Kerry Slone - SURVIVOR, ENTREPRENEUR, and ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN

I woke up on November 7, 2019 like many people with a post midterm election hangover, and with incredible disappointment and concern regarding the passage of WA I-1639; this initiative is a compilation of failed gun control laws from previous elections all thrown together to capitalize on the Parkland shooting. One of the most concerning pieces of this legislation being the full, unrestricted access to an individual’s health record...including their mental health record, as part of the application for a firearm purchase. 

Like many individuals, I took to social media to share my concerns with friends and followers. However, on this day my words resonated with people in deep and powerful ways that I could not have anticipated. Never could I have imagined the impact my words would have. My story was everywhere. I had a flood of emails, text messages, and social media Direct Messages from domestic violence survivors and rape victims wanting to share their stories and express their gratitude for me as someone who gave voice to a very serious issue that has long been, and continues to be, pushed into the recesses of the gun control debate. Domestic violence victims are constantly used as pawns in the political chess match over the Second Amendment. Advocates of gun control laws have insured that the voices of domestic violence survivors are virtually silenced or ignored when these survivors make an attempt to speak out in support of their constitutionally-protected and natural rights to defend themselves with a firearm. 

So here, I am, 8 months later; my life forever changed as I have chosen to retire early and devote my time to changing the paradigm surrounding domestic violence and gun rights. 

I believe that my words helped so many survivors feel heard and spoken for because I know the struggle firsthand. I am a domestic violence victim. Washington State's broken legal system failed me. This very legal system that was supposed to protect me and prosecute my abuser dropped his felony assault charge to a misdemeanor, allowing him to negotiate a diversion agreement that he took advantage of. He took a job delivering pizzas so that he could be mobile and began stalking me. 

Gun control advocates and legislators use women, and more importantly, domestic violence and assault victims in their efforts to consistently take our constitutional rights from us. These laws present a much more problematic situation in that they not only take away our rights protected within the Constitution; it takes away our ability to defend ourselves. 

While we have been fed lies that so-called "common sense" gun laws are not designed to take away individual's guns, each additional law that is put into place limits more and more of our rights, and some of these laws completely remove an individual's ability to obtain the tools needed protect ourselves. This is something that goes largely unchallenged, and is consistently used as emotional manipulation for justifying more oppressive laws. 

If it were truly about the safety of victims, why are guns the sole focus of the supposed well-meaning "do-gooders"? Why are other weapons not focused on? Because it is not about safety, it is about control. 

So to answer the question “Why do I carry?”

I carry because I choose to never be a victim again. I carry to protect my daughter, and to teach her how to never be a victim. I carry to not only protect other women that may cross my path needing to be defended, I carry as a symbol of expressing my right to choose how I defend myself, and to inspire other women to stand up and never be victims as well.

We, as women, owe it to one another to educate, engage, and inspire each other to take back our power. What better way to do so than embracing our fundamental human right to defend ourselves; oh...and having a nice little Sig 9mm under our skirt. ;)

-Kerry Slone

Founder, We The Female

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