As gun registrations climbed to an all-time high during the last two years, a report shows women account for nearly half of those purchases—far above the 10 to 20 percent of gun owners they usually represent.
That’s good news for Ronnie Wood, owner of Flat Top Arms on Eisenhower Drive in Beckley.
“Last year was a record year for gun buying,” Wood said. “Sales started climbing in March of 2020 after coronavirus lockdowns began, and by June, background checks were up by 136 percent from the previous year.”
The gun store owner continued, “There’s no better opportunity to celebrate the contributions American women make to the firearm and ammunition industry—past, present and future.”
From the early days of Annie Oakley shooting ashes off cigarettes in the mouths of Wild West show volunteers and Calamity Jane gunslinging and scouting on the early frontier through the decades to today’s world-renowned women competitive shooters for Team USA, women have held an integral and rightful place in the industry supporting Americas’ Second Amendment rights.
What’s more is that women are leading the charge in growing and diversifying the gun-owning community in America by the millions.
The gun industry is responding to women’s increased demand for guns with models easier for people with smaller hands to use. Until the recent surge, strategies to market guns to women, were not very successful.
That is, not until the riots in the summer of 2020 and the Democratic Party’s efforts to defund the police in cities across the country and its efforts to release criminals from jails and put them back on the streets.
With crime on the rise, especially murders and carjackings, women turned to guns for self-defense.
Women in shooting clubs and gun rights advocacy groups reported they felt better protected from all manner of threats knowing how to use a gun.
“Women simply want to be better prepared,” Wood explained of the recent surge of female gun buyers. “They feel more confident while driving home from work and leaving their vehicles at night. Having a weapon in their purse or coat pocket seems to make a difference to them.”
A report, meanwhile, containing the preliminary results from the 2021 National Firearms Survey obtained by the Wall Street Journal indicates that for the first time, women are purchasing guns at a rate like those of men, while pouring in nearly $4 million into the enterprise in a single year.
At the same time, some 37 percent of female gun buyers are single.
And now, perhaps for the first time, there are thoughtful gun creations that women want to use. It’s no longer the “pink and shrink” mentality of past decades when it comes to designing handguns for women.
“Many of the latest firearm designs were developed with adult female shooters in mind. They fit women’s hands better, fit their bodies, and give women more options for conceal and carry,” Wood explained of the current handgun trends. “It used to be that women’s choices in concealed carry were pretty limited to really small guns, and now, most women, regardless of their size, can carry a full-size weapon, even decked out with lights and optics.”
The popular gun store owner also noted that designs of handguns for personal protection are incorporating features long sought by the females, including smaller frames, lighter springs, redesigned magazines for easier loading, as well as shotgun and rifle stocks designed to fit the needs more readily for women with length of trigger pull and sighting adjustments.
“The AR-15, due to its easy adaptability and customization, has been a rifle that can easily fit the needs of women gun owners by making a few simple and small-scale adjustments,” Wood said.
About 3.5 million women and 4 million men became first-time gun owners between January 2019 and April 2021, recent surveys show.
President Joe Biden and his party supporters say crime is down…if you don’t count the massive spike in homicides.
Today there are numerous Second Amendment advocacy groups focused solely on women firearm ownership, training, and education, helping to cultivate current and future generations to keep women gun owners thriving and growing.
Women, on average, buy their first gun around the age of 27. In contrast, the average age for a man’s first gun is 19. Self-defense is the most cited reason for gun ownership for both sexes.
Single women have the responsibility of policing their homes in the wake of criminal activity expanding into the suburbs at a record rate, according to police officers throughout the country.
In cities that suffer from reduced and defunded law enforcement services, the neighborhood is becoming the first line of defense for criminal activity.
Meantime, where do gun control lobbyists and liberal politicians stand who want to reduce or prevent gun ownership in the future? Apparently, they are out of sync with the social climate of 21st century America.
“If more women become gun owners, and become less supportive of gun-control legislation, it could have a significant impact on gun laws at every level across the country,” observed the veteran gun store owner Wood.
“The future of female gun ownership is bright—and it likely will continue to shine. I don’t know if as many women will ever be as interested in shooting as men. But I think the current escalating effect is probably going to continue for years to come.”
—
Top o’ the morning!