Summary

Tiffany Hyatt begins her editorial “Why I Picked Up a Gun” with a personal story: In 2001, she was driving home and saw a house surrounded by crime scene tape. Later, she found out that the crime was committed by the Baton Rouge Serial Killer. In the two years that followed, many women in Hyatt’s city were abducted and murdered. The writer herself was beaten and raped by commissioned police officers.

Tiffany Hyatt then introduces herself. She is a 31-year-old single mother of four and a victim of an assault, who decided to carry a gun so she could protect herself. She further describes herself as an advocate for carrying a gun, encouraging women to train and educate themselves about using guns.

Before she became a promoter of female gun use f...