Linda Hasselstrom, the author, is a woman with a mission-finding a solution to feel safe. She starts out by giving the reader a quick understanding of her life. She lives alone in a private ranch in South Dakota located twenty-five miles from the nearest town. She often travels alone as a freelance writer and often stays home alone in the winter seasons. Being an educated woman, Hasselstrom is well aware of her surroundings which is why she takes every precaution to avoid a situation where she can become a victim. Nevertheless, she has struggled with unfortunate events and experiences that have led her to question her safety over the lasts ten years. Hasselstrom writes about the events that made her cautious towards the opposite sex. She speaks about the three terrifying events that lead her to the decision in carrying a firearm. She states her first encounter, a camping trip with a close friend to a national park .On that day she overheard two young men at …show more content…
the neighboring campsite speak of the terrifying things they would love to do to herself and friend once night fell. Although she alerted the ranger official about the young men’s conversation, she simply received a pat on the back and was told to relax because it was just talk. Disappointed on how that particular situation was handled she and her friend drove away from their assigned site and continued several miles down the road ending up spending the night parked illegally in a different site. The second event took place when she encountered a group of four men who without reason blocked off the road as she drove home one night. She states that she was saved by a passing motorist and left the situation unharmed but afraid. In her third event she brings up a confrontation with a man carrying a shotgun on her private property. She explained to the man that he could not hunt on private lands and that he should depart the area before authorities are contacted. The man simply starred at her and pointed the gun at her face. Once again, the author expresses how powerless she felt in that situation; she also realizes how easy it would have been for the man to shoot her and drive away without anyone noticing. Hasselstrom considers herself a peace-loving person but has experienced too many situations that lead her to take martial arts classes, carry a gun and marry her husband George, a six-foot and 220-pounds man. Hasselstrom explains how she conceals her weapon in her daily routines and how it is always within reach. Hasselstrom concludes her story with an incident where she was retrieving her mail and encountered a group of drunken men.
The men were trespassing, littering and urinating on her property. Upon confronting them, she was surrounded by the men who used vulgar language towards her and posed a threat to her safety. Although she was scared, Hasselstrom stayed calm and held her ground. She requested for the men to clean up the mess they made and to leave the premises. Regardless of her verbal commands the men simply refused to comply and became aggressive towards her. At this point Hasselstrom retrieves the handgun from her waist and once again repeats her commands. This time without any fuss, the men quickly follow every order and disappeared in a blink of an eye. With that, Hasselstrom states, “The pistol just changed the balance of power” (24). She indicates, although a man may be stronger than a woman, in this case she was out matched and outnumbered. The weapon shifted the balance of the power in her
favor. As a female who is thought of as weak and fragile, I can relate to her story in many ways. As a young woman, I often felt threatened by men with or without the protection of my friends. Although, I am not as brave as the author to carry or plan to carry a gun in the future, I have taken lesser precautions. I do carry mace and am always alert of my surroundings. Fortunately, my living situation is different from the author’s; I still live at home with my family in a safe suburban area. Nonetheless, I will someday leave my safety nest and make a home for myself where I might change my thought process in having a weapon for protection somewhere. I also believe that it is in everyone’s right to carry a licensed, registered gun in order to protect themselves.
Henry Lawson creates an image in his readers’ mind of the protagonist and all that she does for her children. ‘The Drover’s Wife’ portrays the love the mother has for her family as she does everything in her power to care for her family and home. Lawson highlights on several different occasions the lengths the Drover’s wife went to keep her children safe. She takes on the role of the man when her husband is away and there is danger, such as a raging bushfire, flood or snake nearby. “She makes a bed on the kitchen table for the children, and sits down beside it to watch all night.”
Despite Hasselstrom’s personal characteristics of being a peace-loving, caring woman, the distance that she lived from town, being alone, and a series of unfortunate dangerous situations caused her to feel the need to protect herself. She states in the ar...
The excerpt of “A Peaceful Woman Explains Why She Carries A Gun” is a personal account from Linda Hasselstrom on why she feels the need to carry a gun as well as, why other women should feel the need to own a gun. Hasselstrom uses rhetorical appeals in order to justify her means of security, however she fails due to her inability to provide a substantial amount of background knowledge.
Kate Morrison is a well educated, independent woman with a decent job, supportive boyfriend and family. Externally, Kate has a life that some people might envy of but, internally, she isn’t as stable as she seems. Crow Lake, a novel written by Mary Lawson, leads the readers to the protagonist, Kate Morrison and the struggles in her life. Kate loses her parents in her early age and for this reason she lives with her siblings with some help from her neighbours and other family members. Despite the absence of her parents, Kate and her siblings seem to grow well. Although there is some crisis in the family, they seem to be inevitable consequences of not having an adult in the family. However, Kate spends an innumerable amount of time accepting and letting go of the past and eventually it causes another crisis in her present life. She continuously has some kind of depression, and she does not realize that her depression is coming from herself, not from anything or anybody else. Crow Lake contains a great message that shows refusing to face the past affects your future negatively. We see ...
The third section of the story returns the reader to the calm security, but then quickly sends the tone of the story into a frenzy. These constant tone changes show the reader how strong and resourceful the woman is, but it also shows us how she can be thrown into a panic easily. We come to have little confidence in the main character's ability to react well if a dangerous situation arises.
"Battleground America," written by Jill Lepore, provides a strong history of guns and the way they have changed in the eyes of the American through the years. She proves her point with strong evidence throughout her article, sprinkling it with opinion and argument that is strongly supported. She presents her argument to convince her audience that the open availability of guns allows citizens to undeservingly purchase them by displaying the credibility in her sources, using negative connotations in her speech, and the strength and objectivity only a strong logos appeal can provide.
In the article Hasselstrom mentions that the right to carry a concealed weapon is a very controversial subject. There are many that do not believe in having a handgun is the solution to a dangerous problem. In the other hand, there are others who believe handgun possession is a great idea. The main idea that Hasselstrom is trying to portray is that women should be extremely cautious especially when they are alone. Women should be able to defend themselves against their attacker when they feel they are in certain situations. Her solution was to carry a handgun with her. Even though Hasselstrom solution has worked for her, it doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone. Her events that took her to make the decision to carry a handgun is based on personal experiences and not statis...
Many people have heard that having a gun makes you a man, so Dave believes that purchasing a gun would help him become one. The gun represents power, masculinity, independence, and respect, which are all things that Dave wants. The idea of owning a gun is David’s outlet, a way to quickly become more powerful and manly. The feeling of having a gun in his possession was to prevent others around him from looking at him as just a little boy. With the gun, Dave felt invincible, as if no harm could come his way and as if he is on top of the
"A Loaded Gun," is a piece by Patrick Radden Keefe, which published on February 11 and 18, 2013 on The New Yorker weekly magazine. This piece revolves around Amy Bishop, a neuroscientist working at the University of Alabama, Huntsville city. On the day of February 12, 2012, at the conference room of the Shelby Center for Science and Technology, Bishop used a 9-mm rifle killed three colleagues and wounded three others. The question is how does a person with a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D) from prestigious university of Harvard, with a cozy family-a husband and four children, with no criminal record turn into such a cold-blooded killer? Does Bishop's tenure ended is the main reason that leads to the crime, or because of her "gun accidents" that
The term “safety comes first” or more simply put, “safety first,” is a message that patients not only want to hear, but also want to know is the focus of the professionals that are caring for them; in particular, when they are under anesthesia and have limited or no ability to speak up or lookout for themselves. The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has implemented two initiatives; Rocognising and Responding Appropriately to Early Signs of Deterioration in Hospitalised Patients (NPSA, 2007) and How to Guide: Five Steps to Safer Surgery (NPSA, 2010). Understanding that human beings make up the healthcare professional workforce, it is evident that tools and checklist can and will only be as good as the how people utilize and follow them. Thus, these initiatives “have been developed with consideration of human factors” (Beaumont & Russell, 2012). I know firsthand, that if my healthcare team would have followed these standards, I would have avoided torture, fear, and long term side effects from a routine hysterectomy procedure.
The article Understanding Safe Enough describes how we determine wether something is safe enough. The general idea behind how to determine what is safe is wether the alternative has the best risk to cost ratio. Although at first this seems fairly simple to determine their are risks to both using and not using technology. Also when the risks and advantages are equal then one has to consider what the optimal amount of use is because we might want the benefits the technology confers. Because determining what is the best option depends on a risk-to-benefit ratio the best level of risk depends on the various alternatives and is never an extreme of having almost no risk and exorbitant costs or vice-a-versa. The most important thing to remember is
Keeping patients safe is essential in today’s health care system, but patient safety events that violate that safety are increasing each year. It was only recently, that the focus on patient safety was reinforced by a report prepared by Institute of medicine (IOM) entitled ” To err is human, building a safer health system”(Wakefield & Iliffe,2002).This report found that approx-imately 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur each year due to medical errors and that the majority was preventable. Deaths due to medical errors exceed deaths due to many other causes such as like HIV infections, breast cancer and even traffic accidents (Wakefield & Iliffe, 2002). After this IOM reports, President Clinton established quality interagency coordination task force with the help of government agencies. These government agencies are responsible for making health pol-icies regarding patient safety to which every HCO must follow (Schulman & Kim, 2000).
Safety is a primary concern in the health care environment, but there are still many preventable errors that occur. In fact, a study from ProPublica in 2013 found that between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year suffer preventable harm in the hospital (Allen, 2013). Safety in the healthcare environment is not only keeping the patient safe, but also the employee. If a nurse does not follow procedure, they could bring harm to themselves, the patient, or both. Although it seems like such a simple topic with a simple solution, there are several components to what safety really entails. Health care professionals must always be cautious to prevent any mishaps to their patients, especially when using machines or lifting objects, as it has a higher
Hasselstrom. In this essay the author, a pacifist, explains why she feels the need to carry a gun. She begins by describing her line of work as a freelance writer and the isolated area she lives in. She then goes on to recall events from the past years where she has felt threaten or unsafe. One such incident was a camping trip she took with her friend where fellow campers made them feel uncomfortable. Another event was that of a woman who had car troubles, she called for help but reached a rapist who assaulted her. The author continues to recall more personal incidents such as being followed by men who harassed her on a narrow bridge, another man with a shotgun who made her realize how isolated her ranch was, and one evening when a light was on in her home. These events prompted her to learn Kung Fu, yet she still felt unsafe and decided on carrying a gun. Despite being hesitant at first to carry a gun it has proven to be the best deterrent when faced with a threatening situation, simply showing the gun has been enough to protect
It’s true what everyone talks about safety – you are the key to your safety, when you do it safely you do it the right way and the best gift you can give to your family is to always stay safe. We have been taught by our parents and teachers to be cautious while doing a number of things. That’s very essential in our daily lives, because one needs to be extra cautious to prevent unavoidable accidents. However, mishaps do happen everywhere in the safest of places, no matter how careful we are in our actions. It is highly unpredictable, what’s going to happen the very next instant. There are numerous incidences we come across like simple trips, falls, cuts due to sharp objects, burns or sudden worsening of a person’s health condition, causing