Women Want One Thing, And It’s Not You

Women are complex creatures.  For men we are generally logical and analytical, one-track minds usually.  For women they are generally emotional and subjective.  This makes for a Pandora’s Box-style puzzle for men; don’t screw it up or all hell breaks loose.  But this is not the case all of the time of course.  And apparently, when the shit hits the fan there is one thing men and women share in common, the innate desire to defend themselves with firearms.  And these past few years has proven that to be true.

The Growing Female Trend

In May of 2020, National Shooting Sports Foundation conducted a study.  “They surveyed firearm retailers about trends that they were seeing. The May 2020 survey results estimated that 40% of sales were to first-time gun owners and that 40% of the first-time gun buyers were women.”

Advance the data a year and we have this fact: almost half of all gun owners, 42.2% to be exact, are women. This comes from the 2021 National Firearms Survey conducted by William English, PhD for Georgetown University.  In this study, they surveyed 16,708 gun owners and found some surprising results.  They estimate approximately 81.4 Million Americans own firearms age 18 and over and over half (56%) own handguns for self-defense.

For the ladies, however, it seems the growing number of new firearms owners are in the 35-65 age group.  Additionally, over half of all female gun owners are in the 46-65 age group category.   And this author can attest to this data being true.  My own mother and her friends are in these categories. They have expressed interest in purchasing their first firearms and receiving training from my company, Defensive Bravo, here in Fort Worth, Texas.  In my 4 decades on this planet, my mother has never displayed interest in owning a firearm, but she does now.  That’s anecdotal yes, but the data seems to back up and explain that new desire for self-protection.

Ripple effect…

With the insanity of 2020 and 2021, it’s not hard to see why women are arming up. From the George Floyd Summer of protests and violence to the COVID-19 lockdowns, to the defunding of police departments, to the increase in violent crime across the country, the need to defend yourself is growing and women are heeding the call.

According to “The Well Armed Woman,” over 62% of women who own guns, own handguns.  This shows the desire for self-defense.  Why? The handgun is the most popular firearm platform for self-defense.  This is mainly due to the ease of concealing a handgun versus a long gun. And the top 20 firearms purchased by women in 2020 are all handguns.

This marks an interesting turn of events for the current administration and their plans for expanding gun control.  As the government wants to restrict ownership the public is increasing ownership levels.  This pendulum swing can be attributed to the ripple effect of the societal turbulence we have been experiencing.  Not to mention, this highlights a distrust for the narratives being spun by the mainstream media and current federal administration.

Defensive Firearm Use vs Criminal Firearm Use

Thankfully, the momma bears, grandmas, and all the single ladies out there are taking matters into their own hands.  This is music to the ears of law enforcement agencies across the country as an armed populace can actually stop crime as it happens. Versus the police who are “report takers with guns,” as one Fort Worth Police Officer who will remain anonymous revealed to me.  This particular street cop went on to say criminals don’t fear the police, they can see them coming a mile away.  They fear a victim who is armed and can turn the tables on them in an instant.  

Additional data from the CDC is showing that there are between 500,000 and 3 million defenses uses of a firearm each year.  Why the huge disparity of numbers?  That’s because the majority of defensive firearms uses don’t involve firing the weapon and therefore don’t get reported to the police.  When a criminal sees a gun, they more often than not turn and run to save their own skin.  When there are no shots fired and no injuries or deaths sustained, authorities are generally not informed.  And with the average number of gun deaths each year only totaling about 40,000, (67% of that being suicide and 30% being murder and the remaining 3% accidents/other) it is clear to see that firearms save many more lives than they take each year. Even on the low end, over ten times more lives were saved than taken.

Armed Women equalizing the field

With the growing number of women arming up, it is becoming a dangerous environment out there for the would-be criminal.  No longer is the single female, alone at night, hurriedly walking to her car able to be easily victimized.  Because that 115 pound 5’2” woman may seem like a sack of potatoes you could easily toss over your shoulder and run off with, however, you’re in real trouble if she’s armed, trained, and knows what she’s doing. Any attempted kidnapping, robbery, or other criminal act perpetrated on her will merely equal a quick blurb on the local evening news. She will briefly describe the harrowing scene of how she easily dispatched the would-be wolf who picked a fight with a sheepdog, not a sheep.  We will note the criminals’ stupidity and that lady’s tenacity.

Leniency towards the Ladies

Additionally, the judicial system is in favor of a female when she uses a firearm to defend herself, especially when she is in fear for her life.  A story I learned from my LTC instructor years back talks about a young 15-year-old girl.  Her parents left her home alone for a couple of days while they were away on business.

During one of the nights, she awoke to the sound of a man breaking into her 2 story home.  She was aware of where the family handgun was kept and was also trained on how to use it.  As the intruder made his way up the stairs to the second floor where the girl was sleeping, the young defender whipped around the top of the steps to catch the intruder halfway up the staircase.  She immediately opened fire and struck the hapless criminal 15 times as he tumbled backward down the stairs.  Bones were heard breaking as he fell.  Cries of pain leaped from the mortally wounded criminal, briefly.  He was dead by the time the police arrived.

During her testimony, the judge asked, “Ma’am, why did you shoot that man 15 times?”  The young sheepdog simply responded, “I ran out of bullets.”  The judge chuckled.  She was free to go.  On a long enough timeline, with honest media reporting, the story will be clear.  Victimization of other persons, especially women, is becoming increasingly hazardous to your health.  Play nice boys and girls, or you may end up pushing up daisies.