Women Continue To Line Up For Concealed Carry Permits

Women are the next frontier for the firearms industry. Female gun ownership has nearly doubled between 2005-2013, and as Katie reported from Shot Show in Vegas this week, the number one reason women become gun owners is for self-defense, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation:

The report, which comes from a study conducted in 2014, focused "on women ages 18 to 65 who owned at least one firearm." Over a third of the women involved in the study were new gun owners who have "purchased their first firearm within the last three years."

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Some key findings:

The most commonly owned firearm by women in the study is a semiautomatic pistol, with 56 percent of women reporting they owned at least one. Shotguns ranked second, with 50 percent of women owning at least one.
Women say their purchases are mainly influenced by Fit, Quality and Practicality.
Women purchasing a gun in the last 12 months spent on average $870 on firearms and more than $400 on accessories.
The majority of women report they are not driven to buy a gun on impulse but rather considered their purchase for months before deciding.
Nearly all women (95 percent) have tried target shooting, and more than half (58 percent) have hunted.
More than 42 percent of women have a concealed carry permit for their state of residence.
Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of women reported having taken at least one training class.
43 percent of women shoot once per month or more
The shooting participation of females has gone from 5,350,000 in 2006 to 7,587,000 in 2013 and now make up 24 percent of the total shooting participation population

As I wrote in a previous post, Democrats and liberals are using gun control to somehow fan the now dying flames of their “War on Women” narrative. Yet, in Utah, women applying for concealed carried permits exploded last year–and that trend seems to be occurring in other states (via Guns and Curves):

As reported by the Seattle Times, “The number of Washington state residents receiving a concealed carry permit has tripled between 2005 and 2012. The surge has been especially large among women, whose ranks have swelled twice as fast as men since 2011.” According to the analysis done by the Seattle Times, the major increase in female concealed carry permit submissions is attributed to women knowing the importance of self-defense.

Mitch Barker, the Executive Director of the Washington Sheriffs and Police Chiefs Association also attributes the increase to such tragedies as Sandy Hook and the Colorado movie theater massacre. His assessment is that these types of events are motivating people to find a way to protect themselves “They think that if they have a CPL and a firearm, maybe they can do something.”

In addition to the popularity of Guntry Clubs catering too young, affluent, female target shooters, gun stores are beginning to cater to women as well. A new store in Davenport, IA run by Jeanelle Westrom called Davenport Guns and Shooting Club has a wide selection of firearms, holsters, and various accouterment that women will love including pink pistols and a plethora of concealed carry gear for female gun owners. Westrom, who has been a lifelong competitive shooter, grew up around firearms. Her dad was a former Army officer and also the owner of the ArmaLite brand name, where she also worked for a period of time.

I can attest to the rise of the female shooter at my range, where I’ve seen a lot more women present, learning basic gun safety, proper sight alignment, and other aspects of shooting with instructors. Some of them undoubtedly concealed carry instructors.

Frankly, I think this is a great trend. Everyone should partake in exercising their Second Amendments rights. After all, it's one of the oldest civil rights laws in our history.