It’s not the firepower, it’s about female empowerment.

More women are stepping up to embrace their right to keep and bear arms and gun ranges and firearms instructors are hoping to teach them more than just how to shoot and carry a gun. Personal safety advocate Jody Salerno of Upper St. Clair, PA, whose impressive credentials include National Rifle Association-certified firearms instructor, range officer, and spokeswoman for the Girl and a Gun Shooting League, aims to arm her female students with more than just an understanding of firearms.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:

“Knowing they can shoot safely and accurately is part of it,” Jody said. “But having some training in situational awareness, being comfortable having their firearm with them, knowing how to defend themselves, I think, gives women a sense of confidence and self-assuredness that they carry with them all the time.”

“Empowering women is my passion. We talk about different motivations for personal security [and] situational awareness. Realtors who are in empty houses with strangers need to think about tactical positioning. College kids walking around with earbuds and a cell phone not paying attention have no idea they’re being [observed] — the way they walk, their attitude, deciding whether they’re a hard target or a soft target.”

“Safety is something I reiterate over and over,” said Salerno. “The more they learn the less they’ll worry about firearms. They’ll learn to treat all guns as if they’re always loaded. They’ll learn to protect their families with their guns … and from their guns. They’ll learn to look out for themselves.”

The media may be trying their hardest to diminish female gun owners, from Cosmo to The Trace, but we recognize this tactic as a staple of the gun control narrative. Their attempts to minimize the size and diversity of the American firearm-owning community will only make people like Jody Salerno and her students roar that much louder to prove the media wrong.

That’s the thing: we’re working to educate ourselves on more than just taking a gun safety class or taking the necessary training to apply for a concealed carry permit. Most women go above and beyond to make sure our education goes above and beyond any situation we may encounter.

And our voices are louder than Marie Claire or even our legislators want them to be, so let’s make sure they hear us.

We are women, hear us shoot!