Rising voice of gun ownership is female
By Jet Hall
I
across the count
country, a growing number of women are learning
Women’s participation in shooting sports has surged
over the last decade, increasing by over 50 percent for target
shooting to just over 5 million women, and by 42 percent for
hunting, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.
Gun sales to women have risen in concert. 73 percent of
gun dealers said the number of female customers had gone
up from the two previous years. It is estimated there are 12-17
million women gun owners.
Manufacturers have geared advertising toward wom-
custom colors (pink is a favorite), and accessories. Women’s
shooting clubs have also been on the rise where they
are taught how to hold and load a handgun safely and then
coached on the range.
Amendment with their male counterparts, female gun owners
often learn to shoot for different reasons. Their interest in
for self-defense, but a statement of independence and personal
power.
Tina Wilson-Cohen, a former Secret Service agent who
founded She Can Shoot, a women’s league with 10 chapters
and 3,000 members across the country, said 90 percent of
women who joined did so because “they’ve been a victim at
one point of their life, of stalking or date rape or domestic
violence, or they have just felt so vulnerable, and they want
to feel competent and like that they can protect themselves.”
Firearms also often carry a different meaning for women
than for men, who grow up with Hollywood images of guns
that tell them “this is what a real man looks like and that’s
how a real man acts, and it’s kind of delusional, really,” Ms.
Wilson-Cohen said.
-
selves confronting the misconceptions of the non-gun-owning
public, said Mary Stange, a professor of women’s studies
and religion at Skidmore College and a co-author of “Gun
Women: Firearms and Feminism in Contemporary America.”
-
make women as a group gun averse.”
Women’s interest in guns began increasing in the 1980s,
when women began moving into previously male-dominated
professions like law enforcement and the military and began
their own security, for themselves and their families.
25+ years ago, if a woman walked into a gun club to sign
up heads would have turned, but now, gun shop owners
are welcoming women with open arms, realizing just how
important women are to their industry.
Smith & Wesson, which in 1989 introduced a LadySmith
potential of the women’s market. Others have followed and
have capitalized on the women’s market by trying to manipulate
women into buying a gun just because of its “pink” color
or to “look cute while you shoot”. The majority of women
feel it’s a slap in the face to assume that a pink gun will make
the sale. Women are smarter than that. On the other hand, a
woman may go for that pretty pink handgun just so her husband
won’t touch it!
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FLORIDA WOMEN MAGAZINE 813.682.9364 AUGUST 2019 • 17
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