Laura Browder, author of a new book called "Her Best Shot: Women and Guns in America," has just published a flash-based website with lots of historical information and images. Required reading for anyone who believes that the phenomenon of women gun-owners in this country is a new one. Snip from the book intro:
The gun-toting woman holds enormous symbolic significance in American culture. For over two centuries, women who pick up guns have interrupted the popular association of guns and masculinity, spurring debates about women's capabilities for violence as well as their capacity for full citizenship. In Her Best Shot, Laura Browder examines the relationship between women and guns and the ways in which the figure of the armed woman has served as a lightning rod for cultural issues from the American Revolution to the present.
Link to website, and here's an Amazon link to the book.
Reader comment: Chris Jeffries-Dowling says,
I just read your post about women and guns and was reminded of a gun I once saw in my father in law's pawn shop called "The Ladies Home Companion". It was a .410, pistol with a 12 round drum and is often referred to as a "mini street sweeper" . From what I can remember of the manual, this was supposed to be a one handed weapon but I'll be damned if I couldn't hold the thing up unloaded for more than a few seconds. I did some searching and managed to find this picture: Link. And this auction: Link. But alas, no scans of the owners manual, which was stylized to resemble the 19th century magazine of the same name. Perhaps some other intrepid BB reader will have better luck.
And here's one of my favorite contemporary images on the topic. Clayton James Cubitt explains: "My mom with her Mossberg, just after Katrina." Link.
