Women and Firearms - The More the Better

There are myriad reasons why more and more American women are demonstrating increased interest in firearms, with perhaps the most urgent reason being the dramatic increase in civil unrest, prolonged urban rioting and general lawlessness. Increasingly, women are participating in greater numbers in the shooting sports, particularly the shotgun sports. Last, but certainly not the least, the number of women hunters has increased dramatically during the current Covid-19 pandemic since putting wholesome free-ranging meat on the table can be coupled with healthy outdoor recreation while maintaining appropriate social distancing with family and friends.

Far too long American women have been largely excluded from the shooting, hunting and self-defense aspects of firearms usage. The reasons are varied, but to be brutally honest almost all reasons have been predicated on patronizing male chauvinism at worst and the myopic view that firearms and women were not compatible at best. The facts reveal a completely different story. In calendar year 2020 almost 40 million commercial firearm purchases were processed through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. In January 2021 the number of firearms purchased totaled 4,137,480—and 40 percent of these sales were to women—many of whom were apparently first-time buyers.

Women, as well as men, realize that law enforcement officials have duties only to the public at large, not to individuals, and responsibilities for personal and family protection reside primarily in the individual, hence the increase in firearms sales for personal protection and associated training in safety and responsible use. In December 2020 30 percent of the shooters utilizing the Renaissance Firearms indoor range facility were women.

In the shooting sports women have been proven to have more acute hand-eye coordination than men. Many of the shooters in the past half century winning gold medals for the United States at the Olympics in the small-bore rifle and shotgun competitions have been women. Kim Rhode won medals in trap shooting in the past six Olympic Games, though she is an alternate for the Tokyo Games in July, having been edged out for a berth on the U.S. Trap Team during the preliminary competitions by another woman, Madelynn “Maddy” Bernau.

And of course there was the remarkable woman athlete who personified shooting skills—Annie Oakley, an unparalleled shot with rifle, shotgun and handgun, for many years a stellar exhibition shooter and international superstar. Annie Oakley mentored many women, advising them to be both protectors of themselves and their homes as well as sport shooters. “It is largely a matter of determination and practice that makes good marksmen and women.” If women and girls would learn to shoot “they would add to their happiness by falling in love with one of the finest of outdoor sports.”

Women as hunters may seem a recent phenomena, being popularly considered as “gathers” in ancient “hunter-gather” societies. But women have been hunting as long as men. In November 2020 the journal Science reported the discovery of a woman’s skeleton at an archaeological site, Wilamaya Patjxa, in the Peruvian Andes at an altitude of 13,000 feet. The skeleton was reliably dated to be 9,000 years old, during the Paleolithic era, and in her burial pit were stone hunting tools, including at least six stone spear points of a type common in hunting large prey animals. In ancient cultures the objects accompanying people in death typically as those objects used in life. A review of other archaeological studies at sites in North and South America found that of 27 skeletal remains at 18 different sites where hunting implements had been interred with the dead, 11 were women. Conclusion? Women have always been able to hunt and have in fact hunted.

Increasing the number of women involved in the safe and legal use of firearms for protection of self and family, the shooting sports, and hunting benefits the larger American society immeasurably. The more women with firearms—the better! And, never forget that in Greek and Roman mythology the Goddess of the Hunt was Diana!