Getting Women Involved
Earlier this year, as I prepared for SHOT Show 2018 coverage, I asked some of my girlfriends who own firearms or are involved in the shooting sports what they were wanting to see this year from the show. During our conversations, an unexpected theme emerged. In addition to the same requests for better concealed carry options, and weapons/gear that are designed to better fit a woman’s anatomy, there was a more intangible concern: the social aspect of women in shooting. Almost all of my friends wanted three things: to know more women like themselves, ideas on how to get more involved in shooting, and to feel more included in the shooting world.
There are enough women becoming involved in the shooting sports that the NSSF felt it necessary to do an extensive study on the female shooting demographic and the NRA now has an entire section (including a TV channel) dedicated to women’s interest. Many manufacturers make specific models of rifles (like Savage and Weatherby), shotguns (such as Syren), and handguns (such as EAA) that have been designed specifically with a woman in mind. These companies did not simply take an existing model and then apply the “Shrink It and Pink It” (SI-PI) cosmetic makeover. There was actual thought put into these weapons to improve the shooting experience for women. Firearm design is not the only part of the shooting world trying to play catch-up. There are now many concealed carry options that were designed specifically with a woman in mind, including more and more in off-body carry options. Several companies have even tackled the gear portion by designing hunting clothes, law enforcement uniforms, and backpacks, to name just a few, to fit the female body better. While many women may not be happy with the available options, many more choices are coming to market every year. Many companies are also open to suggestions for how to improve existing designs, but changes do not happen overnight. Continue reading
Legally Armed In Detroit Offering Free Shooting Class For Women in Detroit
Legally Armed In Detroit, a gun rights advocacy group, has announced that it will provide a free firearm shooting lesson at a southeast Michigan target range for 800 women interested in learning more about firearms and personal protection.
There will be no charge for the Firearm Instructor’s safety briefing, the usage of a firearm, ammunition, and range time. Participation is 100 percent free for all attendees. No prior firearms training or experience is required of the women who desire to take advantage of the lesson. Further, experienced women merely desiring to improve their marksmanship skills are also welcome to attend.
The free shooting lesson offer was the brainchild of Rick Ector, an NRA Approved Firearms Trainer, after seeing a local television newscast of a young woman’s body being discovered on an east-side Detroit street seven years ago.
This year’s event will be the seventh consecutive year it has been conducted. In the first year only 50 women were trained. However, last year the event grew sufficiently to teach almost 600 how to safely operate a pistol.
This year’s goal is 800 trained women over the day-long event. It is only with the cooperation of Ector’s fellow Firearm Instructor colleagues and supporters across social media that this event could even be attempted and safely conducted.
Ector believes that there are many women in the state of Michigan who are curious about firearms and their role in self-defense but are reluctant to investigate due to fears. He said, “If giving women a free lesson by a credentialed professional translates into women just trying it, it’ll be a productive use of my time.”
The ladies FREE shooting event will be held on Sunday, May 20, 2018 at the Top Gun Shooting Sports Gun Range at 22050 Pennsylvania in Taylor, Michigan. FREE Advance Pre-registration is required for participation. Interested ladies should visit the Facebook event page for more info.
Female Participation in Shooting Sports Higher than Ever
Female participation in the shooting sports is on the rise and that is a good thing! Having a bigger tent with more people involved and enjoying firearms can open eyes (and minds) to the reality of how safe, practical, and fun firearm ownership can be.
According to both the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and the National Rifle Association (NRA), women are one of the fastest growing demographics in the shooting sports. From 2001 to 2013, the number of female hunters increased 85% to 3.3 million and the number of target shooters increased 60% to 5.4 million. When polled on why they wanted to own a firearm, the top three answers were: self-defense, learning to hunt, and to enjoy shooting with friends and family. Another point from the NSSF study that I found interesting is that nearly 75% of all women gun owners have attended at least one training class with either a professional or a family/friend.
Roughly half of all women gun owners will visit a shooting range an average of one or more times each month for practice or training. You may have noticed an increase in the number of first time women shooters at your local range; I know that I have. Unfortunately, not all of that range time is necessarily productive. During my range visits, I have seen some really terrible “training” sessions at nearby shooting tables. I watched one guy hand his girlfriend a .410 revolver, show her how to hold it, and then – with his hand over top of hers, reach in and pull the trigger for her from across the bench. He seemed to find it amusing that she was frightened of the large, heavy recoiling handgun and did not want to keep shooting with it. On a different trip, I saw someone hand another female shooter a semi-auto pistol to shoot before standing by to watch as she gripped it in her left hand and supported it with her right hand… directly on top of the slide. Once was enough for that new shooter, who stopped shooting for the day and waited while her partner finished his range day.
Since many women receive training from someone close to them, and many women feel encouraged by family and friends to go shooting, it is a disservice to the new female shooter to not offer proper instruction, especially if it is their first time shooting. As Olympic shooter Kim Rhode said in a recent interview, shooting is a family sport. Everyone should actively participate in the entire shooting process for everyone else in the family to help build relationships based on this common interest and to ensure that everyone in the family is familiar with the firearms in the house. This becomes even more important because a NSSF study showed that more than 40% of women prefer having male present when purchasing a firearm and a similar number feel that they need more training. This is an enormous opportunity to promote the shooting sports and the Second Amendment within a family.
I am fortunate that my significant other has been my primary instructor and he takes it seriously. It is one of our many hobbies that we both enjoy and enjoy together. While the actual activity is an equal playing field between the genders, the firearms industry has been slow to catch up to the growing number of women shooters. As a female shooter, I have had to learn to adapt to a sport that is largely designed by and for men.
Despite the push for a bizarre progressive agenda, men and women are different. Let’s start with the obvious differences. The average American man is ~5’10” and weighs 196 lbs whereas the average American woman is ~5’4” and weighs 166 lbs. Men are typically taller, weigh more and have less body fat, larger hands, different muscle mass, different lung capacity, and so on. Women are generally shaped differently than men, especially in the hips and chest – a product of being built to produce and care for offspring. All of this should sound like common sense right now, but what does it mean?
Women, on average, are smaller in every aspect of the body. Many full-sized pistols are too large (sometimes too heavy) to hold comfortably and consistently for extended shooting periods. However, smaller compact and sub-compact handguns – which may fit better in the hands – tend to have stiffer springs to counter the low mass of the slide, which can prove problematic when manipulating the slide. Fortunately, many manufacturers are designing both new firearms and ammunition offerings that address this recoil issue. Some manufacturers have designed pistols that are balanced differently to help women manage the recoil.
Staying with the smaller theme, women have shorter arms and proportionally longer necks than men, placing the shoulder-pocket slightly higher than the average man. This means many rifles and shotguns are uncomfortable to handle and could explain why your lady may bruise more easily and have problems getting a consistent cheek weld (the answer is not a youth stock). While a child-sized stock may work for some women, the fact remains that most women are larger than children and the smaller, shorter stock will make a weapon front-heavy which could prove burdensome, especially when walking in the field (speaking from experience). Being smaller also means being shorter. This can make shooting from a kneeling/sitting position feel like a battle to find the happy medium between comfort, stability and getting the appropriate elevation to hit the target. As I have consistently found at SHOT Show Range Day and various shooting ranges, many shooting benches are not designed for a short person. A few companies have been tackling the issue of women shooters in rifles and shotguns with success. At least two companies have rifles designed by women, for women and two more companies make pricey shotguns that are balanced and proportioned with a woman in mind. Continue reading
Concealed Carry Options For Women
Women have myriad problems when considering a holster for concealed carry. It can be difficult enough to find a product that conceals in everyday clothing, but it can be even more difficult to find something that can be concealed in dress clothes or athletic clothes.
Given that women are among the fastest growing group of shooters, it is no surprise that many enterprising women have already come up with a number of innovative solutions to the CCW issue. While many traditional holster companies do create holsters that they market to female shooters, they are typically for standard IWB or OWB, which can be challenging for women since our clothes are typically more form fitting and our hips are shaped differently than men’s. Continue reading
Concealed Carry Purses Provide Off-Body Carry Options
When women shop for accessories, we shop for looks as well as function and fit. A common problem with many IWB and OWB holsters for women is that our tops are typically more form fitting than men’s shirts and women’s jeans tend to ride around the hips rather than the waist. This can make it difficult to effectively conceal a pistol on the waist. A common solution, since many women already carry a purse, is to opt for off-body carry and make the purse their “holster”.
There are a number of companies on the market that make purses designed specifically for concealed carry. Features can include a specific pouch or pocket in the purse (or outside the purse) for carrying the weapon. This pocket can be accessible from inside or outside (sometimes both) the main pocket of a purse. Some companies include locking zippers and some even include a cable-lined strap for reinforcement (and to prevent theft). Continue reading
Girls with Guns Unveils New Hunting Gear at SHOT
Chances are if you are a female interested in the outdoors, hunting, or shooting, you have heard of Girls With Guns (GWG). GWG started in 2008 with apparel designed to be fashionable while still allowing a young woman to wear camouflage to the store. From humble beginnings in a garage, GWG started out designing and embroidering their own hats and now their items can be found in national chains such as Cabela’s and Dick’s.
Norissa Harman and Jen Adams are two friends who are young, fashionable, and avid hunters. They grew tired of having to wear small men’s, and probably large boy’s, clothing while hunting. When you are out in the field hunting, ill-fitting clothes can cause many problems, such as exposed skin, being noisy, and restricted movement. They eventually expanded their clothing line to include hunting clothes, designed by women for women. Continue reading
