We do not meet in a parking garage. We do not meet at her house. And we certainly do not meet at my hotel room.

We meet at a neutral location in downtown Reno and she observes me from her car before stepping out and introducing herself.

“I like to carry on my body,” Vicki Kawelmacher — women’s shooting instructor — later tells me, flashing the black handle of a pistol tucked into her pants. “I can sit here comfortably in cute clothes.”

She taps her smart but casual black and brown shirt. “And I have a knife here… And I have pepper spray. I’m not going to shoot you if I have options,” she laughs.

But, even with two deadly weapons and one that incapacitates, you have to be careful she says. Especially if you are a woman. It is a message that Kawelmacher learned the hard way.

In 2007 her daughter was the target of an abduction.

“I never really wanted to be a fire arms instructor, that was never my plan,” Kawelmacher says. “On an October evening at 4.30 PM my daughter said Mommy can I go outside and play with the kids. I live in South Reno, in a very nice neighborhood and I said: ‘Yes I’ll be right out.’”

Kawelmacher looks down as she recalls the incident, and pauses.

“I never made it outside. She comes screaming inside the house. Two men sitting in a parked car tried to abduct her.

“That is the day I got it for real. That’s the day I said to myself I will be armed every single day the rest of my life. I walked into the store the next day and I bought my first official carry gun.”

She got her Nevada concealed weapons permit before the year was out and shortly afterwards decided to start her business — The Women’s Shooting Academy — to teach other women how to protect themselves.

By April 2008 she had launched her first classes, consisting of instruction and shooting on Bureau of Land Management property.

A key lesson is not to be afraid of the gun, and what it can do, she teaches.

“I’m a Christian. I put my faith in God,” says Kawelmacher of the responsibilities that come with owning a gun to protect yourself and your family. “There’s a sense of evil in our society that made me realize I can carry a gun and use it. I’d have no hesitation, and if you do, you shouldn’t carry a gun.”

She was still to have another chilling reminder of the dangers of the world, when her son Matt Imschweiler — 27 at the time — faced his own mortal challenge.

“It was the Easter weekend 2008,” Kawelmacher says, her eyes welling up. ”My phone rang at 2:30 in the morning. It was my oldest son. He was in the emergency room, he had been the victim of a random home invasion, armed robbery and attempted murder and he said: ‘Mom, I need you.’

“I got in my car and I drove two and a half hours to find my son in the hospital, so for me it’s personal. I almost lost my daughter and I almost lost my son.”

Kawelmacher pauses, and takes another deep breath. “I’m sorry, I still get emotional.”

She says her son was afraid of guns because, five years before the home invasion, his best friend had died of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot.

“He died because he didn’t take a training class and he made a tiny little mistake,” Kawelmacher says. It is part of the reason she is passionate about teaching women how to safely handle guns.

She now teaches seven classes, and has four part-time co-instructors. Two of the biggest gun stores in Reno — Cabelas and Scheels — refer clients to her, which she says has been a “huge” factor in the rapid growth of her business. She recognizes she is tapping into a significant market.

She estimates around a third of her clients have had some sort of situation that prompted them to turn to guns for protection. Some were raped, others the victims of domestic violence, she says. Sometimes, husbands refer their wives.

“I helped a woman, she’s 70 years old, a victim of armed robbery by a man who put a 10-inch kitchen knife to her. These are the stories that touch me.”

This emotional connection has helped her grow the business.

“They see I’m not scary, I’m not intimidating and they can relate to me. I teach from right here,” says Kawelmacher, tapping her hand on her chest. “I teach from my heart and my students are not just a dollar sign, they are real women with real stories, just like mine.”

Susan Gintoff, one of the Academy’s clients, agrees Kawelmacher’s manner is a big attraction.

Gintoff decided to get a gun around one year ago to protect herself from home invasions. She contacted Kawelmacher after a recommendation from the sporting goods store where she bought the gun.

“It’s fun to be with the girls, it’s kind of a hobby,” Gintoff says. “I feel I can protect myself now. Vicki is so great, she does all sorts of self-awareness classes. It’s just amazing, I think every college girl should take one.”

One girl ahead of the pack is Kawelmacher’s own daughter.

“I look at my daughter, she’s 13, she gets it,” says Kawelmacher. “She shoots, she has a knife and she knows how to use it. Someday she is going to be 17, someday 21 and I’m not always going to be there. Mothers have to teach their daughters their safety is number one.”

And for those women who do not want to carry a gun, Kawelmacher — who is shortly to launch a public speaking sideline — offers other options.

“Now I’m a certified pepper spray instructor,” she says, unscrewing the end of what looks to be a key ring-size Maglite flashlight to reveal a pepper spray can inside.

“They call it a Kubaton. I can hit with this” – she whips its up in a flash – “and I can go like this” – she twists her hand, bringing it down as if to bludgeon at an imaginary assailant’s temple – “and hit you and spray you.”

Fortunately though she doesn’t. In fact, as we part ways she seems relaxed. 

“I can put my gun away now,” she says, laughing as she steps into her car — parked, naturally enough, on a busy street. “You weren’t so dangerous.”

Tips for protecting yourself as a woman.

“The biggest thing you have going for you is that you’re a woman. The bad guy does not think that you are armed. And secondly the bad guy doesn’t think you know how to use it.”

“The best tool you have is right here,” Kawelmacher says, tapping her head. “Your mind, your awareness and your mindset.”

www.womensshootingacademy.com