ammo. Easy to carry and that hand-numbing recoil makes you feel like you're really shooting. Oh, and while you're at it, make sure to leave off any laser sights so that range practice is that much more frustrating challenging. And for goodness sake, don't fiddle with that ridiculously heavy trigger pull...wouldn't want shooting to be fun or easy, right? Oh, heck - but why practice at all, really? Everyone knows that all self defense situations happen within 5 feet or less and you'll never hit anything further than that anyway.

However, I'm going to have to insist that all the snubbies be pink and purse-carried.

best gun for a woman, better than a pointy stick.

So, everyone's been emailing me links to the story about the beauty queen who shot and killed a violent intruder with her pink .38 snubby. Bravo!

But there was a small detail I noticed in almost all of the articles I read...

Meghan Brown had fired her pink .38-caliber handgun only inside a shooting range. Even there, she said, she wasn't very good.

The 2009 Miss Tierra Verde, 25 and a slender brunet, had trouble pulling back the trigger. When she did manage, she said she almost never hit the target.

...and...

He said he purchased the pink handgun for Brown last Christmas and that the two had gone to target practice together.

"She was not a good shot at the range,” he quipped.

Thank goodness for adrenaline, but I still wouldn't want to bet my life on it.

pretty/ugly

The NYT has a line-up of some, uh...very decorative pistols. For your purse, of course.

Out of all of them, I like the Walther the best. I'm a sucker for pretty wood and engraving.

(HT SayUncle)

on pink

(100 years of pink, click for detail)

While I'm aware of the color's history, I can't help but laugh at women who insist that pink products are somehow demeaning and condescending. Sure, there's a subset of women who live to be perpetually offended about every damn thing you can conjure up, but for real women? Ones that have managed to escape the self-perpetuating grrrl power vortex of rage? (note to self: stop reading feministing.com)

It's just a color, ladies - mixed pigments, light reflected, that's all. If you don't like it, don't buy it. The laws of economics work.

What is condescending, though, is when companies take a man's product (gun, hammer, camouflage overalls, whathaveyou), scale it down, produce it in a rosy hue and proclaim it For the Ladies, AKA the "shrink & pink" method of marketing. I can imagine some of these R&D meetings - a few bored salesmen, a couple of lazy designers and then suddenly, one of them gets an idea. "Hey, we have this best selling widget...let's make it pink! Women love pink! This will sell like hotcakes! Pink hotcakes, yeah!" The result is stupid things like pink bubblewrap, pink colanders, frilly pink realtree window treatments (yes, really) and pink guns named "Bitch."

But at the end of the day, I suppose all these pink products are a sign that companies - and gun companies, specifically - are thinking about what women like and would be willing to buy. I just wish they'd think outside that (pink) box.

Full disclosure - I just bought these:
Hot pink gun socks. As a GenXer, I felt it necessary for me to get them and wear them as ironically as possible.

think pink

As the daughter of a breast cancer survivor, I'm happy to be able to promote this charity auction, which will support the fund-raising goals of the GunBroker.com family team, which includes walkers and crew members in the Atlanta Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk, held Oct. 22-24. All proceeds will go to the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure, which funds innovative global breast cancer research and local community programs supporting education, screening and treatment.

Specifications for the AR-15 style DPMS Panther Lite 16" Special Edition Pink rifle can be found on the auction page.

say hello to my little friend

We giggled about the boys, compared nailpolish (green and glitter, natch), went on a hayride, tried on silly sunglasses, had a gun show 'n' tell* and, of course, we shot together.

Some of the guns weren't even pink.

(a little gunchick, shooting an M1 Carbine & grinning the entire time)

*she owns a pink cricket rifle and two pretty little revolvers. She's 10...and she's awesome.

snakebite

Weer'd Beard has an excellent review of the Cobra firearms we handled at the NRA Annual Meeting.


I wasn't impressed.

(& what irritated me perhaps more than the crap triggers, the frighteningly bad engineering, and the cheesy pastel chrome finishes is that Cobra actively markets these guns for women. Sure, your little gun may be shiny, pink, and really affordable but it will hurt your hand when you try to shoot it. And if you get one of those cute little derringers? Expect to have to use two hands to use it. Not exactly the best way to encourage new female shooters.)

agh! My eyes!

I like a little bit of fancy engraving and customization on pistols, but this is too much - it's like Liberace's piano mated with a 1911 and the offspring became a devotee of the Mariah Carey school of fashion.

today, in my inbox

from: Jeanette K-

to: bredafallacy(at)gmail(dot)com

date: Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 3:33 PM

subject: 20 Awesome Pink Guns & Accessories

Dear Brenda,

I hope things are going well for you! From reading your last blog post, it sounds like it. We’re finally getting some sunshine and warmer temps in the Midwest. The sunshine actually inspired this blog post I put together of 20 pink guns and accessories. Being that you’re a chick with guns, I figured you and perhaps your blog readers would enjoy it! You can check it out here: (link removed)

My response?

Dear Jeanette,

If you actually DID read my blog (especially my last post, like you SAID you did) you would notice that I was just rear ended in a hit and run accident. So, no - things are not "going well" for me.

Also? My name is not "Brenda."

Do not ever contact me again.

And yes, she did write back. Sigh.

sugar and spice...

...and everything nice sometimes includes a purple Crosman 1377 pellet pistol.

A new gun chick! Thanks to JayG and his reader Nancy for updating us on her journey. (the cuteness and sass of that last photo just about broke my squee-o-meter.)

I suspect the likes of Julie Golob might have a bit of competition in a few years.

packing pink

This story is from back in June...

"And the guy said, 'Is that pistol loaded?' I said, 'Of course it is. It's ready for you. It's ready for you, honey."

I love this quote so much - I hope if I ever have to pull a gun on someone, I have the wherewithal to come up with a clever line like that. Good for her! Women and the elderly are victimized so frequently, especially when they live alone. Having a gun in the house for protection just makes sense.

However, shooting a man just for looking at your jewelry box has the potential to get you into all sorts of trouble, scrappy widow or not.

tall tales

(click photos for detail)

Last night at work I noticed a children's book getting ready to be reshelved...

(The Right to Bear Arms by Paul J. Deegan, c.1987)

I thought, "Wow, a Second Amendment book for kids! Cool," and started flipping through the pages. It began simply enough, describing what the Second Amendment means and a little bit of its history, recounting the era in which the Amendments were written...

(Paul Bunyan?)

"Hmm...no," I said to myself. "I suppose they weren't." (& they weren't thinking about duck hunting or collecting either, Jimmah - I believe it was intended to protect us from people like you.)

I continued reading and found a tale of a boy at home alone one evening. He thought he heard the sound of someone breaking into the house. He was frightened...

(the raccoon mask, official uniform of burglars everywhere)

...and suddenly remembered that Dad had a rifle in his closet. The boy wondered if he should go get it in case the burglar got in?

(Yes, I know it's a shotgun. The book called it a rifle.)

But no, in the end, the boy decided to do the "right" thing...

(when seconds count, the police are only minutes away)

Luckily for the boy, the policeman arrived in time (with his handgun) and the burglar ran away.

Sadly, every story does not have such a happy ending. A child should be taught to safely use the tools available to them...

(photo courtesy of the ever-so-talented Oleg Volk)

...even if they're pink.

teeny baby gunchick

This might be the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Plus, as a bonus, I think Sarah Brady's head just exploded.

(via Snarkybytes, via twitter.) Politics, Guns & Beer - how did I miss this? ...added to the blogroll!

hello, gorgeous.

Now, who says guns aren't feminine? (click to enlarge)

Since my wonderful friend Nikki reads my blog, she knows how much I am amused and delighted by pink "girlie" guns. She also knows me well enough to know that I wouldn't like a gun that was too shiny, too blingy, or too precious. So for my birthday this year she ordered me new custom-made grips for my Bersa Thunder .380, made out of purpleheart - naturally a dark purplish-pink wood. The grips fit perfectly, feel nice in my hand and are so beautiful in the sunlight, honestly - the wood almost glows.

When it comes to prettying up your pistol, sometimes less is more...like applying lipstick, a sheer wash of rose is much classier than a sticky bubblegum pink.

Color.

Before I transformed myself into librarian extraordinaire, I was an artist. I graduated with a degree in fine art from a small Catholic women's college. I had my senior show - an installation of large ceramic and mixed media sculpture. But as much as I enjoyed clay and building things out of it, my first love was, and always will be, color.

Painting classes were a joy. Like a musician with perfect pitch, I could mix colors on my palette easily and with great skill. There has never been any amount of hesitation for me, no "hmm...a little more blue maybe? or is that green?" The color already existed in my head. I could remember colors and duplicate them days later...and when my colors were in close proximity on the canvas, I could physically feel their rightness when everything was harmonizing beautifully together.

My color-love has revealed itself in unusual ways, post art school. In my large collection of art supplies I have a box of Sharpie markers, every color ever made. I have many unworn eyeshadows and nail polishes that I bought just because I want to look at their color. My mother calls me when she wants a new color for the bathroom walls, Mike quickly learned that no, a teal shirt does not go with olive pants even though they are both green (thank goodness I woke up early that day and caught him before he left for work), and now that I shoot - I like colored guns.

(♥ cuteness! ♥)

New to the world of firearms, I've been having trouble understanding why some people have issues with guns that are any other color than black or silver. I liken this to how my husband insists that his blue jeans be Levi's - it's a sort of traditional purism, a Zen-like desire for simplicity, and an adherence to function over form. I acknowledge the beauty of firearms for what they are - tidy little marvels of design and engineering - but I can also appreciate the desire for a more decorative gun.

Customized guns should be applauded since they are a sure sign that more people are becoming interested in shooting and gun ownership. A person willing to spend the amount of money it takes to paint their gun Hello Kitty pink, have it engraved, or even give it a neon orange flame-job is a person who wants to tell the world, "This gun is mine." - and people will protect what belongs to them.

Thanks to technology and a greater diversity of gun owners, the 2nd Amendment will now be protected in technicolor.

tick, tick, tick....

Hear that? This photo has activated the ol' biological clock. Egads. The cuteness! Make it stop!

(found at Tam's, who found it at Oleg's)

a limerick!

(very cute!)

A feminist, name of Mad Kane
Thinks the word "chick" is a bane,
Hates guns that are pink,
And I really do think
My blog would just drive her insane.

I found this lady's blog while perusing my sitemeter - someone had done a google search for "cute pink guns" and her blog came up in the results along with mine. Ms. Kane makes political and social commentary in the form of limericks and haikus. Very clever!

But...

As shown in the links above, Ms. Kane believes that if you teach a girl to shoot, you will be turning her into a killer. Do girls who learn to cook also become killers? Some kitchen knives are really big. And sharp. If quartering a head of cabbage with your largest santoku does not turn you into a dangerous ax-wielding maniac hellbent on decapitating innocent strangers, how does putting holes in a piece of paper 10 yards away with a tool that just happens to go bang turn you into a deranged homicidal gun-toting psychopath?

In fact, I've done far more damage to myself in the kitchen than I ever have on the range. I have filleted my own index finger with a chef's knife (don't ask) but I have never once shot myself. And nor will I.

If you are a normal person, guns will make you a more fully conscious human being. Shooting a gun is like yoga - you have to be very aware of your body: posture, breathing, the tiniest movements (down to how you move your fingertip) all affect whether or not you'll be able to hit the target consistently. Owning a gun requires you to be fully mindful of your environment and the 4 Rules in order to handle, carry and store your firearm safely. As a very nice and very wise man once said to me, it's "Zen and the art of the pistoleer."

so cute!

But I have to confess... I really prefer Chococat.

behind the pink.

Today Tam finally gives us her thoughts on pink guns, after finding them in Cosmo. Cosmo?

Pink guns amuse me.

I equate pink guns with The Vagina Monologues, odd as that may sound. They are symbols of that silly sort of feminism that insists that women claim things as their own, stand on the mountaintop and proclaim, "My vagina belongs to me! My body!", and "My gun! Girl gun! Pink! Hear me roar!"

What they don't realize is that these things were already theirs to begin with...

________________________________________

But... if a woman has been waiting for a "pretty" gun to become available before she was willing to shoot, then I'm all for it. Bedazzle the thing, trim it in lace for all I care, and let's go make some noise!