For self-defense, women take up firearms
Date: Apr 10, 2006 6:47 PM
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/14300506.htm
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Posted on Sun, Apr. 09, 2006
For self-defense, women take up firearms
As violence rises, so does female gun use, advocates say
MELISSA MANWARE AND MARK PRICE

A single mom wanting to protect her children. A mall worker
fearing a dark parking lot. A real estate agent meeting
strangers in empty homes.

They are Charlotte-area women. And they own guns.

More women, gun advocates say, are buying, shooting and
carrying firearms — in briefcases, purses or even on their
hips.

For some, it’s sport. But with violent crime up from five
years ago and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police actively
searching for a serial rapist, many women say it’s about
self-protection.

“Things out there are tough, for men and for women,” Christy
Barnes, a 22-year-old chiropractic assistant, said while
practicing at a shooting range earlier this month. “I’d
like to know I can handle myself.”

Local gun retailers and range owners say women are one of
their fastest growing markets.

And the National Rifle Association says female participation
in its programs is soaring. The NRA doesn’t ask members
their sex, but 22,000 women across the country have taken
its instructional shooting classes in the last five years.

The federal government doesn’t track gun sales by sex, and
some gun control groups such as the Brady Campaign To
Prevent Gun Violence, question whether a national trend
really exists.

The number of women with a permit to carry a concealed gun
in Mecklenburg County has risen about 15 percent to more
than 750 in the last two years, an Observer check of records
found. The percentage of Mecklenburg’s concealed carry
permits issued to women, however, has remained about the
same.

At a gun show at Metrolina Expo on Saturday, customers said
some sellers offered guns with fancy, even pink stocks, to
attract women. There also was a table full of purses with a
special pocket and holster hidden inside.

Operators would not let an Observer reporter in the show.

The growing female market, experts say, can be attributed to
many things, including more women heading households, more
fear of crime, and less stigma attached to gun ownership.

Larry Hyatt, owner of Hyatt Gun Shop, says women — most
with a husband twisting their arm — used to make up about 2
percent of his business. Now women account for about 15
percent, and he carries guns made especially for them and
the purses equipped with a holster.

Hyatt said he has seen a slow, steady increase of female
customers over the last 20 years — and then big jumps after
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the chaos
following Hurricane Katrina. He also saw an uptick in sales
to women after police said a serial rapist attacked a
Dilworth jogger last year.

Dan Starks, who has taught firearms safety courses for 17
years said a firearm can give women the power to control
almost any situation. And with crimes like carjackings and
home invasions increasingly common, Starks says they need
the protection.

“When you have a firearm in your hand, and the knowledge,
skill and chutzpah to use it, nine times out of 10 you won’t
have to use it,” he said. “Criminals don’t like armed
citizens.”

Lauren Hargett, 24, said she gets nervous walking to her car
in an underground parking area near where she works at
SouthPark mall. She intends to get a concealed carry permit
and practiced her shooting the weekend after a convenience
store clerk was gunned down in a robbery in that same part
of town.

“Every night you hear about something happening,” she said.

Hyatt said most of his female customers first buy a gun for
protection. Some of them learn they like shooting, and then
take it up as a sport. Since the NRA began offering women’s
only hunting trips in 2000, spokeswoman Ashley Varner said,
participation has skyrocketed from 500 to 6,000. Locally,
gun dealers say, few women hunt and most who do go with a
spouse.

Saturday afternoon, 11-year-old Lindsay Sigmon, walked out
the exit of the gun show resting a long gun on her shoulder.
Her parents, Gary and Shanna Sigmon, said they began
teaching Lindsay to shoot at age 4 because they have guns in
their home and believe everyone who lives there needs to
know how to operate them safely.

Lindsay and Shanna, an English teacher, shoot at a cone for
practice at home. “We go hunting (for deer), but never get
anything,” Lindsay said. “I don’t know if that counts.”

At Firepower, an indoor pistol range and gun shop in
Matthews, workers say about one in 10 who use the range are
women, many of whom shoot for fun. Their regular customers
include married couples and father-daughter pairs.

They wear safety glasses and ear protection, then take turns
firing at paper targets in a small room with six shooting
lanes 50 feet long. Bullet casing are scattered on the
floor.

On Wednesday, a 72-year-old woman went in asking for
information about the range. She owns two handguns, she
said, and likes to shoot every couple of months so she hopes
she’d feel comfortable if she needed to use a gun in an
emergency. She didn’t want her name printed in the
newspaper, she said, because she didn’t want people to know
she’s got the guns.

Zack Ragbourn, with the Brady Campaign, said guns don’t
necessarily improve your safety. If you have a gun at home,
according to the campaign, it’s at least 20 times more
likely to end up accidentally shooting someone than it is to
protect you from an intruder.

Anne Tucker, 50, said she’s been shooting since she became
an adult. She grew up watching Westerns. When she was a
kid her brother shot her grandfather’s guns, but she didn’t
get to do it. Now, she carries a gun on her belt. And six
years ago, she gave up her job teaching job skills to
disabled people to work at Firepower.

She’s drawn a gun twice in self-defense but never actually
pointed one at anyone. Mostly, she said, she enjoys
shooting for sport.

“I like hitting a very small target from a very long
distance,” she said. “It’s kind of like golf.”