Women Learning to Shoot: A Guide for Law Enforcement Officers

Book by Diane Nicholl, Vicki Farnam

By Roger Lanny

Women Learning To Shoot: A Guide for Law Enforcement Officers by Diane Nicholl and Vicki Farnam.

This book is a companion and follow-up to their Teaching Women To Shoot: A Law Enforcement Instructor's Guide. This time, however, the point of view changes from that of the instructor to that of the student, in particular, the female student.

Vicki Farnam has been teaching with her husband since 1986, traveling all over the country. One of her passions is teaching defensive shooting classes for women, and classes for firearms instructors regarding the proper way to teach women, especially those in the military and law enforcement.

Diane Nicholl grew up around guns, and has started (in 1996) and runs her own business, DTI Publications, Inc., where she teaches and firearms courses and publishes books on firearms training.

As the book says, "Women differ in how they learn and how readily they develop new skills. We have found women tend to learn more quickly if the material is broken into several parts and mastered one step at a time. Hitting your target isn't luck, it's skill!"

Copiously illustrated throughout its 134 pages, there are multiple photographs on virtually every page. In that manner, there is absolutely no chance of misunderstanding what you should, and should not be doing.

Women Learning discusses and explains everything you'll need to shoot a handgun accurately and safely. The chapters include Stance, Grip, Sight Alignment, Trigger Control, Launch Platform (that would be you), Recoil, and Safety. There is also a twenty-five page Appendix which details all the ancillary skills needed - everything from loading and unloading to drawing and cleaning.

Although Women Learning is written as though the reader is in law enforcement, it easily and readily transfers to the civilian practitioner.

A particularly nice touch, one that I've wished for over the years, is an Index to look things up. We've all had the vexing problem of trying to find a specific item in a book without one.

Replete with tips and hints garnered from teaching hundreds of classes and thousands of students, Farnam and Nicholl hit another buss-eye with this book written by women for women. -- Women & Guns Volume 17, Number 6 November-December 2006