Necessary accessories

Within the last month, but in separate incidents, two Casper, Wyoming women made local news for their actions thwarting armed robberies.

The first was in early December. The setting: a local nail salon. A man entered the salon and approached the women inside about the possibility of purchasing some diamonds from him, a notion declined by the women. The man then began to pull a handgun from his coat pocket. Another client of the salon, there getting her nails done, reached into her nearby purse and pulled out her own pistol, suggesting the man needed to leave. He complied without adieu.

Lesson one: Don’t mess with chicks getting their nails done.

The second incident occurred at a Casper hotel this week. I’m familiar with this hotel as it’s the place where all the visiting authors (including myself and Rebecca K. O’Connor) stayed for the Equality State Book Festival a few months ago. In the wee hours of the morning, two masked men entered the lobby of the hotel and told the female hotel clerk behind the counter that it was a hold-up, with one of the men making a gun gesture with his hand. The clerk reached down into her lunchbox and pulled out her handgun, pointing it at the robbers, who then fled.

Lesson two: Lunch boxes can have multiple functions.

Jim laughs at me when I’m purse shopping. My first criterion is that the purse has to stylish, but the second test is that it must be big enough for my pistol. We who take the responsibility of personal safety seriously believe such items are necessary accessories.