Assignment task: A Peaceful Woman Explains Why She Carries a Gun
Linda M. Hasselstrom
Rhetorical Thumbnail
Purpose: to justify why the author, a peace-loving woman, carries a gun
Audience: general reader, but especially women who feel vulnerable living alone
Language: standard English
Strategy: projects a reasonable persona while relating tense incidents from which gun ownership has rescued her
Linda M. Hasselstrom (b. 1943) is a writer and teacher who grew up in rural South Dakota. Her works include eleven nonfiction books and five collections of poetry. She writes primarily about her ranch and her life.
Living alone on an isolated ranch may seem romantic to some who love nature or solitude, but it can be perilous to an unarmed woman. Embedded within the story line is the issue of who, if anyone, should have legal access to a gun.
1. I am a peace-loving woman. But several events in the past 10 years have convinced me I'm safer when I carry a pistol. This was a personal decision, but because handgun possession is a controversial subject, perhaps my reasoning will interest others.
2. I live in western South Dakota on a ranch 25 miles from the nearest town: for several years I spent winters alone here. As a free-lance writer, I travel alone a lot- more than 100,000 miles by car in the last four years. With women freer than ever before to travel alone, the odds of our encountering trouble seem to have risen.
Distances are great, roads are deserted, and the terrain is often too exposed to offer hiding places.
3. A woman who travels alone is advised, usually by men, to protect herself by avoiding bars and other "dangerous situations," by approaching her car like an Indian scout, by locking doors and windows. But these precautions aren't always enough. I spent years following them and still found myself in dangerous situations. I began to resent the idea that just because I am female, I have to be extra careful.
4. A few years ago, with another woman, I camped for several weeks in the West.
We discussed self-defense, but neither of us had taken a course in it. She was against firearms, and local police told us Mace was illegal. So we armed ourselves with spray cans of deodorant tucked into our sleeping bags. We never used our improvised Mace because we were lucky enough to camp beside people who came to our aid when men harassed us. But on one occasion we visited a national park where our assigned space was less than 15 feet from other campers. When we returned from a walk, we found our closest neighbors were two young men. As we gathered our cooking gear, they drank beer and loudly discussed what they would do to us after dark. Nearby campers, even families, ignored them: rangers strolled past, unconcerned. When we asked the rangers pointblank if they would protect us, one of them patted my shoulder and said, "Don't worry girls. They're just kidding." At dusk we drove out of the park and hid our camp in the woods a few miles away. The illegal spot was lovely, but our enjoyment of that park was ruined. I returned from the trip determined to reconsider the options available for protecting myself.
5. At that time, I lived alone on the ranch and taught night classes in town. Along a city street I often traveled, a woman had a flat tire, called for help on her CB radio, and got a rapist who left her beaten. She was afraid to call for help again and stayed in her car until morning. For that reason, as well as because CBs work best along line-of-sight, which wouldn't help much in the rolling hills where I live, I ruled out a CB.
6. As I drove home one night, a car followed me. It passed me on a narrow bridge while a passenger flashed a blinding spotlight in my face. I braked sharply. The car stopped, angled across the bridge, and four men jumped out. I realized the locked doors were useless if they broke the windows of my pickup. I started forward, hoping to knock their car aside so I could pass. Just then another car appeared, and the men hastily got back in their car. They continued to follow me, passing and repassing. I dared not go home because no one else was there. I passed no lighted houses. Finally they pulled over to the roadside, and I decided to use their tactic: fear. Speeding, the pickup horn blaring, I swerved as close to them as I dared as I roared past. It worked: they turned off the highway. But I was frightened and angry.
Even in my vehicle I was too vulnerable.
7. Other incidents occurred over the years. One day I glanced out at a field below my house and saw a man with a shotgun walking toward a pond full of ducks. I drove down and explained that the land was posted. I politely asked him to leave. He stared at me, and the muzzle of the shotgun began to rise. In a moment of utter clarity I realized that I was alone on the ranch, and that he could shoot me and simply drive away. The moment passed: the man left.
8. One night, I returned home from teaching a class to find deep tire ruts in the wet ground of my yard, garbage in the driveway, and a large gas tank empty. A light shone in the house: I couldn't remember leaving it on. I was too embarrassed to drive to a neighboring ranch and wake someone up. An hour of cautious exploration convinced me the house was safe, but once inside, with the doors locked, I was still afraid. I kept thinking of how vulnerable I felt, prowling around my own house in the dark.
9. My first positive step was to take a kung fu class, which teaches evasive or protective action when someone enters your space without permission. I learned to move confidently, scanning for possible attackers. I learned how to assess danger and techniques for avoiding it without combat.
10. I also learned that one must practice several hours every day to be good at kung fu. By that time I had married George: when I practiced with him, I learned how close you must be to your attacker to use martial arts, and decided a 120-pound woman dare not let a six-foot, 220-pound attacker get that close unless she is very, very good at self-defense. I have since read articles by several women who were extremely well trained in the martial arts, but were raped and beaten anyway.
11. I thought back over the times in my life when I had been attacked or threatened and tried to be realistic about my own behavior, searching for anything that had allowed me to become a victim. Overall, I was convinced that I had not been at fault.
I don't believe myself to be either paranoid or a risk-taker, but I wanted more protection.
12. With some reluctance I decided to try carrying a pistol. George had always carried one, despite his size and his training in martial arts. I practiced shooting until I was sure I could hit an attacker who moved close enough to endanger me. Then I bought a license from the county sheriff, making it legal for me to carry the gun concealed.
13. But I was not yet ready to defend myself. George taught me that the most important preparation was mental: convincing myself I could actually shoot a person. Few of us wish to hurt or kill another human being. But there is no point in having a gun; in fact, gun possession might increase your danger unless you know you can use it. I got in the habit of rehearsing, as I drove or walked, the precise conditions that would be required before I would shoot someone.
14. People who have not grown up with the idea that they are capable of protecting themselves-in other words, most women-might have to work hard to convince themselves of their ability, and of the necessity. Handgun ownership need not turn us into gunslingers, but it can be part of believing in, and relying on, ourselves for protection.
15. To be useful, a pistol has to be available. In my car, it's within instant reach. When I enter a deserted rest stop at night, it's in my purse, with my hand on the grip. When I walk from a dark parking lot into a motel, it's in my hand, under a coat. At home, it's on the headboard. In short, I take it with me almost everywhere I go alone.
16. Just carrying a pistol is not protection; avoidance is still the best approach to trouble. Subconsciously watching for signs of danger, I believe I've become more alert. Handgun use, not unlike driving, becomes instinctive. Each time I've drawn my gun-I have never fired it at another human being-I've simply found it in my hand.
17. I was driving the half-mile to the highway mailbox one day when I saw a vehicle parked about midway down the road. Several men were standing in the ditch, relieving themselves. I have no objection to emergency urination, but I noticed they'd dumped several dozen beer cans in the road. Besides being ugly, cans can slash a cow's feet or stomach.
18. The men noticed me before they finished and made quite a performance out of zipping their trousers while walking toward me. All four of them gathered around my small foreign car, and one of them demanded what the hell I wanted.
19. "This is private land. I'd appreciate it if you'd pick up the beer cans."
20. "What beer cans?" said the belligerent one, putting both hands on the car door and leaning in my window. His face was inches from mine, and the beer fumes were strong. The others laughed. One tried the passenger door, locked; another put his foot on the hood and rocked the car. They circled, lightly thumping the roof, discussing my good fortune in meeting them and the benefits they were likely to bestow upon me. I felt very small and very trapped and they knew it.
21. "The ones you just threw out," I said politely.
22. "I don't see no beer cans. Why don't you get out here and show them to me, honey?" said the belligerent one, reaching for the handle inside my door.
23. "Right over there," I said, still being polite. "-there, and over there." I pointed with the pistol, which I'd slipped under my thigh. Within one minute the cans and the men were back in the car and headed down the road.
24. I believe this incident illustrates several important principles. The men were trespassing and knew it: their judgment may have been impaired by alcohol. Their response to the polite request of a woman alone was to use their size, numbers, and sex to inspire fear. The pistol was a response in the same language. Politeness didn't work: I couldn't match them in size or number. Out of the car, I'd have been more vulnerable. The pistol just changed the balance of power. It worked again recently when I was driving in a desolate part of Wyoming. A man played cat-and mouse with me for 30 miles, ultimately trying to run me off the road. When his car passed mine with only two inches to spare, I showed him my pistol, and he disappeared.
25. When I got my pistol, I told my husband, revising the old Colt slogan, "God made men and women, but Sam Colt made them equal." Recently I have seen a gunmaker's ad with a similar sentiment. Perhaps this is an idea whose time has come, though the pacifist inside me will be saddened if the only way women can achieve equality is by carrying weapons.
26. We must treat a firearm's power with caution. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," as a man (Lord Acton) once said. A pistol is not the only way to avoid being raped or murdered in today's world, but, intelligently wielded, it can shift the balance of power and provide a measure of safety.
From LAND CIRCLE: WRITING COLLECTED FROM THE LAND. Copyright 1991 by Linda Hasselstrom. Reprinted with permission from Fulcrum Publishing Company.
The Facts:
1. How many times did the author actually use her pistol? In each case, what was the pistol's role? How do you feel about her use of a pistol?
2. Why is a woman who travels alone believed to be more vulnerable than a man who does the same? What other precautions besides avoiding bars, approaching her car carefully, and locking doors and windows can a woman traveling alone observe?
3. Why did the author have to go to town at night when she lived on a ranch out in the country? Could she have avoided the regular trips to town?
4. According to the author, why is the martial art of kung fu not an ideal deterrent to anyone with a criminal intent?
5. Why did the author buy a license from the county sheriff after she had practiced shooting and had purchased a gun? Do you think all gun owners should follow her example? Why or why not?
The Strategies:
1. Where is the thesis of the essay most clearly stated? Evaluate the merits of this particular position.
2. What rhetorical strategy does the author use to convince her readers that she did the appropriate thing by purchasing a pistol that she could easily hide from view? Were you convinced by her argument? Why or why not?
3. At what point in the essay does the author seem to be in the most danger? Explain your answer.
4. Which paragraphs of the essay constitute a fascinating drama with an exciting climax and a happy ending? What technique makes this passage so absorbing?
5. What is the purpose of the famous quotation by Lord Acton? In what context is this quotation usually used? Why does it fit the context of this essay as well?
The Issues:
1. How do you interpret the author's revision of the old Colt slogan, "God made men, but Sam Colt made them equal"? What do you think of the notion that carrying a gun is one way for women to achieve equality with men? Why does the author express sorrow at the thought that carrying weapons might be the only way women can achieve equality with men?
2. Do you believe the author was paranoid or an excessive risk taker? Did she in any way contribute to her own insecurity while living at the ranch? What, if anything, could she have done to better protect herself?
3. What are some useful ways in which women in general can learn to protect themselves when they are forced to be in an environment where they could be victims of criminals?
4. What is the most frightening encounter you have ever had? If you were a victim, how did you handle the situation?
5. What is your opinion of gun control? Support your opinion with logic and strong evidence.
Suggestions for Writing:
1. Write an essay in which you propose an effective solution for the crime of rape.
2. Using Hasselstrom's essay as a counterpoint, write an essay entitled The Dangers of Carrying a Gun