Melody Lauer, who is a mother to three children, says that the driving force behind the new class is to share her motto of “if you have baby on one side, it’s best to have gun on the other”.
Amid controversy relating to the 30-year-old’s new class, she told ABC that she is determined, not to encourage women to conceal a weapon, but to show them how to do so properly.
“I have seen a huge insurgence in young mothers, mothers of young children, wanting to get into firearms. And what’s happening is we don’t have instructors that are addressing their needs. So they just do it. They don’t do it right and then they end up having an accident,” Lauer told the station.
She added that the inspiration for the class came to her after hearing a recent tragic story, whereby a child in Idaho shot his mother.
“That touched me in a very deep way because my daughter was two at the time,” explains Lauer, adding, “I thought, there’s no reason this should happen. We are adults and can be responsible.”
The class, called ‘Babywearing and Carrying’, began in February, with surprisingly high demand.
Owner of the local shooting range in Lauer’s town of Des Moines, Barry Snesll, observed: “The interest was so great that she actually had to shut off the registration. Otherwise, we would have had two to three times as many people here.”
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