Jim Supica, Director of the National Firearms Museum, with Natalie Foster

As you may have seen, I spent a little time at the National Rifle Association’s National Firearms Museum last month and had the opportunity to check out some truly incredible firearms. There is so much to tell you about that amazing adventure, but of all the things I was thrilled to show you, this was the most exciting (at least in my book).

Remember when I asked you to guess the original owner of this firearm on our facebook page?

Guess Who!

You, fabulous readers, never cease to amaze. Many of you were close and even right on with your guesses. But for those of you who are still wondering, now is time for the big reveal. Find out who owned this gun by watching the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pretty cool, right?

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While most of us here in the US were asleep on Saturday night, this California girl and her shotgun were out braving the London wind and rain in an effort to make history.

Kim Rhode, who, for the record is one of the coolest chicks you could ever meet, left the rest of her women’s skeet competitors in the dust and scored an Olympic Record hitting 99 of 100 targets, tying the World Record and scoring her historic fifth Olympic medal in five Olympics.  She is the first American athlete to ever do so.

Check out this interview we did with Kim during her training last year:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is a report on her incredible win:

Rhode’s drive for 5 capped by skeet gold medal

She set an Olympic record with 99 points

Updated: Sunday, 29 Jul 2012, 3:43 PM MDT
Published : Sunday, 29 Jul 2012, 7:58 AM MDT

• TIM REYNOLDS,AP Sports Writer

LONDON (AP) — Step aside, Carl Lewis.

You, too, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Al Oerter.

Meet Kimberly Rhode, the first American with individual medals in five straight Olympics, after a golden, record-setting, nearly perfect performance.

Rhode won the women’s skeet shooting Sunday, tying a world record and setting the Olympic mark with 99 points — meaning she missed once in 100 shots. She was eight targets better than silver medalist Wei Ning of China and nine better than Slovakia’s Danka Bartekova, who topped Russia’s Marina Belikova in a shootout for the bronze.

Rhode won in double trap at Atlanta as a teenager in 1996, took bronze in that event four years later at Sydney, re-claimed the gold at Athens in 2004 and won the silver in skeet at Beijing in 2008.

Now, golden again.

“It’s just been an incredible journey,” said Rhode, strands of glitter intertwined with her blonde hair. “And ultimately, I couldn’t be happier for bringing home the gold for the United States.”

Lewis, Oerter, Joyner-Kersee and Bruce Baumgartner are the other Americans recognized as individual medal-winners in four straight Summer Olympics. Rhode’s at five now, and at 33 years old, she’s not planning to stop anytime soon.

Read the rest of this article here: https://www.krqe.com/dpps/sports/summer_games/rhodes-drive-for-5-capped-by-skeet-gold-medal-sp12-jgr_4253676

We could not be more proud of you, Kim! I look forward to seeing that medal in person back in California. Thanks for inspiring us all yet again. You are a true champion in every sense of the word.

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Women key part of Cherry Point, Marine Corps history

Highly trained, highly motivated and indispensable to the war effort, they were called the Lady Leathernecks.

At the height of World War II at Cherry Point, 2,662 Marine Corps Women’s Reserve officers and enlisted personnel had jobs,

havenews.com via US Marine Corps

including radio operator, parachute rigger, aircraft mechanic, aerial photographer, chemical warfare specialist, combat conditioning and gunnery, and public relations. By the war’s end, there were 19,000 Women’s Reserves nationwide and some 40 percent were in aircraft support, mostly as mechanics.

Gladys A. Hansis, one of the first to arrive, recalled coming to Cherry Point in the late summer of 1943 to serve as a radio operator. She was one of the more than 600 women reservists at the 1-year-old base, which was swelling with more than 14,000 personnel, mostly men who were rapidly departing for combat duty in the Pacific theater.

In a Veterans History Project for the National Archives, Hansis said there was just one barracks for women Marines in 1943.

“Of course we were looked at as something different you know,” she said.

Their motto was “Free a Marine to Fight.”

…….

“When I came in the Marine Corps, women could only wear skirts. Skirts and makeup was a big thing when I came in,” she said. “You got the secretarial jobs, and I came in and did aviation supply and was into ground supply. When I came in, you did not shoot on the rifle range.”

Now she’s considered an expert in pistols, rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers.

“If it’s in our arsenal, I’ve shot it, so you go from one extreme to the other in my career,” she said. “So, you can see where women were working their way up to maybe in the future being in a combat role, which I think is where we are at now.”

She said she takes pride in being a woman in the Marine Corps.

“There’s quite a bit of pride,” she said. “There were a lot of ups and downs in those 30 years that go from where we started at, wearing skirts and doing more the administrative role, all the way over to I’ve been to Iraq and Afghanistan and back again.

“I have a lot of pride for my entire career from the things that I’ve done. I’ve been a drill instructor. I’ve trained many Marines to do the job that they need to do. I’ve trained them in their MOSs. I’ve been on ship. Women weren’t allowed on ship until 1994. They were actually only allowed on hospital ships on some of the ships that the Navy had. The Marine Corps in 1994 allowed us to be on ship.

“There’s been a lot of changes throughout my career that I was proud to see and be part of. Looking back, so many things have changed for females. Males have had a lot of changes too, but the females particularly.

“When I came in the Marine Corps, women could only wear skirts. Skirts and makeup was a big thing when I came in,” she said. “You got the secretarial jobs, and I came in and did aviation supply and was into ground supply. When I came in, you did not shoot on the rifle range.”

Now she’s considered an expert in pistols, rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers.

“If it’s in our arsenal, I’ve shot it, so you go from one extreme to the other in my career,” she said. “So, you can see where women were working their way up to maybe in the future being in a combat role, which I think is where we are at now.”

She said she takes pride in being a woman in the Marine Corps.

“There’s quite a bit of pride,” she said. “There were a lot of ups and downs in those 30 years that go from where we started at, wearing skirts and doing more the administrative role, all the way over to I’ve been to Iraq and Afghanistan and back again.

“I have a lot of pride for my entire career from the things that I’ve done. I’ve been a drill instructor. I’ve trained many Marines to do the job that they need to do. I’ve trained them in their MOSs. I’ve been on ship. Women weren’t allowed on ship until 1994. They were actually only allowed on hospital ships on some of the ships that the Navy had. The Marine Corps in 1994 allowed us to be on ship.

“There’s been a lot of changes throughout my career that I was proud to see and be part of. Looking back, so many things have changed for females. Males have had a lot of changes too, but the females particularly.”

”

https://www.havenews.com/news/corps-9408-point-war.html

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• Joan of Arc – for pioneering the idea that ladies could be leaders long before it was ever a cultural consideration. Just imagine what she could have done with a gun!

• Dale Evans- classic and classy, Dale was the cowgirl our moms wanted to be when they were little girls. She symbolized a strong, yet soft and feminine chick who knew how to handle a six shooter. Plus she married Roy Rogers and that’s just awesome.

• Angelina Jolie- Simply said, she makes chicks shooting guns look fabulous. The roles she chooses are often smart, gun-toting women and that message in pop culture is fabulous for those of us who love it as much as she does.

• Brad Thor -Here’s to a guy who knows how to write strong, classy, gun slinging women! And this is your cue, if you haven’t already, to go pick up your copy of his latest novel The Athena Project!

• Kim Rhode – This 4-time Olympian and 6-time National Champion skeet and trap shooter is nothing less than inspiring. We’re rooting for her as she blasts through her next Olympic qualification on her way to the 2012 games.

• Julie Goloski-Golob – This chick has a laundry list of amazing contributions she’s made to women in the shooting sports. Her resume boasts her role as Smith&Wesson’s team captain, World and National Champion Shooter, Army Female Athlete of the Year, and much more.  We here at Girl’s Guide are proud to call her a friend.

• Karl Lagerfeld for making these:

• And finally, the woman who started it all, the lovely Annie Oakley – for obvious reasons.

We’d also like to mention our friends Vicki Kawelmacher of Women’s Shooting Academy, Karen Bartuch of Women’s Tactical Association, Jessica Brooks of Barnes Bullets, Barb Baird of Women’s Outdoor Media Asssociation,  Aysha Webb at American Defense Enterprises, Niki Jones who founded Sure Shots, Karen Ziegler co-owner of Red’s Shooting Range, Juliana Crowder of www.theglockgirl.com, Tracey Splechter of the Outdoor Connection, Regis Giles of GirlsJustWannaHaveGuns.com, our guest bloggers (you know who you are), and so many others who are leading the charge for women firearms owners everywhere.

From Girl’s Guide to you- Happy International Women’s Day!

Love, Natalie and Katie

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Looking to start the New Year with a bang? Take a cue from the fine folks in Savannah, Georgia, who have been whipping up a notorious champagne cocktail known as Chatham Artillery Punch since, some say, the colonial period. The punch, originally concocted by Georgia’s oldest military unit, the Chatham Artillery, was mixed in large horse buckets and served at celebrations, including a presidential visit from James Monroe in 1819. With a recipe that calls for a mix of champagne, rum, brandy, and bourbon, it’s no wonder the punch has been called a “suave and deceitful brew.”

Over the years, many variations and additions have been made to the drink, but Damon Lee Fowler, author of the Savannah Cookbook, has put together a recipe that’s very close to the original (no horse bucket required). But be warned, Fowler says that the “innocent tasting but lethal” Chatham Artillery Punch has some morning-after recoil. Best cook up a batch of Hoppin’ John and collard greens.

Chatham Artillery Punch
Makes 25 servings

2 ounces of green tea leaves
4 large lemons
1/2 pound turbinado or light brown sugar
1 quart dark rum
1 quart brandy
1 quart rye or bourbon whiskey
3 bottles champagne

1. Soak the tea leaves 8 hours or overnight in a quart of cold water. Strain the liquid from the leaves into a large container that will hold all the spirits (use wooden, porcelain, or glass; do not use plastic or metal). Juice 3 lemons through a strainer into the tea and add the sugar, stirring until it is dissolved.

2. Stir in the rum, brandy, and whiskey, cover, and let stand at room temperature for at least 8 hours or for up to a week. It’s pretty well indestructible at this point.

3. When ready to serve the punch, thinly slice 1 lemon. To serve the punch, allow 6 cups of the base for every bottle of champagne. First pour the brew over an ice ring or large block of ice in a punch bowl. Add the sliced lemon and swirl in the champagne, being careful not to disturb its effervescence. Serve with caution.

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The first one has a deadline approaching, so we wanted to let y’all know about it as soon as possible.  It’s a new documentary called “A Girl and a Gun” and the film makers are raising funds in order to complete the film.

Here’s a description from the website:

What does a woman with a gun mean to you?

Does Sarah Palin, Amy Bishop, Annie Oakley, or Angelina Jolie first come to mind?

Or is it your mother, girlfriend, or the neighbor next-door?

A GIRL AND A GUN is a feature documentary that explores the complex relationship between women and their guns. Filmed throughout America, this documentary delves deep into the psyche of the American gun world, capturing its transformation from subculture to mainstream as women arm themselves in rapidly high numbers.

Penetrating far beyond Hollywood’s hyper-sexualized gun-toting goddesses, this documentary candidly portrays the modern American woman through intimate portraits that revolve around fundamental issues of preservation, power, feminism and violence.

…

MORE ON THE FILM: The narrative follows four women whose lives have been irrevocably touched by firearms. A Bronx social worker substitutes pistols for her loss of physical power; a gun-control activist from New Jersey reversed her stance on owning weapons after a stray bullet paralyzed her daughter; despite losing her brother in a hunting accident, a Tennessee nurse sees her own hunting as the ultimate way to provide for her family; a graphic designer from New Hampshire survived a violent rape in her thirties, and when she was viciously attacked again — she was prepared. “The second time, I had a gun.”

These journeys interweave with an eclectic cast of experts and supporting voices shaped by historical and pop-cultural imagery, photographs, advertisements, Hollywood clips, and the voices of scholars, historians, feminists, gun-rights activists, gun-control activists, and pop-culture critics who have been following this topic for decades.

We are really excited about seeing this film go to completion, and we hope you are too.  So if you are interested in helping out, please consider making a tax-deductible donation.  The documentary has non-profit status through their fiscal sponsor, Women Make Movies, a 501c3 organization based in New York City.  Depending on how much you donate, they have special prizes, video, pictures, and more!

Go to their Kickstarter website, and donate today, or cut and paste this link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1415597080/a-girl-and-a-gun-feature-documentary.

Check out a video preview of the film:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If a financial contribution is not feasible for you, consider  Liking them on Facebook or joining their Mailing List.

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Laura Browder published the definitive work on the subject of ‘Women and Guns in America’ just a few short years ago. So definitive, in fact, that the phrase just happens to be the subtitle to her book.

Her Best Shot: Women and Guns in America is filled with examples of historical women who pioneered both America and the legacy that we now hold dear as firearms fans.

Over the course of what’s left of the month, we’ll be plowing through this book to bring you our favorite lessons gleaned from Browder’s skillful stylings.

For now, we highly recommend you pick up a copy of the book for yourself!

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