Local Feminist gun owner here: another important thing to consider is the fact that the police may be less likely to believe you acted in self defense, particularly if you are a woman of color or lower socioeconomic status or if your attacker is a white male. This makes it doubly important to have a self-defense lawyer on retainer and self-defense liability insurance on hand. I achieve both and have additional training aids by having membership with USCCA/Delta Defense. I have the top tier for $49 a month. They cover firearms related to self-defense incidents, tasers, pepper spray, and even justified dog bites. Every legally justifiable act of self-defense and justified use of force. They have free events for members, a network of lawyers on retainer, and a post-incident hot-line available 24/7 as well as maps of where you have reciprocity on your license to carry, and detailed breakdowns of each state's laws, which is particularly vital if you travel for work, school, or hobbies. I've linked my referral code as well. It's absolutely something I encourage every gun owner in America to have, but particularly gun owners who may be at a disadvantage with police and the judicial process in the event they have to defend themselves.
https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/referral?id=MDAxNWIwMDAwMkRpMGVYQUFS&tID=5bf43111b0cd6
Also, for a primary side arm, I wouldn't go any smaller than 9mm. A compact frame size is also your best bet as a beginner, subcompacts have more felt recoil at the same load weight and caliber, and full sizes have the least but they're also significantly more difficult to on body carry. I also suggest on body carry rather than purse or off body carry for a multitude of reasons. If you have questions about gun ownership, tactics, law, resources, and training my DMs are always open. Stay Strapped Ladies
I'm seeing a ton of Feminists urging eachother to get a gun due to the election results, which is fantastic news imo American women please please please assert your 2nd amendment rights and get a gun if you're able to <3
You can start by looking into the gun laws in your state: https://everytownresearch.org/rankings/compare/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_the_United_States_by_state Gun safety: https://www.agirlandagun.org/how-to-shoot/4-rules-of-gun-safety/ Youtube has thousands of gun related videos, it's a male dominated culture but there are absolutely a ton of resources for female shooters and beginners. Reddit has a handful of firearm related subs, included r/firearms(skews conservative/rightwing) and r/liberalgunowners and r/concealedcarrywomen Facebook has women's gun groups also, many of them skew conservative but can still be a valuable resource for beginners Check out your local area for self defense firearm classes, some will have classes geared specifically to women. Check out your local gun stores, or sporting goods stores, some will have a range in which you can rent a firearm before purchasing but many don't have this feature, so it's important to do product research before buying. https://www.pewpewtactical.com/best-handguns-women/ https://tombstonetactical.com/blog/best-guns-for-women (Most guns range from $400 to $700 btw) Gun store employees are overwhelmingly male (and in my experience, old) and might try to steer you towards the tiny pink pistol, or a .22, or something else equally impractical for self defense. It's important to be assertive and clear in what you're looking for!
Actual Conversation Today Between BoyToy and I:
Me: 😷 I wanna snuggle
BoyToy: Not happening.
Me: I know 🥺
BoyToy: You got ADv and I got strep. What kinda bioweapon you trying to create?? 😂
Me: With you? The kind USAMRID would lock up. 🥹👉👈
Him: 🤣🤣🤣 Go back to sleep, I'll see you when we're both healthy.
I cannot stress enough to you that all American government agencies are falling apart at the seams right now and they will not be put back together for the foreseeable future. EPA DHS ED VA FDA NIH IRS CDC HHS NPS etc... Elon Musk is dismantling everything. Anyone who resigns or is laid off now, the word we (I am an agency employee) are receiving internally is that their position will be abolished, not backfilled.
Do you like eating clean, safe food?
Do you like having clean, safe air and water?
Do you want experts monitoring developing infectious diseases?
Do you like getting tax returns?
Do you want your children to have free, quality, public education?
If so, you need to write to your senators and representatives RIGHT NOW. Trump is not obeying the rule of law. He is illegally firing all the inspectors general of these agencies (they are literally being escorted by security out of their offices) so that there is no one left to stop him from doing quite literally anything he wants. He has bypassed the internal structure of all of the agencies by plugging in external email servers to push typo-filled emails and memos written by employees of the heritage foundation directly into the inbox of every federal agency employee in the country, threatening to terminate them.
The rule of law is dead. The only mechanism left to stop any of this is mass public outcry via convincing your state's congressmen & women to do something, because right now they are staying absolutely silent and none of us in these agencies can figure out why. A massacre is happening right now and every single American will feel the material, concrete consequences of this in their daily lives very soon if nothing is done.
Please help me boost this information.
Buy This, Buy That, "Less than a coffee now!" It seems like every time we're on social media, we're bombarded with products, fashion trends, advertisements, and new "aesthetics" that, conveniently for drop shippers and fast fashion empires, require us to buy a whole new wardrobe and interior design scheme. So, here are my top 10 tips for breaking the cycle.
Figure out who you are. Rather than the you the advertising algorithms tell you that you are.
Go through your current closet, jewelry box, vanity, and decor. Keep what makes you happy, and toss, sell, or donate what doesn't anymore. Yes, this includes those impulse dopamine-seeking purchases and the "little treats."
Make a list of things you realistically do in your day-to-day life that may need closet supplementation from what a standard "capsule" wardrobe would offer you. Church clothes? Sport-specific clothing? Officewear? Do you do a lot of formal events that require attire for certain dress codes? Do you do date night and girl's night outfits? For example: I need dependable workwear for after-hours farm calls so I keep about 5 items in my wardrobe that fit that function. I also keep a bit more workout clothing than some would since I work out 6 days a week.
In the same vein as number 3, are there places where you can increase cross-over between categories in your wardrobe? For example, choosing well-fitted tees that can be worn as under-scrubs and as casual tops around town?
Figure out if there are colors and shades that you look best in/feel the most confident in. There isn't a need to do the one-size-fits-all color analysis that TikTok and Instagram are constantly trying to sell you on reels based on the seasons. Figure out which colors you are complimented the most in, that you feel the best in, and that inspire the most positivity for you. Narrow it down to 4 or 5 colors for both colors and neutrals (blacks, grays, whites, nudes). I did 2-3 colors per season, plus my standard neutrals.
Figure out your style. Personally, I tend to have a fashion that draws inspiration from American traditional, southern prep, English country attire, and the fashions of foxhunting. Think Orvis, LL Bean, Cordings, Dubarry, Talbots, Tory Burch, Ted Baker, and Lily Pulitzer. In decor, I tend to be drawn toward colonial era antiques, leather upholstery, campaign furniture, heavy fabric drapes, ox tongue wood finishes over cherry, oil paintings, black marble, gray field stone, and polished brass. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I found it by perusing fashions, furniture, decor, even TV and movies for things I adored.
Quality over Quantity: This is a big one. Rather than buying a new outfit every time I wanted to do something, or buying each cute accessory I saw and wanted to buy on impulse, I started getting really picky about the materials and workmanship in the things I purchased. Cheap may look good for a brief time, but it fades quickly. The things I buy now need to fit well, be of good material, be tailorable, have finished seams and edges, and be of substantial enough material that I trust that it will last me 2-10 years depending on the item, with some items being things I intend to only buy once in the cases of jewelry and scarves.
Cool off: This product looks like it would solve XYZ problem for me! Will it? Put it on a wish list and save it for later. If you still think it's going to revolutionize your life a month later, work it into the budget.
Quit buying from TikTok Shop, the majority of the stuff on there is drop-shipped junk made to capitalize on a quick trend, which is also part of why there's always pressure added to the pitch "before it sells out" "For less than the price of a coffee" "While the sale is on" if a product can be sold for $9 when it's usually $100, the deal is too good to be true, and the product won't last. Same goes for Shien and Forever 21 if I'm honest.
Focus on 1-2 items per season, an accessory, a cute top or a fun dress. Reducing my consumption to replacement levels plus 1 or 2 items has drastically cut my spending on fashion and decor. I also check second-hand stores first.
I went ahead and included some inspiration boards for you, one with pretty typical accessories for me, one to help better visualize my fashion sense, and then 2 palettes, my colors and my neutrals. I hope you all liked this, I'll also be doing a breakdown of my jewelry, vanity, and closet here soon.
Love,
I have acquired my pets through 4 means, ranked by how often they happen:
1. Porch Finds: my late ferret I got from being dumped on my porch, and my eldest cat was a kitten that just kinda showed up on my porch
2. Foster Fails/Rescue Work: Pet came in through our Kitten Program or through the dog Rescue we provide care for at the clinic and they end up just coming home, my terrier and my youngest cat were acquired through this method
3. Reputable hobby breeders: 1-3 year wait list, 1 to 2 litters every year or two, I typically look for dogs that are coming from proven working lines with performance titles and solid conformation, I want to see the temperaments and sociability of the lines, and I want to see examples of the dogs produced and what they're doing in their work. I pretty much stick to this option with my PPD and Service prospects.
4. Wash Dogs and Private Rehoming: This is how I got my mal, he's a very nice imported, Netherlands bred Malinois with a Dutch Navy sire and a former police dam. He was imported for a DOD/Homeland security partnered bomb training program along with 4 of his littermates, however, he proved to be too handler focused bordering on Handler dependant for bomb and searching work. I worked with one of their trainers, and he knew I had to retire my prior cardiac alert dog and offered him to me for $1000. He's now a lovely dual purpose protection sports and cardiac alert dog, and yes, he is very handler focused, but that was matter of finding the right job for being handler focused rather than destroying a dog and wasting resources by forcing him into a role he wasn't suited for.
4.5 Importing dogs: Importing a proven dog or a prospect from a proven line is a better option for some breeds when you're looking to fill a specific job for a dog, and the breed has low availability or poor breeding in the United States, balanced working mals and GSDs are incredibly hard to find in the US, and most reputable working line breeders here are also importing dogs to supplement their lines and lower their inbreeding coefficient. If I hadn't come across my Mal as a wash dog, I was looking at taking a trip to Europe to source a quality Malinois. It is a mid 4 to low 5 figure investment for a young, untrained dog and higher for finished dogs. Typically, this route is pursued by organizations and serious sport and working handlers or preservation breeders it is not typical for pet owner sourcing.