RSWC #141 Val Evans

Riding Shotgun With Charlie#141Val Evans"Mama Bear"Armed Women of America   Last October, I was emceeing the Rod Of Iron Freedom Festival at the Tommy Gun Warehouse at KAHR Arms in Pennsylvania. It was a great event and I got to hang out with some of my 2A friends, including Stephen Willeford, RSWC #088, and I got to make new friends.  Stephen, a few others, and I spent about an hour talking at the hotel and he mentioned that I should have Val Evans on the Stagecoach. He gave me her contact number and I reached out. She lives in Virginia and I was going down to film some shows.  When I asked if she was interested, she said yes!   Val has an amazing story, one that can happen to anyone at any time.  I know folks say that all the time, but this is really true. Her husband is a police officer and one year for her birthday, she wanted to go to the police range and go shooting. One night while her husband was working there was a knock on the door. She looked through the peephole and saw it wasn't a neighbor. It was a stranger pounding on the door, breaking it in two places.  Val was home alone with their daughter. She enacted the plan, which was to call 911 and get the gun.    Once she was armed, she heard glass break and realized that he was coming in through the window. While she was on the phone with dispatch, she was able to find him and get a few shots on him, on his hand and in the groin area. Her daughter called out to see what was going on and she told her everything was fine. The police arrived and that's when she put her gun away. Ultimately, she wasn't brought up on charges for defending herself, but the criminal wasn't brought up either as he wasn't able to let her know his intentions.  He was on drugs and didn't know where he was.    Fortunately, this brought Val to The Well Armed Woman (now the Armed Women of America). She was filmed for a segment on The BlazeTV for a TWAW at an instructor course. As an instructor, she helps empower women through firearms training and her story of self defense. She also shares with us the story about being asked to speak at the NRA Annual Meeting in Indiana.  It didn't occur to her that they were asking a lot of questions and were doing a background check on her, which seemed a bit strange. At the NRAAM is where she not only met Stephen Willeford, but also met President Trump.  Even with training, support, and friends, this was still a difficult thing for Val to deal with.  It took a few years to get over the PTSD that she had from the incident. One of the most helpful things for her was training other women that they can handle situations like this themselves and sharing this helped Val, too.    One of the main lessons I learned from her story is that you NEED a plan for safety, regardless if it's at home, work, or in the car.  She was a dispatch herself and learned what she needed to do.  Her dispatch work came in handy and she did just as they planned, get the gun, call 911.  Favorite quotes: "This was the plan, to call 911 and go get the gun.""The judge was basically like "okay…and…""I will put down the gun when the officers arrive on the scene.""It took a lot to get back to myself.""I was so scared that I was going to get in trouble for shooting him." "Everyone I talked to was like 'I couldn't do that'. I was like 'Yes, you can!'" "You want to know how to use it even if you don't have to use it."   Armed Women of America Website https://twawshootingchapters.org/   Armed Women of America Instagram https://www.instagram.com/twawshootingchapters/ Second Amendment Foundation http://saf.org/   Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms https://www.ccrkba.org/     Please support the Riding Shotgun With Charlie sponsors and supporters.    Buy RSWC & GunGram shirts & hoodies, stickers & patches, and mugs at the store! http://ridingshotgunwithcharlie.com/rswc-shop/   Keyhole Holsters  Veteran Owned, American Made http://www.keyholeholsters.com/   Dennis McCurdy Author, Speaker, Firewalker http://www.find-away.com/   Self Defense Radio Network http://sdrn.us/