Letter to millennials: I’m a young woman and here’s why I carry a gun
Kierstin Koppel
Dear fellow millennials,
I’m a young, single woman living in a high crime urban area. I’m 5 ft. tall and 110 lbs.
Like most millennials, I’m constantly on the go between business meetings, Pilates, dinner with friends, and the mall. I’m in and out of parking lots throughout the day, usually wearing leggings and most definitely answering emails or texting on my phone. In other words, I’m a perfect target for criminals.
So, how do I protect myself? I carry a gun.
My highest priority is being able to defend myself. That requires being a responsible gun owner, obtaining my concealed carry permit, educating myself about gun safety, and making time to practice shooting at the range. Beyond going to the range, I’m taking self-defense classes designed for women with NRA certified instructors.
To make sure I’m always carrying, I purchased a stylish brown leather concealed carry handbag, large enough for my MacBook Pro and perfectly designed for young professionals. It comes with a built in holster located in a discrete outside pocket for quick and easy access to your gun in the case of emergency.
You probably wouldn’t think someone who fits my profile would be a gun owner. Unfortunately, the media has done a brilliant job in portraying all gun owners to be angry men or hunters. Well, surprise, surprise!
Young women can be gun owners — we do exist! I don’t live in the boondocks or own a gun for hunting. That’s not to judge those who do, but I was a vegetarian for over 10 years and hunting is just not my thing.
I carry for personal protection. My gun is my tool for self-defense.
In fact, about half (48%) of gun owners said the main reason they owned a gun was for protection.
80 percent of rape victims are under the age of 30, and women 18-24 years old enrolled in college are three times more likely than women in general to suffer from sexual violence. Yet, there is a substantial gender gap when it comes to gun ownership. Men are three times more likely than women to personally own a gun.
Girls, if you think it can’t happen to you, think again. Any of us can be a victim of assault. My mom was attacked midday in a grocery store parking lot, located in an upscale neighborhood just a few miles from home. Other than bruises on her arms and neck, and a stolen purse, she did not suffer any serious injuries. She was lucky. But, why test our luck? The incident woke us up. We got educated, and we got armed.
If you’re like me, you may not be able to fight back against a violent assailant, but you can level the playing field by having a gun. The real war on women is disarming us or assuming that girls can’t possibly handle guns.
I got involved in politics to serve as voice for millennials. Not enough young women have a seat at the table when it comes to many issues, and if we don’t stand up and protect our rights, who will?
President Obama’s executive actions did not create new laws targeting the illegal flow of guns, or felons possessing and trafficking guns. Instead, the measures targeted law-abiding citizens by infringing and restricting their access to firearms.
The Obama administration plans to gain support for these executive actions by targeting the millennial generation to support gun restrictions. The administration is looking to take advantage of our energy and social media know-how to advance their agenda through our networks. Well, after seven long years of failed leadership, millennials should know better.
Young women in particular should not support restrictions that can make it more difficult for us to purchase a gun, because such restrictions can leave us more vulnerable to rape, domestic violence, theft, and burglaries. It’s common sense that criminals are more likely to target unarmed victims.
Millennials will play a pivotal role in electing the next president of the United States. We’re 95 million strong and make up 30.5 percent of eligible voters. This could be our #MillennialMoment.
The question is, can we use our new power to influence policy?
It’s critical we know the truth about gun control, so we can vote accordingly in 2016. Our generation values transparency and with facts, we can make up our own minds.
So, here are a few things that Obama did not tell us during the press conference or the town hall last week:
1. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has been calling on the federal government for increased federal funding for mental health.
2. States underreport criminal records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). With hundreds of thousands of missing criminal records, stopping the sale of firearms to felons is nearly impossible.
3. If you seek help for anxiety and are treated for depression during college, or if you are prescribed medication, your records could be made public to the federal government, and they could restrict your Second Amendment right.
4. A “gun-free zone” sign will notstop a mentally ill gunman or ideological terrorist. In that situation only an armed policeman or civilian can thwart a tragedy from occurring. Remember, the San Bernandino shooting took place in a federal building and was an act of terror. Numerous school shootings have taken place in gun-free zones. It goes on and on…
Taya Kyle, the wife of American sniper Chris Kyle told the president during the Guns in America town hall that his laws give people “false hope.” She insisted that gun control does not make us safer.
Here’s what we know for certain:
1. Obama’s measures wouldn’t have prevented the recent high profile mass shootings that he used as examples to justify his executive actions, because all of the murderers in the recent shootings either passed a background check or obtained their guns illegally.
2. The truth is that more guns = less crime. The U.S has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world and yet, the rate of gun crime has been on the decline. According to the FBI report on crime, in 2014 there were 8,124 gun-related homicides. That’s a rate of 2.56 gun-related murders per every 100,000.
3. There are measures we can and should take to control gun-related crimes while protecting our Second Amendment rights, including doing a better job educating people about gun safety and at diagnosing and treating mental illnesses.
4. Mental health is a growing crisis for the millennial generation. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), more than 5 million college students struggle with their mental health. That means that more than 25 percent of college students have a diagnosable mental illness and have been treated in the past year. The pressure to get good grades or excel in sports, get a job to pay off our debts, improve our appearances, experiment with drugs, have sex, etc…for all of these reasons and more, students are now, more than ever, on medication or undergoing treatment for mental health problems during college. Under President Obama’s new executive actions, all of these people are ineligible to purchase a firearm.
It’s not surprising that Obama is targeting our generation for support. We’ve been the driving force behind many cultural changes. However, a recent Pew Research Center report found that millennials favor protecting gun rights over gun control, and that today’s young adults support gun rights at historically high rates. This is important because previously, adults under 30 were the least likely of any age group to favor gun rights.
Hillary Clinton says she is fighting for us… But, doesn’t being “pro-women” mean empowering us so we can fight for ourselves?
I’m optimistic that there’s an opportunity for young women to lead the effort to take back the gun narrative and to share the truth about our rights with a brand new generation.
That’s why I believe this is our fight to win.
Sincerely,
A young female gun owner
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