NY Women Learn To Shoot

I found this article from the New York Resident at Keep and Bear Arms. Any article about folks learning about firearms catches my attention. An article about women learning to shoot in New York City, for free, is a must read for me.

Marjory Fagan stood motionless, slowed her breathing, stared ahead intently and then moved her index finger almost imperceptibly. Bang! Wincing slightly from the .22-caliber rifle’s recoil and piercing boom, she steadied herself, leveled the rifle and pulled the trigger again.

Okay, so the author of the article has never fired an actual firearm, and adds a bit of drama about the recoil and piercing boom. We will let that slide as she does a pretty good job of portraying this program in the remainder of her article.

For Fagan, who is in her 60s, carries a designer handbag and lives on Manhattan’s fashionable Upper West Side, spending a Saturday at the shooting range was something different. The free women’s instructional clinic she was attending at the West Side Rifle Range offered women, many of whom had never handled a gun before, an opportunity to learn how to shoot.

Free range time, in NYC, that is too cool. This course normally costs $50.00 at this range.

Across the country, more women are taking up hunting and target shooting thanks to the National Rifle Association’s Women on Target program, which offers instructional clinics on firearms, shooting and hunting. According to the 2004 National Sporting Goods Association survey, 4.3 million women in the United States participate in target shooting and 2 million in hunting. The NRA sees the Women on Target program as a way to add to those numbers.

The NRA started the program to meet a demand, said John Robbins, an NRA spokesman. “Women wanted a women-friendly environment and shooting instruction,” Robbins said. “Women found it nice to find other women who were interested in shooting.”

According to Robbins, 500 women attended clinics in 2000, the program’s first year, and in 2005, the number climbed to 5,600. Over all, about 23,000 women have participated in the program.

This is how we help to ensure our RKBA. Introducing folks to firearms in a safe and comfortable manner. Teaching them firearm safety, and watching the smiles on their faces as they put holes in the center of a paper target.

At a Manhattan gun range recently, Margit Sawdey carefully examined her target so she could improve her aim on each round of practice with her .22-caliber rifle.

“I wouldn't have come here if it weren't for the women's shooting sports league,” said Sawdey, 50, a public health administrator who started shooting with the league about two and a half years ago.

“I was looking for a hobby, and flower arranging didn’t work,” she said over popping gunfire.

The final sentence is the kicker:

Heath hopes that Women on Target offers a positive view of firearms. “It’s a very fun, therapeutic, safe, rewarding sport,” she said. “I always try to get that across to women.”

Read the entire article here.