Annette Evans is the founder of On Her Own, a commercial attorney, firearms instructor, competitive shooter, author, and multidisciplinary self-defense practitioner. Previously known in firearms media as the “Beauty Behind the Blast,” she has worked across defensive shooting, practical competition, dry practice, pepper spray, combatives, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and personal-safety education.
Evans’s central contribution is connecting measurable shooting performance with a broader model of individual preparedness. Her work treats the firearm as an important tool within a larger system that includes awareness, boundaries, avoidance, physical capability, less-lethal options, medical knowledge, judgment, and continued training.
On Her Own
Evans created On Her Own as a resource for women navigating portions of life without traditional support systems. Although self-defense is central to the project, its scope extends beyond physical violence to bodily autonomy, emotional and mental safety, health, housing, finances, food, and the practical demands of independent living.
The project does not define women only through responsibility for spouses, children, or other people. Its underlying principle is that an individual’s life has value in its own right. That foundation supports training, boundary setting, risk recognition, physical development, defensive-tool selection, and decisive action when necessary.
“On her own” does not mean isolated or unwilling to accept help. Training depends on instructors, partners, coaches, friends, and communities. The distinction is accepting responsibility for developing one’s own judgment and capability rather than assuming another person will always be present to solve the problem.
Development as a Shooter and Instructor
Evans began shooting in 2006 and entered competitive pistol and multigun shooting in 2010. Her development progressed from defensive-handgun student to instructor, match official, match director, competitive shooter, writer, and range operator.
She apprenticed as an instructor with Kathy Jackson of The Cornered Cat and trained with instructors and organizations including Ben Stoeger, Bruce Gray, OpSpec Training, Tom Givens, Massad Ayoob, Dave Harrington, Rob and Matt Haught, Caleb Causey, Ashton Ray, Tim Chandler, Citizens Defense Research, and others.
Evans earned Rangemaster firearms-instructor certification and certification as a pepper-spray instructor under Chuck Haggard. She has appeared as a professional shooter and instructor on Love at First Shot and has served as an IDPA and USPSA match director and official.
Competitive Shooting
Evans’s documented competitive accomplishments include Ladies Centerfire Pistol Champion at the 2016 East Coast Steel Challenge Championship and Ladies Production Champion at the 2017 USPSA Area 8 Championship. She has also held the Rangemaster Ladies Casino Drill record with a time of 13.52 seconds and earned two Gabe White Training Light Pins.
These results provide objective evidence of handgun performance. Competition introduces time, accuracy, scoring, pressure, comparison, and repeatability. It does not recreate a violent encounter, but it can expose inefficient movement, inconsistent gun handling, poor recoil control, weak visual processing, and other deficiencies that are difficult to identify through unmeasured practice.
Evans’s work keeps that distinction clear: competition is a valuable performance laboratory, while defensive training must address criminal behavior, context, weapon access, decision-making, legal and ethical constraints, and the presence of unwilling participants.
The Dry Fire Primer
Evans is the author of The Dry Fire Primer, a practical guide to developing handgun skill without live ammunition. The book makes structured practice more accessible to shooters whose ammunition, range access, time, or finances are limited.
Her dry-practice methodology goes beyond repeatedly manipulating an unloaded firearm. It emphasizes identifying a specific skill, separating complex movements into components, performing correct repetitions, using par times and video for feedback, increasing difficulty deliberately, and recombining the components into the complete task.
Dry practice can develop grip acquisition, presentation, draw mechanics, trigger manipulation, reloads, visual discipline, transitions, and movement. Live fire remains the validation step. The purpose is improved shooting performance—not merely becoming efficient at an activity that only works with an unloaded gun.
Combatives and Close-Contact Problems
In 2018, while co-owner of the now-closed Race Street Range, Evans began a deeper study of combatives and the practical application of firearms within close-contact defensive problems. She completed the open-enrollment curriculum offered by Craig Douglas and trained with other members of the ShivWorks Collective, including assisting Cecil Burch with Immediate Action Combatives.
Evans is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown belt under Rob Scheier of Precision Jiu-Jitsu. Her work on the mat adds resistance, body position, entanglement, balance, control, and physical problem-solving to a background that began primarily with firearms.
This development reinforces a central part of her educational philosophy: carrying a gun does not guarantee access to it, and drawing may be unsafe when another person is already close enough to touch or control the weapon. A complete defensive system needs answers for managing distance, establishing boundaries, disengaging, fighting for position, accessing tools, and recognizing when a different response is appropriate.
Less-Lethal Options and Layered Defense
Evans advocates defensive options that exist between verbal boundary setting and lethal force. Pepper spray can provide a practical response to circumstances in which a firearm would be inappropriate or unavailable, but it still requires informed selection, accessible carry, deployment practice, and an understanding of its limitations.
Her broader framework is layered rather than gun-centered. Awareness and avoidance may prevent an encounter. Communication and boundaries may interrupt escalation. Physical fitness and combatives may create an opportunity to escape. Less-lethal tools may solve problems that do not justify deadly force. Firearms remain available for circumstances in which lethal force is necessary, while medical training addresses what follows an injury.
Writing and Technical Communication
Evans has written about firearms, competition, concealed carry, dry practice, equipment, and self-defense for outlets including Pew Pew Tactical, NRA Women, RECOIL, and ConcealedCarry.com. Her recent Pew Pew Tactical work includes guides to IDPA competition, shotgun loading, and competition-shooting disciplines.
Her strength as a writer is translation. She breaks complicated subjects into questions about what the individual needs to accomplish, which variables matter, and how performance can be measured. This moves discussion away from equipment identity and universal prescriptions toward problem solving.
Legal and Analytical Background
Evans works professionally as a commercial attorney. That career is distinct from her firearms and self-defense credentials and should not be treated as evidence of specialized self-defense-law practice. It does, however, complement the structured analysis visible in her educational work: define the problem, identify relevant variables, examine competing options, and avoid conclusions that ignore context.
Areas of Expertise
- Structured dry practice and handgun skill development
- Competitive pistol and multigun shooting
- Firearms instruction and concealed carry
- Women’s self-defense and individual agency
- Boundary setting, avoidance, and defensive decision-making
- Pepper spray and intermediate defensive options
- Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and close-contact combatives
- Match direction, scoring, and shooting-performance measurement
- Firearms and self-defense writing
- Multidisciplinary personal preparedness
Primary & Secondary Connection
Evans’s work fits the Primary & Secondary emphasis on training beyond firearm ownership, measurable performance, qualified instruction, and understanding the context in which a tool or technique may be needed. Her development across competition, defensive firearms, combatives, less-lethal options, and personal agency reflects the broader P&S view that preparedness requires more than equipment.
Current Work
Evans continues to develop On Her Own and publish firearms and self-defense material. Her current work combines the perspective of a commercial attorney, experienced shooter, certified instructor, combatives student, and writer focused on helping women survive and thrive when they are responsible for navigating life on their own.
Sources
- On Her Own — About Annette Evans
- On Her Own — Substack biography
- Pew Pew Tactical — Annette Evans
- The Dry Fire Primer
Profile last reviewed: September 10, 2026. Biographical details and professional affiliations were checked against the sources listed above.