RSWC #077 Dawn Hillyer

Riding Shotgun With Charlie

#077

Dawn Hillyer

Hiding Hilda

 

Dawn and I were both models at the concealed carry fashion show at Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) in Chicago, 2018. I was modeling a holster undershirt.  I’m sure she was modeling one of her own products made by her company, Hiding Hilda. I told her that I wanted to do a show in every state and secretly she wanted to be my Indiana passenger. We made it happen in Fort Wayne, Indiana last month. 

 

Dawn Hillyer, like many people, didn’t grow up around firearms or shooting. She got involved with firearms a year after a dating relationship ended and she was stalked for 6 years by her ex-boyfriend. There were death threats not just to her, but her family and friends, too. It kept escalating and escalating. The ex-boyfriend was very computer savvy and sent fake emails to himself making it look like she was going after him. She changed her phone number and email yet he still found and stalked her.  

 

She had a bad feeling one evening and took her children to her ex-husband’s and kept her husband’s gun for the night.  She was convinced that this particular evening, the ex-boyfriend was coming to get her. 

 

Her story ended up on Katie Couric’s show, Stalked. Ms. Couric, of course, was interested in the firearm aspect of the story. Dawn may be the only person in the gun community who had a ‘good’ experience with Ms. Couric. After the show with Dawn aired in December 2013, she became much more vocal about domestic abuse and stalking.  She’s spoken around the country on these issues and started a Facebook page dedicated to women who are stalked by men.  She also recounts her story on her blog posts (see link below). 

 

Dawn tells us that she went from not shooting, to gun ownership, to becoming an instructor, to deciding to be her own hero and make her own line of products for women to use to carry concealed firearms. She enjoyed the NRA AM in Indianapolis in 2018  when she co-emceed the Realize FAC and Indiana State Rifle and Pistol Association concealed carry fashion show with Amanda Suffecool. 

 

Dawn has taken this horrible and scary 6 years and turned it into something that has helped women across the country. These women have been educated, trained, and inspired by what she has been doing. And they can buy her products, and Hiding Hilda will help them be their own heroes!

 

Favorite quotes:

 

“I had to take control...I truly thought my life was in danger”

“I named my first firearm Hilda. Then I was still hiding Hilda, but I could live out loud”
“You have a routine. You can’t get away from it. You have to live.”

“I think women should be pretty and badass! I didn’t want to lose my pretty to be badass!”

“Be your own hero!”

 

Find Dawn’s website & social media, read her stalker story, and buy her products for the female gun owners (and a few things for the guys, too!)

 

Hiding Hilda Website

https://hidinghilda.com/

Hiding Hilda Facebook 

https://www.facebook.com/hidinghilda/

Hiding Hilda Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/hidinghildallc/

Hiding Hilda Twitter

https://twitter.com/HidingHilda

Hiding Hilda Blog (Stalked Story)

https://hidinghilda.com/blogs/stalked

 

Dawn Hillyer Anti-Stalking Advocate

Facebook  with Katie Couric

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