“We are delighted that Paxton Quigley presented her “Not An Easy Target” seminar to our employees. With daily news reports of increased muggings, gropings, subway robberies and rapes, I felt it was vital and my responsibility to provide the women in my agency access to Paxton Quigley. The response from our staff was overwhelmingly positive and they felt empowered after learning her personal protection safety techniques.”

Maureen Lippe, President
Lippe Taylor Public Relations
New York, New York

Here is another Reuters New Service story where a law enforcement officer is advising women to legally carry a concealed handgun for self-defense. As we all know, more and more women are heeding this advice and it’s unfortunate that there are still some jurisdictions where women can’t legally carry a concealed weapon. Please check out my specially-designed purse for handguns. It’s called The Pax and is sold by Galco.

…After lunch I went over to the Carlisle Per Se Collection on East 52nd Street where I was interviewing Paxton Quigley about her course in Women’s Self Defense.

Pax is an old friend of mine. I met her thirty years ago when she was an executive with Playboy in L.A. Several years later she developed an interest in guns. I remember when she told me about the idea. I don’t know where she was but she had a boyfriend at the time who lived or worked on a ranch. She was with him one day in a gun store when it occurred to her that women are afraid of guns because they don’t know how to shoot correctly, properly and carefully.

Paxton stalked by DPC. Paxton is wearing one of Carlisle's autumn creations, great looking I have to say.

Paxton grabbed from behind by DPC.

Scream at your attacker!

She wrote a book after that called Not An Easy Target. I think it’s still available. She’s written an updated version because she’s learned a lot more not only about guns but about the matter of women being able to defend themselves when under threat.
It’s a complicated issue and I’m going to write about it more at another time. But yesterday’s event – there were about fifty women from 20-somethings to 60-somethings, many professional – was very successful. And fun. I think many of the guests could have stayed long after the hour was over because everyone was riveted.

Pax is really good at teaching women What To Do (sans guns). But that’s for another Diary.

Paxton Quigley, Carol Ostrow, and Lisa Carnoy.

Iris Rossi and Jeanne Mitchell.

Evelyn Gellman and Carol Cohen.

Judith Agisim and Ellen Easton.

Lauren Ezersky.

Antonia Milonas and Margo Langenberg.

Viva Bhogaita.

Fern Mallis and Sharon Hoge.

Junto Yamada Cusick and Kathleen Kirkwood.

Anita Sarko.

Maggie Norris.

Jean Shafiroff, Judith Agisim, and Alice Judelson.

Victoria Moran, Magda Katz, and Carol Ostrow.

Wendy Moonan and Mickey Ateyeh.

Ann Rapp and DPC.

Magda Katz.

Victoria Moran and Lynette Dallas.

I thought the following information is very interesting for women who are interested in owning or gun or have a gun. This paper was presented at the American Sociological Association on August 20, 2011.

Empowerment, Self-Defense Motivating Factors for Texas Women to Hold Concealed Handgun Licenses

LAS VEGAS — Texas women who hold concealed handgun licenses (CHLs) are motivated to do so by feelings of empowerment and a need for self-defense, according to new research to be presented at the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.

“A mixture of motivations made the women feel empowered—the thrill of being good shooters, self-defense, and being different from ‘other kinds of women’—and propelled them to want a license,” said Angela Stroud, a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin.

In the United States, 47 percent of men but only 13 percent of women own a gun. According to gender scholars, the disproportion is due to the association of guns, aggression, and violence with masculinity. Nonetheless, the number of female gun owners is rising.

In Texas, women obtained 190,000 out of the 800,000 CHLs issued between 1995 and 2009. Stroud interviewed 15 Texas women who hold CHLs to discover their motivations for becoming licensed. She found that gender played a central role, with guns reducing the significance of size and strength differences between men and women and decreasing women’s feelings of helplessness.

“They were thrilled by their shooting competency because guns were marked as men’s things,” Stroud said. “They developed a sense of confidence in their ability to defend themselves because they were personally rejecting the link between femininity and vulnerability.”

For some women—including those who began carrying guns after being victims of a crime—obtaining a CHL leads to an increased fear of crime and sense of vulnerability when unarmed. This may be a result of the CHL licensing process, in which instructors teach their students to be constantly aware of potential threats. According to Stroud, women immersed in CHL culture begin to see carrying a gun as the only way to feel safe. This is a significant drawback to guns as a form of self-defense.

“Some of these women locate their strength and empowerment in their firearm,” Stroud said. “When they are unarmed, this has the consequence of increasing their feelings of vulnerability. It is as though their sense of empowerment resides in their gun, not in themselves, limiting the extent to which CHL use ultimately empowers those women who use this form of self-defense.”

About the American Sociological Association

The American Sociological Association (www.asanet.org), founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.

The paper, “Gender, Violence and Concealed Handgun Licensing” will be presented on Saturday, Aug. 20, at 4:30 p.m. PDT in Caesars Palace Las Vegas, at the American Sociological Association’s 106th Annual Meeting.

To obtain a copy of the paper, for more information on other ASA presentations, or for assistance reaching the study’s author, members of the media can contact Daniel Fowler at pubinfo@asanet.org or (202) 527-7885. During the Annual Meeting (Aug. 20-23), ASA’s Public Information Office staff can be reached in the press room, located in the Sorrento Room of Caesars Palace, at (702) 866-1916 or (914) 450-4557 (cell).

For more information about the study, members of the media can also contact Michelle Bryant, Office of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, at mbryant@austin.utexas.edu or (512) 914-4540.

Every year since 1999 Peace Over Violence has organized Denim Day in LA & US. It’s a rape prevention education campaign, where the organizers ask community members, elected officials, businesses and students to make a social statement with their fashion statement and on this day wear jeans as a visible means of protest against misconceptions that surround sexual assault. I suggest on this day–April 27– both men and women wear white jeans to distinguish themselves from those people who wear regular jeans

My New Book, ARMED & FEMALE: TAKING CONTROL has been published. Please order it at amazon.com

My new book, Armed & Female: Taking Control, Merril Press, will be published in July, 2010. I’ll be putting up a chapter from the book shortly.