by Welcome Forum Members!
My name is Erin and I am the Founder of Girls of Fire. I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome each of you here. There are many friends and familiar faces here…and many not quite so familiar faces that I look forward to soon being able to call friends. It is my hope that through these forums we can form a strong E-community that will foster new and strengthen existing bonds in actual communities and organizations.
This forum is to provide a space to come together and form a community of people who strongly and passionately believe in the 2nd Amendment and our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. A right that many believe goes even beyond the wisdom of our Founding Fathers to take pen to paper…our God given right to self-protection. That right seems to be under scrutiny and attack at every turn and it will only be with solidarity that we will retain that right intact.
As a woman who strongly and passionately believes in that right I have often felt as though I am in a minority. It is men who have traditionally been the bearers of arms, the hunters, the protectors. When one hears of a woman who loves firearms there are some stereotypical images that pop immediately to mind, even in the progressive times in which we live. We conjure up images of the “bad” girls…the Bonnie’s (as in Bonnie and Clyde) of the world. Women’s involvement with firearms has been limited. But that is changing! First a glowing ember that sparked a wispy flame…and now, these Girls are on Fire! The paradigm has shifted. Now we are embracing the permission our Founding Fathers have given us to bear arms.
So…who is this Girl of Fire you ask? In answer I would say that I am likely a little bit of each of you. I am a woman who is my Daddy’s little girl, the girl next door, a student and a teacher, a mother and a wife, a sister, a friend and a co-worker. I am a woman…a woman who is feminine, intelligent, emotional, tough, afraid, kind, trusting and wary. I have many traits and qualities that are intrinsically female….just like you or someone you love. What I am NOT is a victim…although I have been. I am a victor. I am EMPOWERED!
In every altercation there is a victim and there is a victor. An altercation may be as brief as a flash in one’s life or it may be long and intense…but in its wake there will always be one that is the victim and one that will walk away the victor. It is impossible to really know in the immediate aftermath which is which. Some people who have been victimized will accept that label and carry it with them for years…sometimes for the remainder of their days. They will allow the events of a moment to color every moment of the rest of their lives…many without even realizing they are doing it. They call themselves survivors, a term I personally despise for it implies that one should be satisfied with the bare minimum…survival.
Then there are those, once a victim, who will emerge from that position of vulnerable survivor…they will not be satisfied with mere survival, they will become empowered, they will begin to thrive, they will become the victors. For some it may take many years to make that transitional journey. But it can be done.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful for us to be able to help to empower them? Take that a step farther…wouldn’t it be amazing if we gave that gift of empowerment to our daughters…our sisters…our wives…BEFORE they had to drag themselves through the aftermath of a victimization?
So that brings me to the most important part of my message that I want to convey…my mission here and the reason for this forum, the reason for my FaceBook page…the very reason Girls of Fire exists at all. Our goal…our MISSION here, is to empower women. As more and more women step into the world of firearms, I want to be able to welcome them in and let them know that there is nothing wrong with them for wanting to be here. They don’t have to pretend they are anyone they are not and they don’t need to sacrifice any part of themselves to be here…most importantly their femininity. I want to empower them to get the knowledge and education, the skills, the training and the certification that they need so that they can fully embrace all of the wonderful benefits that the world of firearms ownership has to offer them. It may be the enjoyment of a new skill, the comaraderie and excitement of a competition, the quiet solitude of a hunt or the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that they have the ability to efficiently protect themselves and those that they love.
I thank you all for coming here and allowing me the opportunity to share my passion and my mission with you and it is my hope that you will share in that passion so that together…we can take that mission of empowerment and reach out and touch the lives of those who still stand at the edge, unsure.
ad victorem spolias
Girls of Fire
My name is Erin and I am the Founder of Girls of Fire. I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome each of you here. There are many friends and familiar faces here…and many not quite so familiar faces that I look forward to soon being able to call friends. It is my hope that through these forums we can form a strong E-community that will foster new and strengthen existing bonds in actual communities and organizations.
This forum is to provide a space to come together and form a community of people who strongly and passionately believe in the 2nd Amendment and our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. A right that many believe goes even beyond the wisdom of our Founding Fathers to take pen to paper…our God given right to self-protection. That right seems to be under scrutiny and attack at every turn and it will only be with solidarity that we will retain that right intact.
As a woman who strongly and passionately believes in that right I have often felt as though I am in a minority. It is men who have traditionally been the bearers of arms, the hunters, the protectors. When one hears of a woman who loves firearms there are some stereotypical images that pop immediately to mind, even in the progressive times in which we live. We conjure up images of the “bad” girls…the Bonnie’s (as in Bonnie and Clyde) of the world. Women’s involvement with firearms has been limited. But that is changing! First a glowing ember that sparked a wispy flame…and now, these Girls are on Fire! The paradigm has shifted. Now we are embracing the permission our Founding Fathers have given us to bear arms.
So…who is this Girl of Fire you ask? In answer I would say that I am likely a little bit of each of you. I am a woman who is my Daddy’s little girl, the girl next door, a student and a teacher, a mother and a wife, a sister, a friend and a co-worker. I am a woman…a woman who is feminine, intelligent, emotional, tough, afraid, kind, trusting and wary. I have many traits and qualities that are intrinsically female….just like you or someone you love. What I am NOT is a victim…although I have been. I am a victor. I am EMPOWERED!
In every altercation there is a victim and there is a victor. An altercation may be as brief as a flash in one’s life or it may be long and intense…but in its wake there will always be one that is the victim and one that will walk away the victor. It is impossible to really know in the immediate aftermath which is which. Some people who have been victimized will accept that label and carry it with them for years…sometimes for the remainder of their days. They will allow the events of a moment to color every moment of the rest of their lives…many without even realizing they are doing it. They call themselves survivors, a term I personally despise for it implies that one should be satisfied with the bare minimum…survival.
Then there are those, once a victim, who will emerge from that position of vulnerable survivor…they will not be satisfied with mere survival, they will become empowered, they will begin to thrive, they will become the victors. For some it may take many years to make that transitional journey. But it can be done.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful for us to be able to help to empower them? Take that a step farther…wouldn’t it be amazing if we gave that gift of empowerment to our daughters…our sisters…our wives…BEFORE they had to drag themselves through the aftermath of a victimization?
So that brings me to the most important part of my message that I want to convey…my mission here and the reason for this forum, the reason for my FaceBook page…the very reason Girls of Fire exists at all. Our goal…our MISSION here, is to empower women. As more and more women step into the world of firearms, I want to be able to welcome them in and let them know that there is nothing wrong with them for wanting to be here. They don’t have to pretend they are anyone they are not and they don’t need to sacrifice any part of themselves to be here…most importantly their femininity. I want to empower them to get the knowledge and education, the skills, the training and the certification that they need so that they can fully embrace all of the wonderful benefits that the world of firearms ownership has to offer them. It may be the enjoyment of a new skill, the comaraderie and excitement of a competition, the quiet solitude of a hunt or the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that they have the ability to efficiently protect themselves and those that they love.
I thank you all for coming here and allowing me the opportunity to share my passion and my mission with you and it is my hope that you will share in that passion so that together…we can take that mission of empowerment and reach out and touch the lives of those who still stand at the edge, unsure.
ad victorem spolias
Girls of Fire
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