226 
FOREST AND STREAM 
April, 1918 
TEACH THE WOMEN TO HANDLE A GUN 
“FOR THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES IS MORE DEADLY THAN 
THE MALE” - KIPLING MADE A BULL’S-EYE WITH THAT 
By CAPTAIN ROY S. TINNEY, Associate Editor of FOREST AND STREAM 
( i X TINE times out of ten, woman, 
from the standpoint of physical 
endurance, should make as good a 
soldier as a man. Pound for pound the 
average normal woman in good health can 
endure more pain, discomfort and fatigue, 
and can expend more muscular energy than 
the average normal man of similar condi¬ 
tion. Woman of necessity comes nearer 
the primitive type than man. She is bio¬ 
logically more of a savage, more of a bar¬ 
barian, and she has therefore greater 
physical endurance. She can undergo 
many strains a man can not. Withstand¬ 
ing cold or thirst or hunger or physical 
privation of any sort, a woman can outlast 
a man.—Dr. Dudley A. Sargent. 
“The supreme reason why women would 
make better soldiers than man is because 
when women set out to do a thing they do 
it. They are like the little bugler who 
when the troop was ordered to withdraw 
played the call to advance. After the vic¬ 
tory he was asked why he disobeyed or¬ 
ders, and he said he had never learned to 
sound retreat. Neither have women! 
t 
“I would allow women to be anything on 
earth they want to be. I don’t believe in 
saying :*‘Because you’re a woman you can’t 
do thus and so.’ If there w'ere anybody 
else to do the fighting most women w r ould 
not choose it. But when the men fail, 
women can—and will —step into the breach.” 
—Dr. Sarah J. McNutt. 
I am not quoting these learned Doctors 
for the purpose of recruiting a Legion of 
Death or organizing a female platoon of 
the local Home Guard Company, although 
it is now obvious that if some towns had 
left the matter of home defence to the 
women they would not now be so busy ex¬ 
plaining and making excuses. I merely 
desire to call attention to the fact that 
“the female of the species is more deadly 
than the male”; that little sister and friend 
wife are not inherently the clinging vines 
they at times appear, but possess potential 
fighting qualities worthy of cultivation, and 
teaching them to shoot is not by any means 
a waste of time and ammunition. 
Given the same amount of time and in¬ 
struction a woman generally outstrips her 
brother in the use of arms. I have had 
frequent occasion to note this fact both as 
an instructor of shodting and fencing. In 
the beginning Her Ladyship approaches the 
art of handling hot lead and cold steel in 
much the same manner as she takes her 
first plunge into the surf or the bathing 
pool, but once she grasps the spirit of the 
game, then, oh my brothers, she makes the 
best of us hustle to keep up. After master¬ 
ing the basic principles, she brings her 
intuitive powers into play and right there 
is where mere man gets the jolt of his 
young life. Nor is she afraid to soil her 
clothes by getting down to mother earth 
in the military rifle game. She dons riding 
breeches and elbow pads and goes to it 
like a veteran. 
O NE of the best rifle courses yet de¬ 
vised is Major Harllee’s skirmish 
run, in which one is required to ad¬ 
vance from one tactical shell hole to an¬ 
other and maintain an accurate and rapid 
fire without knowing either how or where 
the bullets are taking effect. It is a man’s 
game and will “prove the hold” of the best 
of us. One day Frank Young made a rec¬ 
ord score over this course, thereby trim¬ 
ming several old timers, including the 
writer, and just to show her heart was in 
the right place Mrs. Frank went banging 
away down the line and finished several 
points better off than the nominal head of 
the house; did exactly what is a form of 
combat practice that calls for skill, nerve 
and judgment. And Mrs. Frank is a 120- 
pound person possessed of a maximum alti¬ 
tude of five feet. 
N OW to spike the prevalent idea that 
such skill is excess baggage when in¬ 
cluded in the list of feminine accom¬ 
plishments. 
One day a flock of greaser bandits made 
a flying raid north of the line and attacked 
a ’dobe ranch house where no one chanced 
to be at home except a fifteen-year-old 
girl, and for a moment another border out¬ 
rage seemed about to be enacted. Fortu¬ 
nately the youngster had a 22 hi-power 
Savage repeater and knew how to use it, so 
she simply got up on the roof and began a 
vigorous defence. I was one of the party 
who were attracted by the firing and came 
to her rescue. We found her with the rifle 
in her lap and tears in her eyes, tears of 
anger not fright, mind you. 
“Good gracious,” she exclaimed, “isn’t it 
awful. Just to think that three of them 
got away! You men were very stupid to 
rush right up to the house instead of cor- 
raling the whole gang when you had the 
chance.” This from a little lady who had 
not yet celebrated her sixteenth birthday. 
An old friend of mine has a sister whose 
search for botanical specimens often takes 
her far afield and one afternoon she dis¬ 
covered she was being stealthily followed 
by a burly negro whom she knew was re¬ 
puted to be “a bad actor.” Did she de¬ 
velop an attack of hysterics? She did 
nothing of the sort. She simply showed 
that obnoxious person the business end of 
the Colt automatic pistol she habitually 
carries, and bade him hike toward the 
horizon. As he did not instantly comply 
with this request, she stepped on his ac¬ 
celerator by kicking up the dirt about his 
feet with a couple of ricochet balls and the 
terrified and now harmless African soon 
faded into the dim distance. 
Another instance: A neighbor of mine 
was suddenly called out of town on busi¬ 
ness and had to leave his wife and children 
at home alone for the night. About two 
A. M. the mother was awakened by her 
baby and after quieting the infant heard a 
window being forced on the floor below. 
Her first move was to telephone for help 
then she slipped a few shells into her hus¬ 
band’s repeating shotgun and went down 
stairs as an expeditionary force of one. 
When the police arrived, they found the 
burglar with his hands above his head 
looking intently at the muzzle of madam’s 
shooting iron. 
I could cite a dozen other similar in¬ 
stances, but these three are typical and 
show clearly just how valuable a thorough 
training in marksmanship can be in a time 
of emergency. And do not for a moment 
suppose that Milady will lose her head and 
forget all she has been taught. A woman 
is naturally cautious—nature and environ¬ 
ment has made her so—and for this reason 
firearms are safer when in her hands, as 
she instinctively exercises the proper care 
in her method of handling them. But when 
she does shoot, she shoots to kill. In the 
supreme moment a woman does the neces¬ 
sary thing when it is necessary. She does 
not compromise and temporize with a bad 
situation in the way a man so often does. 
For downright effectiveness I bet on Mary. 
S O far this country has been very for¬ 
tunate, but just because we have not 
as yet experienced any serious internal 
disturbances is no guarantee that none will 
occur in the future. Until a year ago we 
were a nation of ostriches, we buried our 
heads in the sand and spoke prayerful^ 
of our natural barriers; then came the war 
and a rude awakening. Now let us carry 
our preparedness into the home by teaching 
our women the why and how of the good 
old shooting game. This country is simply 
alive with alien enemies liable to cause trou¬ 
ble at any moment. Mary may never need 
to fire a shot in self defence and I sincere¬ 
ly hope she does not, but when she does 
need a weapon she will need it mighty bad. 
Also the mere fact that she possesses a 
good gun and knows how to use it, will 
save her many a cold chill and moments 
of sickening fear. 
Only the other day a prominent woman 
doctor made this comment. “I used to 
dread night calls with all my heart, but 
since I have taken up shooting as a pastime 
and have obtained a permit to carry a 
pistol, all feeling of nervousness has disap¬ 
peared. I tell you, Captain, the mere touch 
of that little snub-nosed automatic gives 
me a feeling of security and relief I can 
not describe. As I close my fingers about 
its butt I realize I am more than a match 
for the biggest tough in the city. 
“Out on your range I find just the out¬ 
door recreation I require, a perfectly bal¬ 
anced form of exercise that is equally 
beneficial to mind, nerves and muscles; a 
sport that gives complete rest by forcing 
one to forget all else for the time being. 
And the little notoriety I have gained as 
a shot is more protection than the pistol 
itself. No thug will molest a woman if he 
knows she has a gun handy—and possesses 
even a working knowledge of its opera¬ 
tion. What hold-up man would ever dream 
of attempting to rob Annie Oakley?” 
