Books: "The Cornered Cat - A Woman's Guide to Concealed Carry" review

A coworker recently asked for my advice on getting a CCW permit. Rather than reinvent the wheel by trying to cover the entire universe of concealed carry issues, I gave her Kathy Jackson's book, "The Cornered Cat - A Woman's Guide to Concealed Carry."

The content is largely similar to Jackson's website, Cornered Cat. This is straight talk about how to pick a gun, how to shoot a gun, and how to hide a gun, all from a female perspective (for instance, Kathy devotes a decent amount of space to purse carry, since that's the only way many women can realistically carry a gun without changing their entire wardrobe).

It's all pretty user-friendly and entirely machismo free. Recognizing that nothing breaks the ice like a joke, each chapter opens with a quip from Gunhilda:

Dear Gunhilda,

Yesterday, as I was headed out the door to pick up some personal supplies, my husband asked me to grab some .22LR ammunition for our weekend trip to the range. Happy to oblige, I stopped off at the Giant Mart and picked up the items I needed, and then went back to the sporting goods counter to buy the ammunition.


When I asked the sales lady to give me a couple boxes of .22 ammunition, she took one look at the bottle of Midol and box of tampons already in my cart and then turned ghost white. "Honey," she said, "are you okay?"


I didn't know what to say!

Flustered in Farmington

Dear Flustered,

I just hope you didn't reply, "The ammunition is for my husband."

Gunhilda

My only real complaint is that the book doesn't have illustrations showing some of the things being discussed - it's hard to describe proper grip and stance, or a purse-mounted holster, without using an image. Overall, though, this is probably one of the best-written woman-oriented books on concealed carry out there, and it's well worth a read for ladies who want to arm up.