When those two things go hand in hand, that’s just icing on the cake.

Hamilton Nolan may want to gawk at this, but I applaud it. The fastest growing age group in a Colorado Springs gun club is women over the age of 50. CBS4 visited Whistling Pines Gun Club in Colorado Springs, CO to interview a group of grandmothers and great-grandmothers about why they are taking aim and feeling the need to protect themselves.

Massage therapist and great-grandmother Peggy Gray said, “With things that have happened locally and nationally in our world, you need to know how to protect yourself.”

Lana Fore is a gun expert and instructor at Whistling Pines Gun Club in Colorado Springs. She says over half the women in the club are over the age of 50. She says women are enrolling in classes to feel more secure this day in age. Fore has taught women how to shoot in their 80s. Some are single and want to feel protected at home. Others want to feel safe when they are in public places.

Ann Macomber has been around guns her entire life because her brothers and husband shoot, but this week she purchased her own gun. She feels proud to be able to load a gun and shoot it the right way on her own.

“It empowers me. I am not naïve anymore,” Macomber said.

Beth Self was against guns the majority of her life because her father was murdered by someone who shot him. Self says she feels more unsafe now than ever before given the nature of local and national violence, so she decided to embrace guns. She shed her fear of shooting and now she feels confident in her abilities to be able to protect her family.

“It’s comforting to know I can hold that gun and I can do it. I’m proud of myself,” Self said.

The group of women is supportive of each other. They hope to never have to shoot outside the range.

“I have two prayers. My first is that I never have to draw that firearm, and if I do, that it does what it needs to do. I’m thankful I have never had to,” Gray said.