Gun control groups are freaking out. We've seen a lot of reports out of that side of the fence showing that they're freaking out. Why? Because the number of women who own and carry guns is growing.
And, to be fair, they have a reason to be scared.
I'm far from the only one who has noticed this trend, either. Over at The Truth About Guns, Scott Witner offers some thoughts on it.
For decades, the gun world was marketed almost exclusively to men. That’s changing fast. Women are buying firearms in record numbers, joining the shooting sports, taking self-defense classes, and demanding gear and training tailored to their needs—not their gender stereotypes.
And the industry is paying attention. Ads now feature competent, confident women with firearms—because that’s who’s walking into gun stores.
But groups like Everytown’s “The Smoking Gun” project are suddenly clutching their pearls. They’re calling out gun companies for daring to market to women. Their big gripe? That the firearm industry is trying to “normalize” women and guns.
Damn right we are.
History Proves Otherwise
Despite what some sociology professors from Oregon State may think, women owning and carrying firearms is nothing new. From the American Revolution to Annie Oakley, from Martha Jane “Calamity” Canary to modern-day self-defense advocates like the late Geneva Solomon, armed women have been an integral part of this country’s story.
The difference now? They’re no longer the exception. They’re becoming the norm.
And one of the reasons anti-gunners are freaking out is because women have long been their ace in the hole. They've trusted women to lead the charge and to do so from the standpoint of concerned wives and mothers. They've done so from the standpoint of potential victims, even.
But now, women are one of the fastest-growing segments of the gun market. Because of that, women now oppose many of the measures the anti-gunners are pushing. They can't frame it as a men vs women issue anymore.
Let's also be real here, the pro-gun women aren't being quiet about it, either. Women for Gun Rights makes it a point to reach out to legislators and to talk to them about the right to keep and bear arms.
Suddenly, it becomes a lot harder to frame opposition to gun control as misogyny.
Women have always been part of the gun community. This isn't new by any means. What they have been, though, was a distinct minority who worked within the male-dominated system. There was nothing wrong with that, of course, but it did make it a lot easier to dismiss these ladies as the exception rather than the rule.
Now, that's not really viable. There are a whole lot of pro-gun women who are making their voices heard, and doing it in ways that aren't inherently within the old boys' network. They're taking their own voices, their own groups, and making it harder for their voices to be ignored.
And that scares the crap out of the anti-gunners.
They like being able to pretend women are scared of guns, that they have no place on our streets because women don't like them, and the only men who do are nasty, brutish types who will eventually kill some woman for some inane reason.
They can't get away with that anymore. Too many women want guns and are vocally and loudly defending the right to keep and bear arms for that argument to have nearly as much sway as it once did.
Don't get me wrong, they'll still try to wage this as if it's a battle of the sexes, but they also know that their time of getting away with that is slipping through their fingers, and it's causing them to freak out.
As for me, their freaking out just makes me giggle.
