The national media is cluing in to the reality that young, female and urban shooters are the fastest growing segments of a shooting market that is growing at a phenomenal rate.

While sales of firearms are finally starting to taper off from last year’s all time record highs, the demand for ammunition and instructors—especially female shooters—is at an all time high as new shooters seek to master their arms:

The market for female gun instructors is booming as more women want to learn to shoot– both for self defense and for sport, said Tina Wilson-Cohen, who owns She Can Shoot, an all-women firearm and self-defense training business in Fairfax, Va.

“When I started training women in 2007, there weren’t many female instructors,” she said. “Now you’re not the only name in town.”

The National Rifle Association, noting the burgeoning market opportunity, is trying to boost its ranks of 8,000 NRA-certified female instructors, said spokesman Andrew Arulanandam.

In 2009, the NRA organized 280 “Women On Target” training clinics nationwide, and 8,000 women signed up. In 2013, the group held 450 clinics for 12,000 women.

While Arulanandam said self protection is still the primary reason women take up gun training, he said they’re increasingly realizing “that they’d like to pursue it for activities like target shooting or skeet shooting.”