Carrie Lightfoot is the head of The Well Armed Woman, a resource and national organization that promises to be “where the feminine and firearms meet.
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Carrie Lightfoot says she’s not trying to turn every woman into a gun owner – she just wants them to have a place to go to get their questions answered to make a fully educated decision on what is right for them. I want them to understand guns and know how to handle them safely so that they can protect themselves if they need to someday.
You can learn more about the fight for gun rights by watching For the Record “Infringed” on-demand at theblaze.com/tv.
Video Transcription
I was not familiar with firearms growing
up in New York where I did it was not
part of our of our culture it wasn’t
part of my life at all so I was really
very afraid of firearms so kind of in my
ignorance I I didn’t allow them in my
home you know when and when my children
were young I didn’t even have let the
boys play with guns or squirt guns and
things like that because I I just had
that you know negative association with
them although i didn’t really know about
them at all I was a single mom and as my
children were growing and heading off to
college was that’s really what triggered
my transition that I was working with
the homeless and dealing with people
with poverty at that time which took me
to a tough part of town so the
combination of a tough part of town and
being a little fearful and my children
leaving is what started me really
feeling vulnerable for the first time
and so I started thinking what would I
do I started doing research and trying
to find answers to my questions and just
learn about them and what I found was
really frustrating to me because in
trying to find that information what was
available was either very over
sexualized you know there was that side
of the gun world that was you know women
in bikinis shooting shooting guns and
and so that didn’t speak to me you know
that that didn’t work for me and then on
the other side what I found was was
fairly condescending I mean I was smart
enough and I could make my own decisions
I just needed the information that
answered my questions as a woman on
whether or not a firearm was a good
choice for me how could I live with it
how could I wear it you know all those
things and none of that was there I felt
that there was a real need and it kind
of was with no one’s going to do it I’m
going to do it we curved it to match the
hip angle of women due to overwhelming
demand the well armed woman is now
expanding its office in warehouse
in Arizona and it’s chapter program
launched as a non-profit in 2013 has
grown to more than 650 locations in 49
states welcome everyone it’s great it’s
not a tumah dating environment which I
think a lot of women are intimidated by
guns they’re scared of them they don’t
want to touch them and I think that’s
the wrong attitude you need you need to
learn I think you owe it to yourself to
learn and this is the perfect
environment to do that in we come from
all walks of life all social stratas and
it’s exciting to see more women becoming
responsible for their safety through
that education what I want is for women
to make the best decision that they can
for themselves it is not my mission to
put a gun in every woman’s hand my goal
is to create the place the resource
where they can come get the information
in a non-biased manner and make their
best decision for themselves not one
that’s based on an emotional fear