I read this book about five years ago and recalled it as one that had really changed my perspective, so I went back and reread it recently. Since my perspective had already been altered, I could read it with fresh eyes. This review synthesizes the effect it had both times I read it.
"Armed and Female" by Paxton Quigley is about gun ownership for self-defense in general, and such gun ownership for women in particular. Quigley gives a frank assessment of the pros and cons of gun ownership; some background behind gun control laws and crime in America; and a detailed, practical guide to choosing, training yourself with, and using a gun if you decide you would like to own one. I'll give it a "weak +" overall, but that is an average score of very high and not very high marks for different aspects of the book.
Quigley sets the stage by citing numerous examples of cases where a gun saved the life of a woman being attacked. She also uses broad crime statistics, not relying only on emotion-generating case studies (of which there are also plenty showing that guns are very dangerous for individuals). Unfortunately for the modern reader, some of her notions are outdated. She wrote this book in the late 80's, when crime was rising at a scary rate. It was easy to appeal to people's fear that there were lots of bad guys, and more were being trained every day. Over a decade later, however, violent crime has actually fallen.
[Although recent crime statistics take the wind out of Quigley's sails regarding the first part of the book, they would actually provide support for the second part, which delves into the philosophical and moral arguments behind private gun ownership in America. Gun ownership has risen dramatically in the past two decades, so that now nearly 50% of American households have at least one firearm. Despite this rapid increase, violent crime has fallen. Quigley did not get to use this data, however.]
Instead, she focuses on the ethics of lethal self-defense, various Constitutional arguments for gun ownership, and again on crime statistics, this time focusing on the role of guns in reducing violence when they are employed properly. Her points are balanced, and she is careful to emphasize the necessity of proper firearms training. She repeatedly urges the reader to seek professional training and to think carefully about whether a gun is really the right solution for their lifestyle. She even says point-blank that people who are unorganized, forgetful, or have teenagers at home should not choose to own a gun.
Best of all, Quigley includes a solid chapter on kids and firearms. She explains the dilemma of keeping a gun that is simultaneously safe and useful, and notes some good strategies for teaching your children about firearms safety. Again, she is adamant that certain conditions must be met before you should decide to have a gun in the house with a child. This section gets a gold star.
Overall, I found about 80% of her logic to be sound, but a good 20% was a little off. In most cases, it was off in fairly harmless ways (ie, her supporting arguments were simple irrelevant, not contradictory). Nonetheless, this middle section is the weakest part of the book. Quigley seems to be writing it out of a sense of obligation. She knows she has to cover these points, and is impatient to get them written down so she can move on to the final section, on the practicalities of owning and using a handgun for self-defense.
The last part of the book applies to people who have decided to own a gun, and to women in particular. Quigley is no longer caught up in justifying gun ownership or explaining the details of gun ethics. She is writing for the reader who bought her previous arguments and needs practical information on how to become proficient with a gun. Here her passion comes through, and the writing becomes much clearer.
Quigley does not try to convince the reader to own a gun, nor does she disparage those who choose not to. As she emphasized in the earlier parts of the book, this is your choice, and it's a justifiable one if you want to choose it. But you don't have to. This final part speaks to those who have chosen.
The last 100 pages of the book are worth the entire price of the book. In fact, you might just want to read these (Chapter 9 to the end) and skip the rest. These chapters are an excellent, blow-by-blow guide to buying, learning about, practicing with, and ultimately using your gun in self-defense if that horrible moment should ever arrive. Quigley is straightforward about how to handle a gun, where you should keep it in your house, what should be going through your mind as you shoot it, when you can legally shoot, and innumerable other vital things.
It is rare to see such basic firearms safety information in the mainstream media, and even rarer to see the information tailored for women's needs. Quigley gives tips about how to use a gun when you don't have much upper-body strength, such as how to rack the slide of an autoloader. She also gives detailed descriptions of the different types of guns, ammunition, and shooting postures, always with comments about which might serve women best. This whole section is fabulous.
What struck me about this book when I first read it years ago was how normally all of this could be discussed-- without the world coming to a screaming halt. As a good liberal, I knew that guns were evil, and people who liked guns were redneck crackpots, criminals, or people ignorant of the vast potential danger of these weapons.
My god, what a bigot I was.
I see now that gun issues are far more complex than these black-and-white ideas we get from the mainstream media. After all, it wasn't a contradiction in my mind that sex education (and even availability of birth control measures for teenagers) could help prevent teen pregnancy and STD transmission. So why should gun education-- such as that provided in "Armed and Female"-- be a bad thing, leading to more violence? In fact, if people had better access to gun saftey information, it is very plausible that there would be a lot fewer accidents and in general more responsible gun use. (Although this is not guaranteed, of course).
Quigley makes an excellent case that gun ownership is a responsibility as well as a right in America. She lays out the groundrules for basic responsible behavior. She explains why women in particular can benefit from firearms (if they know how to use them properly) because they are strength equalizers. An ounce of prevention may be worth your life.
It is unfortunate that the first part of the book is the part that is outdated and not so clearly written because the final 2/5 is timeless. I recommend this book to people who are willing to think intelligently about gun issues.
Copyright © Kim Allen 2001
