Armed with knowledge

Beth Alcazar initially turned down writing a weekly column for the United States Concealed Carry Association. It took the 2014 hostage situation at Chelsea Middle School to change her mind.

“That was my daughter’s school, six miles away from our home, and I thought, ‘You know, I really do have something to say,’” said Alcazar, a firearms trainers and USCCA blogger. “Because as a mom, I think it’s important to address these kinds of situations.”

Alcazar started her blog, Pacifiers and Peacemakers, that year. It aims to break down technical or expert information in a way that women and other non-experts can understand. It also presents information mothers would want to know, she said, from firearm safety and education to situational awareness and female holsters.

“Pacifiers and peacemakers — those are two things I never leave home without,” she said, “because first and foremost, I’m still a mom.”

Having a firearms blog was not something Alcazar expected, she said, especially because she grew up without firearms in her home.

Alcazar was first introduced in 2000 when she started working in the outdoor industry, and as she learned more about hunting and angling, she started having more conversations about firearms for home protection, which led to firearms for personal protection and concealed carry.

“As the doors and the windows and the information started opening up, I thought, ‘OK. I can do this. It’s not so taboo. It’s not so strange,’” she said.

Since that first introduction, Alcazar has taken and taught several training courses, joined women’s firearms organizations and continues to seek out instructor training, personal training and safety certifications.

The Well Armed Woman

Alcazar became involved in the Trussville chapter of The Well Armed Woman in November 2014. Heather Rothe, founder and leader of the TWAW chapter, said she was introduced to Alcazar through former Brock’s Gap president Charlie Baker.

Alcazar’s busy schedule prevented her from becoming immediately involved, but when tragedy struck in Rothe’s life, she said Alcazar was there to support her and help with the group.

Rothe’s 13-year-old son Jonah accidentally shot and killed himself with a gun they kept for home protection. The accident occurred in November 2014, the day before the third chapter meeting of TWAW.

“I contacted Beth, and I said, ‘Look, I really need you to step in and help me out. I cannot do things right now,’” Rothe said.

The two had not met face to face at this point, but Rothe gave Alcazar access to the group’s Facebook page and email, and Alcazar helped cancel upcoming chapter plans. Alcazar also explained to the other women in the group what happened, and Rothe said she was engulfed by support from fellow TWAW members.

“It was just very touching to see how she [Alcazar] pulled everything together and everyone together and how they were there for me and my family,” Rothe said. “So from that point on, Beth basically became the co-leader.”

The Well Armed Woman is a group aimed toward educating, equipping and empowering women when it comes to firearms. Rothe started the Trussville chapter after finding out there were no TWAW chapters close enough for her to attend the monthly meetings. 

The meetings consist of time in a classroom and time at the shooting range at Brock’s Gap, and these meetings work to introduce women to the world of firearms. TWAW provides a less-intimidating atmosphere, Rothe said, where they can focus on training in ways members can understand and can create an open conversation about firearms.

“There’s a lot of different issues we face, a lot of different problems we have to overcome,” Alcazar said. “I think for a lot of ladies, it’s empowering to learn with other ladies from a female instructor.”

The group is also a support system where members work to help each other out, rather than compete against each other, Alcazar said. Fellow TWAW instructor Katharine Sweatt said her goal is to help educate and empower other women to protect themselves.

“I also found that TWAW is my girl time, my relaxing evening, and I have made so many wonderful friends and feel so blessed to be a part of such an amazing group of women,” Sweatt said.

Continued education

Alcazar’s ultimate goal, whether it’s through USCCA, TWAW, Pacifiers and Peacemakers or one of her women’s firearms classes, is education. 

“There’s still a lot of bad things that happen,” she said. “There’s still a lot of negligent shootings or accidents, and I think just to be a voice of reason and be a voice that says, ‘Look, we need education, not isolation.’ I think that’s where I’ve kind of been able to fit into this big picture.”

Through her classes, including Women’s Intro to Pistol and Refuse to be a Victim, Alcazar said she aims to make information more accessible in multiple ways. One step is providing an option that is less intimidating than an eight-hour NRA course.

Her Women’s Intro to Pistol course is three hours long, which means more women will consider taking it.

“Really the whole point of that particular class is that it’s short enough that moms and ladies and busy women can say, ‘I’ve got three hours. I can spend three hours trying out to see if this works,’” she said. “Too many of them are too intimidated to take that eight-hour NRA course.”

Her lessons also include comparisons to make firearms lessons related back to everyday life. When aligning iron signs on a firearm, for example, Alcazar compares it to hanging three pictures.

“Do you want two over here, and then one all the way over here?” Alcazar asks, indicating a disparity in spacing. “No because then you would get OCD and it would drive you crazy.”

Most people would hang the three photos with even spacing and at the same height. The same goes for iron sights. 

“Equal height, equal light,” she said. 

During her lessons, Alcazar also compares purchasing guns to buying a pair of jeans and emphasizes women have to deal with firearm obstacles separate from what men have to face.

“You’ve got to take the information somebody already knows and make that connection to the new information,” she said. “Otherwise you don’t have true learning occurring.”

The courses she teaches also focus on safety and situational awareness first. Owning and carrying a firearm does not mean pulling it out on a whim, Alcazar said. A potentially dangerous situation should be dealt with through “avoid, escape, defend,” she said.

“It doesn’t matter if you have a personal firearm. It doesn’t matter if you have a concealed carry permit. It doesn’t matter if you have pepper spray,” she said. “It’s always avoid the situation if possible. If you can’t avoid it, escape, and if you can’t escape, your last and final resort of course would be defend.”

Remaining aware in your environment is an invaluable safety skill, she said, and that’s how personal protection boils down.

Whether it’s through home-decorating analogies or serving as a firearms personal shopper, Alcazar said she hopes she can help empower others and help them protect themselves.

“I’ve done everything wrong you can possibly do, and I’ve learned from it,” she said. “That doesn’t mean it’s the be-all-end-all, but I just want to be that bridge and do my best to fill in the gaps.”