We make a point of being patient and respectful with people new to gun ownership. Many women are intimidated as much by the process of buying a first gun as they are by the idea of owning one.
We need to expand the base of gun ownership so that support for the Second Amendment doesn’t ride on a single or limited demographic.
At first I was ambivalent with regards to pink and other colored guns. (I still question the idea from the stand point of the police having to make snap judgments. Gun or toy?) But I listened when a woman told me how her Muddy Girl AR was a range gun and the MG Camo made it easily identifiable from other ARs.
Remember the Second Amendment applies to all.
By JR Thorpe
Sept. 6, 2017
We often think of millennials as being more liberal than older generations, usually based on their voting patterns. But when it comes to individual issues, millennials can’t all be painted with a uniformly left-wing brush. One such issue is gun control. In October 2015, a Gallup poll found that, while 57 percent of 30-49 year olds and 56 percent of 50-64 year olds support stricter gun laws, gun control was only supported by 50 percent of people aged 18-29. (Millennials, in case you forgot, are technically people 35 and younger.) It’s a mistake to think that all pro-gun or anti-regulation millennials are men; millennial women are buying and using guns, too. Bustle talked to a few of them to figure out why.
The amount of women with guns in general is substantive enough for there to be a big industry in “concealed-carry” female accessories. Pew Research data from 2017 reveals that 22 percent of American women own guns, but that they tend to buy them later in life; the average age of first gun ownership for women is age 27, compared to an average age of 19 for men. While that’s a distinctly different life stage, it’s still well within the millennial age range. So why do some of the women in a young, relatively liberal generation feel invested in the idea of gun ownership?
The National Rifle Association has been looking to a new generation of young women to boost gun ownership, as a $6.5 million ad campaign in 2016 targeted at millennial women demonstrated. But manufacturers have also increasingly geared advertising toward women, marketing special firearms models with smaller frames, custom colors (pink is a favorite), and accessories like the “concealed carry” leather handbag in “salmon kiss” offered by Cobra Firearms, or the leopard shooting gloves and Bullet Rosette jewelry sold by Sweet Shot (“Look cute while you shoot!” is the company’s motto).
Millennial women interviewed by Bustle tended to have grown up with guns. “I’ve grown up shooting firearms both recreationally and for hunting, my entire life,” Taylor Giardina, who currents resides in Texas, tells Bustle. “My family always did this together as a family activity, and I was taught a lot about gun safety and ownership rights at a young age.”
Shea Drake from Salt Lake City tells Bustle, “I grew up in a hunting family, and while I haven’t gone hunting in about 10 years, I still target shoot fairly regularly.” But it’s not just about culture; it’s about security.
Continue reading at: https://www.bustle.com/p/why-are-millennial-women-buying-guns-a-surge-in-female-carry-products-is-making-people-wonder-79976
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