January – February 2023

Canadian Women Use Guns – I quite often view the frontier-era images stored on the websites of Canadian museums in order to gather information about our past. One of the most memorable pictures I’ve seen was of a young First Nations mother leading her horse, accompanied by two small children. If my memory serves, it was early 1900s Alberta. The image was quite ordinary for the era; however, this young mother had a single-action Colt tucked in the waistband of her checked skirt. Oh, my gosh! A young woman in Canada carrying a gun!
In the early 1900s, this was not an unusual occurrence, both my grand-mothers had handguns. My paternal grandmother carried an Ivor Johnson top break .38 calibre Safety Hammer-less in her apron pocket. My maternal grandmother had a Luger and a 1908 Savage semi-auto pistol.