Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Required reading for anyone living in the USA!, September 23, 1997
By A Customer
This book is not just for women only. It is an essential "survival guide" for all law biding citizens that points out in a straight forward format our common weaknesses and naivete in our day to day lives at work, home, or play. The author does not just promote the use of handguns or the NRA. She presents the facts and offers various solutions. Ultimately everyone of us is responsible for our own personal safety. In this book we are made aware of just how much so, along with some little known surprises regarding the limits of reponsibility our police, society, and the law, have with regards to our personal safety. A true eye opener, with lessons to be learned by all. Without hesitation I can say that I want all the members of my family (male & female alike) to read this book.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Common Sense Advice on Not Being a Victim, December 9, 2005
This book came out in the 90s and has gotten only 2 reviews so far? I guess I'd better add my own then ... especially as I think one reviewer didn't read the book (and that makes up half the reviews).
TKM (Tanya K. Metaksa) lists many of her sources and references, and shares what many people who have personal experience in investigating or surviving crimes have to say. Over half the book is so busy giving common sense advice on how to avoid being a victim of a crime, it barely even mentions guns. Where she does talk about guns, she gives her views after she has tried them, researched them, and talked to people who would know about them. Nearly all of what she says (about guns or anything else) would be endorsed by AWARE (Arming Women Against Rape & Endangerment), a nonpolitical resource (see http://www.aware.org/) aimed at helping women and not promoting any political party or actively campaigning to encourage gun ownership. (I also do the same.)
As a practitioner of Krav Maga myself (with a background in Wing Chun), and well-versed in Impact and FIST (self-defense for women practitioners), I'll personally back much of what TKM says about unarmed defense. I'd nitpick a few points, but I would not call her views "unrealistic." (Granted, a 200-pound guy might not see things the same way.)
Furthermore, some guys laugh at a woman who learns self-defense, but they don't laugh at a woman with a gun. That is to say, knowing that some women are carrying a concealed weapon will do more to deter potential attackers than finding out that more women are learning unarmed self-defense, or getting more stun guns and pepper sprays--and deterring attackers is much better than surviving an attack. This is a point that TKM declines to make herself.
Most of the material on guns is actually legal information and how to learn the specifics in your area, as well as urging those who get guns to learn to safely, effectively, and legally use them. I don't recall any remark in there about, "if you don't get a gun, you will be killed," or "it is not only your right, but your duty, to get a gun," or otherwise promoting "NRA propaganda."
She even included Dr. Gary Kleck's conclusions that gun ownership makes for a safer society. Dr. Kleck is a lifelong Democrat, self-proclaimed liberal, and a member of Amnesty International. He has never contributed to or supported the NRA at all, except as his own studies, highly respected in academia, have been coincidentally helpful to them.
Another reason why I wouldn't dismiss Safe, Not Sorry as "NRA propaganda" is that her book didn't gloat over the fact that Paxton Quigley was a former worker for Sarah Brady who changed sides after a personally harrowing experience. (I've known two others to leave the "gun control" side and become Second Amendment activists, but I've never heard of the reverse happening. Interestingly enough, the other two to defect were also women. I'm not sure if that means anything or not, but feminism is increasingly friendly to gun ownership: the all-women campus Mount Holyoke College, famed for its long tradition of feminism, recently opened an undergraduate chapter of the Second Amendment Sisters in gun-shy Massachusetts.)
She gives a chapter that shares the life experiences (in their own words) of those who used a gun to stop a crime (and one that didn't have her gun with her because the law prohibited guns where the madman struck). I found it inspiring how people overcame adversity (domestic abuse, lifelong injuries from being so brutally beaten, etc), and also useful in covering details (practical, legal, etc) that one might not consider when considering one's strategy for avoiding and surviving a criminal assault and its consequences.
I think an important point TKM should've added is that most (I think 98%) of the people who use a gun in self-defense never fire it. I personally know two people who defended themselves that way. One is a guy in his 30s, and the other is a woman in her 50s. Both stopped an assault by showing their gun. Neither one "took the law into his/her own hands," and neither one has shot anyone (or even threatened to) in all their decades of gun ownership. The criminals didn't "pull out an Uzi" (or come back later), they ran for the hills to look for easier prey. (Unfortunately, the police failed to catch the would-be attackers in both circumstances.)
The Pink Pistols (a gay/lesbian gun rights group) was founded by Doug Krick after a similar experience. Some hatemongers were threatening to make another Matthew Shepherd out of him. He drew his gun. They ran. He never pulled the trigger. (But I think that happened after TKM's book S,nS was published.)
I also think that TKM should've included information about liberal, gun activist, attorney Cindy Hill (now a consultant for other lawyers fighting for a client's right to bear arms), as she also gives excellent advice on using guns. I think the Law Enforcement Alliance of America was also around then (I'm not sure on that), which in their own words is a "non-partisan coalition of law enforcement professionals, crime victims, and concerned citizens united for justice," as well as for supporting the right to carry concealed weapons by private citizens. (They explain why the right to carry concealed weapons makes things better for law abiding people everywhere.)
But despite what I think TKM should've added, I give this book full stars because every single bit is, IMO, useful to anyone starting to look into how to protect themselves. It's an easy book to read, straight to the point, without a lot of fluff. I like to share or recommend it to those who are concerned about their vulnerabilities and want some good common sense advice and ideas.
In short, TKM's book is excellent. She has opinions, of course, and her views come through, but the book is well-researched and based on fact. I'm not saying it's the one and only book you should read, but if you're beginning to learn about how to protect yourself from criminals, this is a very good book to start with.
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6 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Mostly NRA Propoganda - but some useful info., October 27, 1999
By A Customer
This book has some usefull info but I can't recomend it. It reads like a grandmother rambeling instruction about how to live your life. In my opinion it is totally unrealistic about unarmed self defence, asault and recovery psychology, and armed self defense.The author is an NRA Executive and is compleatly entrenched in the NRA's politics. Don't get me wrong - I'm pro gun rights, but this book does the public a dis-service by ignoring most of psychology of self defense. The book is full of unfounded gross generalizations. Statements like, "Most of the time", "Useually", "2/3 of the time" etc. all with NO factual research referenced except in the section on firearms. The author dedicated this book to her 3 daughters. IF she is really concerned for their safety, she should right a WELL RESEARCHED and unbiased sequel. If you believed this book all you have do do is buy a gun and you're safe for life, no will ever get accidently hurt, and nothing else will help protect you. If you buy this book, read the firearms statistics and annecdotes - ignore the rest, and add the information to your own considered opinion. Joe
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