Tiffany Hyatt

This month’s CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month award winner is Tiffany Hyatt Theriot of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
 Theriot is a spokeswoman for the Armed Females of America. CCRKBA Public Affairs Director John Michael Snyder said, “She has a tremendous story to tell and she tells it well, a great message to convey and she conveys it well. An articulate and dedicated public promoter of the individual Second Amendment civil right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, Tiffany surely is most deserving of this award.”
 Theriot came to national attention recently when Fox News reported that she and two other women gun rights activists claimed they were set up and ambushed on a biased anti-gun NBC television program.
 In the fall of 2001, Theriot says, she remembers driving home and passing a beautiful little house surrounded by crime scene tape. “I wondered what happened,” she remembers, “but didn’t worry too much because nothing ‘really bad’ ever happened in that part of town. Little did I know then, but the Baton Rouge Serial Killer had just left his calling card.”
 She told Point Blank that it has been almost two years and Baton Rouge “has been plagued by more violent murders of women than I have ever seen. There have been abductions, attempted abductions, women’s bodies being dumped in Whiskey Bay, female college students stalked and brutally murdered, men dressed up as police officers attacking women in their homes.”
 Theriot revealed that she, too, had been the victim of a violent assault by several men.
 “I am a 31 year old single mother of four,” she said. “Being a victim of an assault, combined with the mysterious killings, made me realize that my only recourse was to carry a gun and be prepared at all times. I was raised using guns for sport, but until now I had never learned to use a gun for self-defense. I am now educated, trained and ready to defend myself and my family with deadly force.”
 Tiffany said that she now encourages women to train and educate themselves as armed members of the community in the hope of preventing more stories like her own. Her motto now is, “it is better to have a gun and never need it, than to need a gun and not have it.”
 Trained in Reike, an ancient Japanese hearing art, and working toward an undergraduate degree in pre-med, Tiffany worked in the emergency room of two Baton Rouge hospitals before her life became centered on promoting female gun use for self-defense. 
 “I have seen gun shot wounds up close,” she noted, “and what damage a bullet can do to the human body, but far worse is seeing the woman or child who has been raped and beaten without a chance to defend themselves.”
 Tiffany tells women who are afraid of guns and who have never used or sometimes even held a gun that, “if you follow the rules of gun safety, become trained so that you can properly handle the weapon, and know the carry laws in your state, using a gun can give you a significant advantage over an assailant that you otherwise would not have.” 
 She also informs them that the gun should not be their only line of self-defense, and advises them to carry a can of Mace, learn physical self-defense skills, always be aware of their surroundings, note that other everyday items can be used as weapons, and organize a plan of self-defense in the home. 
 “These are all things I tell women when they come into the gun store and firing range where I volunteer my time,” she said.
 “I firmly believe,” Tiffany stated, “that girls should be taught as they are growing up, when, where and how to use a gun for self-defense.  We as women are often taught that there will always be someone there to protect us, but that is far from reality.  If I could make just one significant change to benefit the future women of America, I would make sure that little girls are taught self-defense before they are taught sex education in school, and the history of our Second Amendment rights would be taught along with lessons on gun safety.”