Yet another irresponsible gun owner and, apparently, proud of it

An avowed anti-gun activist, Heidi Yewman, has decided that she will arm herself, using all deliberate ignorance and irresponsibility, in hopes of showing that knowledgeable and responsible gun-wearers must surely be as ignorant and irresponsible as she. She has chosen to document her experience as an irresponsible gun owner.

Ms. Yewman, please don't blame your ignorance of firearms on the fact that the laws in your jurisdiction don't force you to get training. (Just how much do you want your government to force you to do anyway?)

All responsible gun owners get training (as suggested by the wise police officer you met) regardless of whether it's required by the law. (The guy behind the gun counter often is the last person you should ask for information about gun safety or gun selection.) Instruction from a knowledgeable friend or relative is a good start, but formal training from a certified instructor is best and should be your immediate goal. A typical responsible gun owner who carries a gun for self-protection goes to the shooting range every month for practice and gets two to four days of additional training every year or two from a certified instructor.

A bit of competent training coupled with the proper attitude will make you and the people around you perfectly safe. You will feel comfortable knowing that the gun, having no will of its own, cannot mercilessly kill innocent children or blow up gas tanks (that only happens in movies — not real life) unless you make it do so. You will know that your Glock is a harmless yet reliable assembly of plastic and steel unless handled improperly or if the proper application of deadly force is necessary.

You seem proud of having acquired a gun without having a clue what you are doing. Carrying a gun with no training makes you, Ms. Yewman, an irresponsible gun owner. Even before you joined the ranks of irresponsible gun owners, we already had too many of those. But, the vast majority of gun owners aren't like you -- we have some training. We know what we're doing.

I's easy to see that your real goal was to prove to the world how easy it is to be an irresponsible gun owner. In that, you succeeded. You must surely be proud of your accomplishment.

This irresponsible venture into carrying a gun seems to be an extension of Yewman's anti-gun activism which includes authoring a typical book advocating gun control. In that book, Beyond the Bullet: Personal Stories of Gun violence Aftermath, she argues for gun control using the gun-control activist's best and only tool: emotion.

She carefully selected emotional stories that stimulate emotion. Ironically, each of the stories actually illustrates the need for responsible adults to own and carry firearms for self-protection and to train with them. Each of her stories illustrates the simple fact that police (people with guns) cannot protect us -- there simply aren't enough of them to provide every American a personal bodyguard. When criminal attacks occur, the police (people with guns) usually arrive just in time to photograph the victim's violated and/or lifeless body and to start looking for the perpetrator.

For example, one story in the book is about a woman who had to wait hours for police (yup, people with guns) to show up to rescue her -- after she'd already been shot multiple times! If that woman (and every other victim in Yewman's book) had owned and used a gun, she could have stopped the attack instantly. According to criminologist Gary Kleck (see links below for books documenting his and other worthy research), that is exactly what happens thousands of times each day across the US -- good people stopping criminal attacks with guns -- usually without firing a shot!

There are several books similar to Beyond the Bullet but with one key difference: The victims in these other books had a gun and were able to successfully defend themselves and their families. Every issue of NRA's monthly magazines has a column entitled Armed Citizen with several stories of successful armed defense. But, Ms Yeoman chose instead to pick victims who, by circumstance, choice, or negligence, had no effective means of fending off a violent attack.

If every woman in every big, high-crime community in America had a gun in her purse or strapped to her thigh, we would have a safer, more courteous society. — Mike Royko, syndicated columnist

The argument for responsible gun ownership and defensive use thereof is based on facts -- not emotion. If you want an emotional argument, read Beyond the Bullet.

On the other hand, to learn the facts about gun safety and the defensive use of guns ignored by people like Heidi Yewman, read Gun Facts, Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control, Armed, The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard About Gun Control Is Wrong, and More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws.