Julie Golob - Shoot: Your Guide to Shooting and Competition

Lynne Finch has a simple way of stating the complex and making perfect sense at the same time. Taking Your First Shot is about more than just hitting the target, it takes you through many first steps toward safe and effective handgun-related necessities women must master when personal protection is paramount. This book is written for real women in the real world, in an easy to read format ladies can enjoy!

Susan Carrichner Rexrode,

Founder, Shooting for Women Alliance

Lynnes journey from shooter, to defensive shooting student to teacher sharing her experience and knowledge has been a thorough one. She has a great deal to offer the new shooter, especially the woman new to defensive handguns, and does a great job of communicating important lessons in Taking Your First Shot.

Rob Pincus, I.C.E. Training Company

This book is easy and enjoyable to read, addressing issues that have been overlooked in other books. Since very few new shooters have been raised in a shooting family, they didnt have anyone to guide them through their first gun purchase, teach them how to see if the gun fits their hand, or guide them in gun store etiquetteuntil this book came along. Along with the requisite safety information and basics of gun ownership, this book provides self defense information that both women and men will find useful. Lynnes writing style is both informative and conversational, it feels as though shes taking you into her confidences and sharing secrets that the good ole boys used to keep to themselves.

C. S. Wilson, co-founder TheGunDivas.com

Taking Your First Shot is a great introduction for women seeking more information on Personal Safety and women that are looking to begin on their path as a Defensive Shooter. Male and Female Instructors alike can learn a wealth of information from this fun, witty and entertaining approach to womens safety!

Evan Carson, President & Chief Instructor,

Innovative Defensive Solutions, LLC

Excellent book! A must read for new shooters. As a firearms instructor and blogger I am constantly asked which books I recommend for someone just learning about guns and self defense. In addition to Massad Ayoobs In The Gravest Extreme and Kathy Jacksons The Cornered Cat: A Womans Guide to Concealed Carry, I will now also be strongly suggesting Taking Your First Shot.

A Girl, agirlandhergun.com

A WOMANS INTRODUCTION TO DEFENSIVE
SHOOTING AND PERSONAL SAFETY

Lynne Finch
Photography byDr. Russ Charlesworth Jr.

Skyhorse Publishing

Copyright 2013 by Lynne Finch

Photography copyright 2013 Dr. Russ Charlesworth Jr.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or info@skyhorsepublishing.com.

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. , a Delaware corporation.

www.skyhorsepublishing.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1- 62087-717-3

Printed in China

DISCLAIMER

Check your state and local laws before carrying a handgun, concealed or otherwise. Laws vary widely from state to state. Some states allow concealed carry without a permit, some require a permit, and some states do not allow concealed handgun carry at all. All states put restrictions on where and how handguns can be carried legally. In addition, several states outlaw particular modes of concealed carry. Your local law enforcement department or district attorneys office should know the details. This book is not designed to take the place of a qualified and competent instructor; rather, it is a resource designed to supplement quality training.

Dedicated to the memory of Rosalie Terri Matthews, a
special friend who helped me find the courage to take my
first shot.

We live in a golden age for female gun owners. The very existence of the book youre reading proves that. Like many books that have come before it, Taking Your First Shot provides a friendly, easy introduction to handgun ownership. Unlike most firearms books, this one was written by a woman, for women. Due to this, the book will likely reach a much wider audience than it would have reached just a few short years ago, and I hope it does.

When I started www.CorneredCat.com back in 2004, good information about concealed carry for women wasnt easy to find. There were plenty of websites about guns, but most of them seemed to be written for aggressive young men with military fantasies. With a few rare exceptions, the web was a depressing wasteland for a woman who wanted to know more about responsible firearms ownership and use. And as for finding female-specific details about concealed carryforget it! That wasnt happening and so I decided to put something out there, to claim some small corner of the ocean where a woman could go to learn about firearms.

I didnt realize when I did it that I was actually jumping onto the crest of a gigantic wave. Things look very different online now than they did ten years ago. Today, you can easily find many firearms blogs intended for female audiences, and there are many female-friendly places within the online firearms community.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) tells us that over 73% of firearms retailers report an increase in their number of female customers in 2011, (the most recent year for which figures are available). Thats not news to anyone whos been hanging around gun shops or visiting with other women, but its good to hear.

According to a Gallup poll performed in October 2011, self-reported firearms ownership recently reached its highest level in America since 1993. In that poll, 43% of female respondents reported having a gun in their homes. Even more intriguing, at least 23% of American women own a firearm that belongs to them personallynot to another member of their household. While some social groups treat firearms ownership, especially female firearms ownership, as some kind of weird aberration, its really not. Nearly a quarter of American women own guns of their own.

These bare numbers match verbal reports from friends within the gun sales industry. Its not just the number of women we see in the store, says one anonymous gun seller in Washington state. The remarkable thing were seeing is that a lot more women are driving their own purchases. They are not just coming along because someone else is pushing them here. Theyre not only accepting gift guns from their husbands or boyfriends. They are doing their own shopping. This is where they want to be and what they want to be doing.

Handgun ownership, too, has swung sharply upward in recent years. According to the NSSF, approximately 9 million people, or 3.8% of American adults, have active concealed carry permits. The demand for good information about handgun ownership and use is thus stronger than it has been at any other point during the past several years.

Finally, gun ownership as a whole is on the rise. Information from the National Criminal Instant Check System (NICS) tells us that more than twice as many background checks were performed in January 2013 than were done in the same month just three years earlier. In January 2000, NICS ran more than 639,000 checks for clear backgrounds to allow gun purchases. But by the end of that decade, the number regularly topped well over one million background checks every single month.