"Every American woman should learn to use a gun and be familiar with its workings,"

 

All Women Should Learn To Use Fire Arms

   "Every American woman should learn to use a gun and be familiar with its workings," said Mrs. J.A. Potter. "While we are all sincerely hoping that nothing serious will come, women as well as the men should be prepared. No woman has the right to be a milstone around a man's neck when he may be needed for the service of his country. The women should be able to defend themselves and their homes and children in case the men should be called away for service and for this I believe that immediate training should be started by American women. In Columbus, the women were all assembled in the school house, and then it was guarded by armed men. Now these men might have been needed for active fighting and how much better it would have been if the women were familiar enough with firearms to be able to have gathered together in that school house, barricaded it and been prepared to defend themselves rather than to be a drag on the men."

[El Paso Herald, El Paso, Texas, Monday Evening, April 10, 1916. Home Edition. Pg. 6]