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Sunday, 11/30/03
Gun permit applicants increasingly are women
By JAY HAMBURG
Staff Writer

Even after working several years as a prison guard, Twanda
McCurry never felt the need to carry a gun for protection
outside of work, and especially not after she went into a
new business as an office manager at a bottling plant.

Until about three weeks ago.

That’s when she decided to join the fast-growing number of
Tennessee women who have permits to carry handguns.

Since 2000, the percentage of gun-carry permits issued in
the state to women has risen steadily from about 10% to
almost 20% of those issued so far this year.

No one is exactly sure why. The reasons given vary from a
growing interest in sports shooting among women to the
belief that men ? who are the majority of gun owners ?
rushed in to get gun-carry permits when they became more
easily available in 1996, while women gradually gained
interest.

To McCurry the reason was simply personal.

It was late in the afternoon about three weeks ago when
McCurry and her sister pulled up to their townhouse
apartment in Antioch. Three men rushed up, brandishing an
assortment of weapons, including a handgun, a crowbar and a
baseball bat.

Startled, the two women felt ambushed but managed to make it
into their apartment unharmed. McCurry thinks it was only
because the men realized they had made a mistake and backed
off to find their intended targets.

Nonetheless, it left her feeling very vulnerable to
violence.

”I never imagined I would have to purchase a gun to feel
secure,” said McCurry, 33. ”But life is too short to be
afraid to leave my house or my car.”

After undergoing a background check, paying a $115 fee and
taking a required training course, she got her gun-carry
permit, making her one of more than 5,500 Tennessee women
who have done so this year.

Permits are issued by the Department of Safety, which took
over the process from county sheriffs in 1996. This created
a more uniform set of standards for approving handgun
permits and fostered a large increase in applications.

To get a permit to carry a handgun in Tennessee, you must be
21 and pass a criminal background check done by the
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Permits are good for
four years.

While the number of women getting permits may be slowly
leveling off after rising for a couple of years, several
women contacted said they had recommended getting handguns
to their female friends.

Instructors and sellers urge potential handgun owners to get
thorough training in the handling of a firearm and in how to
make sure no children accidentally get their hands on
weapons.

McCurry purchased handguns as early Christmas gifts for her
two sisters and urged them to get the training needed to get
a gun-carry permit.

The permit allows a person to carry a gun openly or in a
concealed manner. There are restrictions on bringing guns
into certain settings, including school property and places
where alcohol is served.

Linda Compton got her permit about four years ago after
there was an armed robbery at her family’s grocery story,
Compton’s Foodland, on Smith Springs Road. ”I feel much
more comfortable with it,” said Compton, 60. ” I take it
almost everywhere. Things have just gotten meaner out
there.”

Compton said she even recommended the idea to her
82-year-old mother, who eventually decided against it.

Middle Tennessee gun sellers and gun safety instructors say
they have noticed more women becoming interested in
acquiring guns during the past two to three years. No one
seems to know exactly why because violent crime generally is
down in Nashville.

”It’s hard to know what it’s connected to,” said Buford
Tune, a former Metro police officer who runs the Academy of
Personal Protection and Security. ”We’re getting a lot of
women who realized that they can’t depend on anybody to
protect them.”

The increase in his female trainees in the past couple of
years includes those who may have to work late at night,
those whose husbands or boyfriends may often be out of town,
and those interested in becoming security officers, said
Tune, who has run a weapons and personal safety school for
10 years.

”We used to see about two out of 20 in a class were women.
Now we’re starting to see about one-half of the class being
women.”

Gun sellers see a rise in women buying guns, as well.
Female customers have increased by 25% to 30% in the past
five years, said John Arnold, owner of Specialty Arms II in
La Vergne.

A similar rise has been noted at Law Enforcement Equipment
in Nashville. ”Something has happened in their life that
they perceive as a threat, and they feel safer with this,”
said owner Tommy St. Charles. ”It gives them peace of
mind.”

Those who study the demographics of gun ownership think that
the number of gun-carry permits is not likely to increase
dramatically in the near future. Most states that offer
similar permits have found that the number of approved
permits eventually settles at a level equal to 2% to 5% of
the population, said John Harris, head of the Tennessee
Firearms Association, which promotes safe use of guns and
lobbies legislators.

”After 9/11, there was a spike and you’ll continue to see
spikes” with reports of local violent crimes, said Harris,
who is legal adviser to the National Rifle Association in
Tennessee.

There are 137,608 valid handgun permits in Tennessee, which
is about 2.5% of the population.

Lisa Binkley, who lives in Good- lettsville, is glad she is
among that 2.5%.

Binkley, 39, works as a security guard, but when she applied
for a permit, she wanted to carry a gun for her own
protection. ”If I’m out with my family or if I’m by
myself, I want to be safe.”

To carry a handgun

The Tennessee Department of Safety issues permits to carry
handguns. Qualified applicants must be 21, have a clean
criminal record and attend a short course in handling their
firearms given by a state-certified school.

Consumers are urged to ask detailed questions about the
background and experience of their instructors before
choosing a class.