One program introducing women to the shooting sports was reported on in the Asbury Park Press out of New Jersey.
JACKSON — Fifty percent more women are target-shooting now than were involved in the sport five years ago, according to surveys conducted by the National Sporting Goods Association.Millions of women actively participating in the shooting sports, millions of women who are not scared of guns, who teach their children the safe handling of firearms. These are women who can look Sarah Brady in the eye and tell her to pack sand.
The statistics from the Connecticut-based trade association for the shooting, hunting and firearms industries show that of the 22 million people who target-shoot more than once a year in the United States, about 5 million, or 23 percent, are women. The surveys were conducted from 2001 through 2005.
More than 1.2 million women in the United States target-shoot at least 20 times per year, the surveys show.
"More and more women are discovering that hunting and shooting sports are great family activities," said Doug Painter, National Shooting Sports Foundation president.
According to the NSSF, over the past five years, the numbers of women target shooting with air guns rose by 55 percent to 866,000; with rifles, up 53 percent to 2.7 million; with handguns, up 33 percent to 3 million; and with shotguns, up by 16 percent to 1.4 million.
Participation in the National Rifle Association's Women on Target events — which introduce women to target shooting — has grown with the sport.Did you see that? Three million (3,000,000) women actively practicing with handguns. That is 3,000,000 women who will have an option other than calling 911 if attacked.
The NRA started sponsoring the clinics in 2000. Thirteen events were held across the country that year, with about 500 women participating, said NRA spokeswoman Mary Sue Faulkner.
This year, more than 6,800 women took part in 229 Women on Target events, including the one held at the Central Jersey Rifle and Pistol Club in Jackson in September.
To read the full article, go here.
Go here for more information on NRA sponsored Women's Programs.
I found this story on Keep and Bear Arms.
5 comments:
That photo would not be a way to get me into the female shooting sports. That's not a sporting photo. A sporting photo would show both the shooter and the targer, and the target wouldn't be ambiguous, nor would it be human or animal.
Just sayin.
I agree with your over all sentiments; that sports is the best way to engage people in the non-violent aspects of gun-fancy.
I do believe that's a Springfield 1911 that lady's holdin'. She's got good taste. ;-)
Incidentally, it's quite ironic that this story would come out of New Jersey, quite possibly the worst state to live in if you're a gun owner.
Is it really about sports? Or is sports just a cover? My (other) grandma used to say that those who own guns for "safety" secredtly want to use them.
Mudkitty, this is the second time you have made this "secretly want to use them" comment. As I responded the first time, gun owners do not secretly want to use their guns, they actually use their firearms in public, hence the shooting sports and target practice.
If what you really mean is that you think firearm owners dream about going out and killing people, you have a very dim view of society and your fellow man. If being around firearms (or knives, or shovels, or hammers, or whatever...) makes you think about killing someone, you should get professional help. Please do not project that attitude upon the rest of us, it is insulting.
I'm begining to think the "sports" thing is a cover for what my grandmother was talking about, though. The picture you use as a sporting example, for one, shows a woman pointing a gun at a target that could easily be the person looking at the picture. In other words, it's a threatening posture. It's not a sporting photo. There's no target, there's no team, there's no audience, there's no nothing.
And instead of showing pics of happy families with trophys and ribbons, pictures of winners, you always show "gun porn." (You know what I'm talking about.)
I don't see gun people as people wanting to "go out and go kill people." That an over-simplification, and, not an accurate interpretation of my grandmother's old saying, which borders on an old wives wisdom.
Surely, as a criminoligist yourself, you have studied what's known as the "paranoid mind set?" Are you being coy?
And no, as you well know, I not only never think of killing anyone when I'm around guns, I never think of killing anyone, period. But then you knew that.
Hey - it's the gun toting criminal that you got to worry about (as a fact of life.) The thing is, there are so many guns to go around, that you aint a criminal unless you have one.
*****
None of this has ANYTHING to do with the fact that a well regulated militia is nessesary to the welfare of the Nation.
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