Waukesha mom Emily Schmuki didn't carry a gun. Now she does. Here's why.

There was a time, not too long ago, when Emily Schmuki didn’t carry a gun.

The 25-year-old mother of two young girls had a concealed-carry permit, and she is plenty well-trained. She has been shooting since she was 13 and goes to the range regularly.

But Schmuki wasn’t carrying a gun for one crucial reason: She was not prepared to take a life.

And, she says, everyone who carries a gun for protection needs to be able to answer that question — as difficult as it is. 

Schmuki’s answer has changed recently.

She said the calculation shifted because of events and risks swirling around her life, risks that appear to be getting closer to her and her daughters.

First, Schmuki came across an article about violent attacks in gas station parking lots. It noted women were most often the victims. She said she could see herself in the data.

There was the attack by a man in a car, two years ago, on the Christmas parade not far from her apartment in Waukesha.

Then came another incident, last September, where a man was threatening people with an ax at a nearby Walmart. Schmuki was not there but it jarred her.

But the tipping point was an ugly, ongoing dispute that has boiled over with a neighbor, who has been volatile and violent. Schmuki has called the police repeatedly. Officers come but nothing has been resolved, she said.

So these days Schmuki is carrying a gun, most places she goes.

“You have to be OK with the idea of shooting somebody else. Until recently, I was not OK with that,” she said. “But now I just have to put my family’s safety above everybody else's. So that's definitely changed my mindset.”

 Self-defense from an early age

Self-defense was baked into family life when Schmuki was growing up in New Berlin and Delafield.

Schmuki and her younger twin brothers took taekwondo classes and soon their parents joined. As the family began to learn more about being "their own first line of defense," Schmuki said her dad decided to buy a gun and started shooting with her and her brothers.

When Schmuki was 13, she would go to Fletcher Arms, a nearby range, with her father. 

Shooting wasn’t a natural fit, not at first.

“I remember going to Fletcher's and just shooting a little .22 and being kind of terrified of it,” she said.

Schmuki’s interest in shooting grew around age 18, when her mom went to work at the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, based in West Bend, doing social media marketing.

Schmuki and her mom would go shooting handguns. Schmuki found she loved the challenge of shooting.

“It definitely is fun,” she said.

Growing number of gun owners who are women

Schmuki decided to buy her first gun in 2019, but didn't like it after shooting it and sold it. She bought the first of the two guns she has now two years ago, part of a wave of gun-buying during the pandemic. She was going through a divorce. She was working at a gun store at the time and decided she wanted more protection.

She took the concealed-carry class and got her Wisconsin permit. She then began taking other classes, about home defense and handgun proficiency. She eventually became a certified National Rifle Association pistol instructor.

“I worked very closely with a lot of instructors to hone my skills,” she said.

In what has been a male-dominated shooting world, Schmuki said she hasn’t felt discrimination but definitely sensed she was among a new generation of female shooters, many of whom are citing similar anxieties about social and political upheaval.

However, she doesn’t see herself as a trailblazer, just one who bought a gun and got trained because of her life circumstances.

“I had just started living on my own and if somebody breaks into my apartment, 911 isn't going to get there fast enough,” said Schmuki, who now works in real estate.

With her purchase, Schmuki joined a growing number of female gun owners.

Schmuki has given a lot of thought to how she would defend against a break-in.

Her bedroom is the room closest to the front door so she would see an intruder first. The bedroom for her girls, 5 and 1, is further from the front door.

In close reach, she has a knife, her first line of defense. She also has a safe bolted to her nightstand where she keeps one pistol.

Schmuki said she could get her gun out and loaded in seconds.

The decision to buy a gun required weighing security against risk, including the potential that her children might get ahold of the gun.

Safety is paramount to ensure her daughters do not get access to her guns, she said.

She has spoken to her 5-year-old, who has an orange toy gun, about firearms safety. The toy gun goes in another safe, with Schmuki’s second gun.

“I've worked with her on safe gun-handling," Schmuki said. "And she knows that she doesn't touch mommy's gun and unless there's somebody around she doesn't even play with her toy gun."

Twelve years after she first fired a gun, Schmuki sees guns now as a tool, albeit a powerful, potentially life-ending tool. 

Given all that has been going on in her life, she is grateful she learned to shoot and plans to continue training.

 “At least for me, protecting myself and my family is at the forefront of my mind on an almost 24/7 basis right now.”

About this project

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter John Diedrich examined the full extent of gun deaths in Wisconsin during a nine-month O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University.

The project reveals the full picture of gun deaths in the state and tells the stories of people affected by gun deaths and those trying to find solutions.

Diedrich was assisted in the project by Marquette student researchers Alex Rivera Grant and Ben Schultz.

Marquette University and administrators of the program played no role in the reporting, editing or presentation of this project.