Interesting how a conversation can change directions

End of the day, talking with our spec writer over details of some documents we needed to put out the door to meet a deadline.  Thinking back, I can't remember how she steered the conversation to guns, but I found myself talking to her about handguns. She said she'd grown up shooting long guns and was comfortable with that but handguns scared her.  I said, well you learned how to properly handle a long gun and so you are comfortable with that right?  There's a proper way to safely pick up a handgun as well. You just need to learn that.
She said she had her father's pistol that he had gotten for her mother many years ago.  Said her mother used to carry it in her purse everywhere she went.  I said, you know that was illegal way back when, she just shrugged.  Oh well, says I, better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.  She'd never heard that saying..made her laugh.
I asked her if the pistol she had was a revolver. She said yes; asked what caliber but she didn't know.
I said if I had to guess it's probably a .38.  Then she wondered out loud if it kicked much.  I told her, probably not much.
Her sister is a CCW license holder and had talked to her about concealed carry. Her sister also gave her some bad information about concealed carry with respect to the law. I set her straight on that.   She said she just didn't know if she could shoot someone. She said her sister had asked her, if it came down to you or the bad guy, could you shoot him.  She admitted she might. I told her that is the only circumstance where you should pull your gun. You don't just arbitrarily pull your sidearm and plug someone.  Then I told her when seconds count, your cell phone and 911 are a poor substitute, the police are twenty minutes away, arriving just in time to draw a chalk line around your body.  I saw a light bulb of cognition flicker a few times during that conversation.

I wrote about how Belle and I had taken a young lady and her husband to the range to introduce them to pistol shooting a while back.  I didn't start this conversation today.  I think the word is starting to spread amongst the ladies in the office.
Since she broached the subject, I'll touch on it again before too long. I think she was feeling me out.


I kind of joked about this before, but it may turn out to be the BAR mission statement.

 BAR, converting new self defense shooters one range trip at a time.

*  I did not grow up shooting pistols, and I do not claim to be a gunnie. The pistol jones started for me at the first BAR blogshoot in Lockhart, TX when Borepatch's .45 whispered sweet nothings to me, and I like shooting them...a lot.