Verse from "Sweet Betsy from Pike:"

The injuns come down in a wild, yellin' horde
And Betsy got skeered they would scalp her adored,
So behind the front wagonwheel Betsy did crawl,
And there with her musket, she murdered them all!

Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, all kinds of women right handy with firearns.

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I was out with a couple of friends one afternoon in an area close to a steep bluff that would serve as a good backstop so bullets wouldn't go flying off we knew not where. We had a good supply of empty beer and soft drink cans which we filled with water and lined up on a fence. A Coke can full of water makes a very satisfactory geyser when hit square on with a 9 mm. slug.

Marcia, my friend's wife picked up her husband's .45 automatic, loaded the clip with five rounds, and turned toward the fence with a row of water-filled cans line up on it.

A couple of other guys who were there (who didn't know Marcia) commented that, "Man, a woman really can't handle a .45 auto. Too much recoil, and a woman's wrist is just not strong enough to handle it!"

Marcia overheard this. And said nothing. She just smiled sweetly, aimed the .45 cal. brute, and fired five shots as fast as she could pull the trigger. All five cans were in the air and spouting water at the same time.

Again, Marcia smiled sweetly at them, and reloaded to do it again.

The guys got the message and were suitable put in their place. No more macho comments out of them.

Don Firth