Ten years ago, Anna Taylor was dealing with the fallout of divorce. “I became a single mother. I was responsible for my own safety and the safety of my family. I wanted to take our defense into my own hands,” she remembers. Taylor took action, getting a concealed-carry permit and gun but she struggled to find training and an acceptable holster. She ended up locking her gun away and “feeling very disappointed that I wasn’t able to practice my fundamental right.” Around the same time, Dawn Hillyer was wrapping up a traumatic six years during which her life was threatened by a stalker, sending her into hiding. Her tormentor received 10 years in prison for felony stalking. During the ordeal, Hillyer bought her first gun, which she named “Hilda” and obtained her own concealed-carry permit.

It wasn’t something that others in her line of work as an executive recruiter did. In fact, her company banned firearms at the office. “But I was afraid for my life,” she says. She remembers another kind of fear, the anxiety that people would know she was carrying firearm. “I’m not ‘tactical,’ ” she thought. “I needed to be able to blend in.” She needed to find a way to hide Hilda.  [full article]