By Paul Lathrop | Contributing editor
On the most recent “Riding Shotgun with Charlie,” Beth Alcazar, author of Women’s Handgun and Self-Defense Fundamentals, joins host Charlie Cook for a ride and discussion while driving around the Birmingham, Alabama area.
“Riding Shotgun with Charlie” is a twice-monthly video series in which Cook has conversations in a car with various people in the firearms community while cruising around the countryside.
In the most recent episode, Alcazar joined Cook for a discussion about how Beth got started writing in the firearms arena and how she came to write for the United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA). The discussion evolved into training and Alcazar notes that she not only is a USCCA trainer, but she is also a training counselor who trains other instructors. Despite this, Alcazar stated that she still very much enjoys training new shooters.
Speaking of the USCCA’s women’s curriculum, Alcazar stated “(We) had an opportunity to put that together specifically with the mindset of, you know, women usually get into guns for a very specific reason, self-defense. We’re still the more victimized gender so it’s a very, very serious reason, but you also don’t want to take the fun away from it. Shooting can be really fun so you have to kind of balance that when you are training women and getting them involved so that it’s not so scary that the don’t want to do it or they feel that they can’t.”
Interspersed with the gun topics are comments about the sights of the of the Birmingham area, discussion of Alcazar’s book, and snacks.
Cook produces the “Riding Shotgun with Charlie” and the “Charlie’s GunGram” series of videos. This particular video can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKHpZvVaaqk. The Riding Shotgun with Charlie channel can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq52xMnT0OWhvABvFlXvDXw .
Lathrop is Deputy Director of New Media at the Second Amendment Foundation.
