Melody Lauer packs heat in the front with a baby on her back, and is now helping other parents to comfortably do the same. (Photo: WWLP)
One Iowa mother has boldly gone where no other woman has appeared to have gone before. While some people say that guns and little children don’t mix, Melody Lauer has developed a class specifically for parents of babies who wish to carry concealed handguns while carrying their little ones at the same time.
Lauer said in an interview with local media that it’s not as simple as just not letting kids and guns, and pointed out the obvious.
“If you’re a mother, and if you’re an armed mother, they have to. You have no choice,” she said.
But Lauer, who worked at both a gun shop and a parenting center when she came up with the idea, was disheartened at the lack of training geared primarily for parents of small children and more specifically for parents who engage in what’s known as babywearing, or carrying an infant or small child in a sling or other type of carrier.
“We have seen a huge insurgence in young mothers, mothers of young children, wanting to get into firearms,” Lauer said. “And what’s happening is we don’t have instructors that are addressing their needs. So they just do it. They don’t do it right and then they end up having an accident.”
And a quick Internet search shows the interest is there, with forums from both gun-related websites and parenting websites alike flooded with the same inquires over the type of issues Lauer addresses, but the opportunity for instruction is lacking.
In fact, Barry Snell of Crossroads Shooting Sports, where Lauer works and held the class, said the response to the “Babywearing and Carrying” class was so great, that they actually had to close the registration. Snell said had registration continued, there would have been two to three times more participants than what they had. Snell added that, to his knowledge, nobody else has offered this type of class.
According to an advertisement for the class, no experience was necessary to attend and no shooting was required, and Lauer used dummy guns to help parents feel confident and comfortable before moving on to the real thing. Participants also walked through real-life scenarios of defending oneself while carrying a little one. Additionally, Lauer provided a variety of holsters to help parents pick the most comfortable way for them to carry concealed.
Lauer feels she is providing a valuable service and believes the participants are a lot less likely to have accidents since they have been given training catered towards their specific need.
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