Trauma connected to firearms is far more common than most people realize.
It can stem from a childhood experience where an adult handed a child a firearm they werenāt physically prepared to handle, failed to properly teach them how to use it, and then laughed when the recoil knocked them down or left them bruised. (The same can happen to adults, too.)
Sometimes the trauma is passed down.
An adult who had a negative experience with firearms may unknowingly transfer that fear to their children, creating an aversion that follows them into adulthood.
For others, the trauma comes from having a firearm used against them during a crime. And many women carry firearm-related trauma because an abuser threatened them with one.
As instructors, we sometimes have to help students identify and work through that trauma before they can become truly proficient with a firearm; especially before they feel comfortable carrying one every day.
This is what my organization, We The Female, specializes in: Trauma-informed firearms instruction.
Because sometimes a person can be strongly pro-Second Amendment and still be afraid of guns. Not because theyāre opposed to them, but because they have unresolved trauma attached to them that they may not even realize exists.
And sometimes, before we can teach a woman how to defend her life, we have to help her understand that her life is worth defending.
For many survivors, that realization is the most important step in the journey.
Once they truly believe their safety matters, learning how to protect it becomes much easier.
Just out of curiosity, what kind of trauma do people have? How common is this? Asking genuinely