We are seeing a lot more women buying guns, carrying guns, and shooting in competition.  This is A Good Thing.

In the world of women’s empowerment, the last bastion of “Susie Housewife Mentality” has been the last stereotype to fall.  “Let the Man Of The House manage the checkbook and do the voting and be the sole breadwinner” has been gone for a long time, but “Guns are only for men” is a BS stereotype that seems to still be with us, though fortunately it’s on its last legs.

Two recent events in Florida underscore this.  Lena Miculek won the Florida Open in PCC (Pistol Caliber Carbine) competition – not just “high lady,” but beating all the men present.  This young woman is the daughter of two great champions:  Kay Clark-Miculek, who has won countless shooting titles in her own right, and world champion and modern shooting legend Jerry Miculek.

Meanwhile, my first MAG-40 class of the year in North Florida saw one of the females in class come in as overall top shot.  Shannon Pable, shooting a Glock 19 MOS with an SRO Carry Optic, shot a perfect 300/300 on the sixty-shot police style qualification on the last day.

The FOG (Fat Old Geezer) who writes this blog applauds these outcomes.

32 COMMENTS

  1. I am seeing more and more women becoming the sole firearm owner/protector in two parent households. I’m not sure what this says about the current state of the American male but more power to them, as they have made the decision to protect themselves and their children.

    • On thinking out of the box in target shooting, see the You Tube video “P320 Training tips: Grip with Lena Miculek.” She finds a way to balance grip pressure with two hands and manages to reach a champion level of marksmanship with the innovation. A level not to be unexpected in view of her deadeye forebears.
      Remember that Annie Oakley did a lot of her demo shooting with birdshot instead of bullets. Not that she could not have shot anything well. Annie also reportedly paid the ultimate price for handling a lot of lead without taking appropriate precautions.

  2. Great article Mas.
    The last basic handgun course I taught at was 3/4’s woman in attendance. They asked great questions in the classroom and shot well on the range, many for the first time shooting a gun.
    Some of the women in attendance brought their daughters. Great to see more women taking the step of learning self protection and just enjoying the sport.

  3. I grew up around women who could shoot, and that wasn’t mutually-exclusive. I’ve always encouraged my women friends to learn more about self-defense, and all but a couple of them have been responsive. The general level of fear of guns in our young people today is troubling – it’s as though our guns are going to come out of our houses and chase people down the street! The tone I hear associated with guns in current social media reminds me of the reverence accorded to the bogeyman in tales around the campfire.

  4. Yep, from this instructors point of view, men seemingly reflect on DNA and ego to “try” and understand the shooting sport and firearm (pistol) manipulation/usage.

    I noticed in my classes, women have a greater tendency to write down notes and ask questions and aren’t reluctant to ask more questions. Many will read the OWNERS MANUAL that comes with the gun. Men, not so much.

    Funny thing, when women outshoot the male significant other, I hear from the men, “…it was the gun that wasn’t accurate…” I’ll follow up with something akin to “…it was accurate for her…” and then I get the side look from him, and the not-so-obvious, BIG grin from her.

    Carry on and be safe!

  5. At our range, we are seeing more women and more minorities coming in for both general shooting and classes. A very good thing, for sure, since we need to expand our ‘family’ of shooters to maintain support for 2A.

  6. Somewhat hesitant to arm my wife, because she is so often angry with me… She did very well shooting my Ruger 10-22 from bench. Have made an effort to familiarize her with basics of firearm safety. She grew up in a country where private gun ownership has not existed for MANY years.

  7. My daughter-in-law’s Ladies Bible Study group down in South Texas wanted to have an outing. So the ladies went to a License to Carry class and they all got the LTC together.
    God Bless Texas.

  8. Mas, you’re not fat and ‘old’ age is a state of mind. Besides, I’m a few months order than you!
    Our local sportsman’s club President is female, as the Rangemaster, and I’m always glad to see the women competing equally with the men – even when – as usual – being out-shot by them. I learn as much from them as the ‘old timer’ men.

  9. The general level of fear of guns in our young people today is troubling
    Depends on the young people. I live in a small Texas town where 4-H and FFA are big attractions, including the 4-H shooting sports programs. Most of my Hunter Education students are teens and tweens, and a significant percentage have been hunting already and are taking the class so they can hunt on their own. Our local liberal arts university has a national champion shotgun team.

    As for the ladies, when I have a couple in my License to Carry classes she will outshoot him about 80 percent of the time. And almost all of my beginner “this is the end the bullet comes out of” students, and my “Buying Your First Handgun” classes, are women.

  10. A number of years ago, I was shooting in a ‘company pistol league’ where I worked. I was a captain of one of the teams, and my wife often accompanied me to the matches. I finally got her to join us, with the ‘offer’ that “If she ever ‘bested me’ at a match, I’d buy her a steak dinner”. Over the years, that ‘foolish statement’ cost me dearly.

    • At one our civilian firearms classes, taught by ROs from the PD I worked for, a male student (former Marine) told his wife “If you match my score…I’ll take you to Galveston for dinner. If you beat me…I’ll buy you a new wardrobe.” I figure that class ended up costing him about $900 (she was quite the stylish dresser :>)

  11. Doing my normal year end review I realized about 35% of all my Texas LTC students are female in 2020. Typically, when I do a married couple the wife always shoots better than hubby.

  12. ☺️Wow! I’m honored… and humbled! Though I’m not fit to fasten the laces on Lena’s sneakers ? … but will graciously accept the compliment!! MAG40 is an excellent class… I highly encourage ALL gun owners to take. I’m definitely looking forward to attending more classes in the future!! Thanks so much!

  13. Larry McClain said it best. DNA and egos. Add in pride and maybe a lifetime of bad habits for those who have been shooting for years without proper training. I have seen grown men that I would put my 15 year old daughter up against on the range. Instead of having the “I know what I’m doing”attitude going into a course or onto a range, most new shooters male or female are more likely to pay more attention to detail.

  14. I agree with the observation about men verses women’s attitudes & habits about learning to shoot. What little experience I’ve had teaching others is that women, unencumbered with stereotypes and bad habits, are quicker studies. Men on the other hand are handicapped because of stereotyped attitudes that they are supposed to know this skill innately and because they are subconsciously still affected from their first experience with a firearm when they were handed a 12 ga shotgun at 10 years old. I’m not saying all men are handicapped in their manner, but there’s definitely a significant sub-set out there who are.

  15. I grew up on a farm in the 50’s and most all of us kids were pretty fine shots, lighting matches with one shot from our .22’s and putting them out with the next shot (the good old strike anywhere matches). However, being well versed in history and with Annie Oakley’s amazing ability with rifles and pistols, while we did a bunch of “bragging”, I never heard any boy make that claim that “he was better than Annie Oakley”. He would have immediately been put down as a “damn Yankee liar”.

    Yep, I grew up to be totally respectful of women doing lots of things as well or better than men, most especially shooting.

  16. You go girl. I never have understood the point of a “high woman” recognition. Just score everyone and let the accolades fall where they’re deserved.

  17. My mother was a championship Skeet shooter and Big Game Hunter in Africa in the 1960’s. She knew nothing about guns until she met my Dad in 1956. He introduced her to the sport and she took it from there. Please don’t ever tell me women can’t shoot…

  18. What a great topic…..Thanks Mass

    I would like to add a couple of things. If a woman is on the fence about learning to shoot or to get her carry permit tell her this. If you depend upon the man to defend you, think again!
    If He’s there, I’m sure he wants to protect you, but the bad guys will probably target him first!!
    To them he’s the bigger threat….what if he’s taken out of the fight?? You may have the opportunity to save both of you if you know how to use a gun!!!
    Another tip (and I have never heard this in a class)……..More women than men put on hand lotion, and ANYBODY who has an issue racking a firearm is putting themselves behind the curve when they make their hands “slippery”. Just suggest that they wash their hands before handling the firearm.

    • In a dark alley, I want you with me. Incidentally, very clean hands are necessary for giving problem-free fingerprints for permits and the like.

  19. I have taught firearms safety classes, instructor classes and concealed carry classes for more years than I care to admit to now. In my last class, one of my female students outshot both her husband and her father. I have never seen so much intense scrutiny about correctly counting bullet holes in a target.

    Several years ago, I had a class that consisted of a lot of married couples. As I expected, the women in the class paid attention, took notes and scored higher than their husbands on the written material. When it came time to shoot, the guys all wanted to shoot a target .22 pistol to guarantee a perfect score. I didn’t even have to tell them no. When all my instructors shot the qualification course before the students, it opened their eyes. One of my female range officers took her father’s .45 to do the qualification and another of my female instructors took her OWN .45. After that, the female students did the qualification and all shot either .38s or 9mms. By then, the guys were all scrambling to find center fire guns because their egos just couldn’t stand it. As far as teaching, I’d much rather have a novice female who wants to learn than a guy who has been shooting for 40 years and knows everything.

    Just my personal observations.

  20. Greet news, MAS.

    Training during MAG 40 and 80 were some of the greatest emotional, intellectual and physical challenges of my life. Every moment on the range and in the classroom was a gift.

  21. Women and minorities becoming safe gun owners is A VERY GOOD THING. But, if there are so many American gun owners, how come the NRA only has 5 million members?

    In this fast-changing, push-button world we live in, we all need to know as many skills as possible. I find it a bit difficult. We need to know modern skills in order to make enough money to live on, but we also need to know old-fashioned skills for when the power goes out, like it did recently in Texas. I feel like S-t-r-e-t-c-h Armstrong.

  22. My Dad, who grew up in rural Nevada in the 20’s and 30’s told of the kids bringing their guns to school on their horses, leaning them up against the back wall inside the classroom, and having contests during lunch time When their little sister started bringing her rifle, some of the other boys scorned. Dad and his brothers kept their mouths shut. THEY knew….. she would almost always outshoot the boys. Wasn’t sassy about it, just was a better shot plain and simple.

    At an Appleseed event where I was helping instruct, at the end we offered short and basic “known distance” module and six stayed on to participate. One husband-wife team and four other men.Of the couple HE had been shooting for years, was pretty decent. She had hardly shot much at all, but this was her second shoot with us. After explaining about basics of longer range shooting, we set up an eight inch steel plate at 100 yards. They were all firing .22 lr semiauto rifles. When it came time to actually shoot at the 100 yeard gong, she was at the left end of the line, so she went first. She chose to shoot OFFHAND position, same ruger 10/.22 she had borrowed for the rest of the event. She hit that gong six out of six rounds. Her hot shot husband managed to sound twice. One of the other four hit twice, the other three only once, except one blanked. The instructor said if anyone wants to try again, that’d be fine. Asked her first, she said “Nope, I’ll stand with what I’ve got”. Her husband managed to pull half a rabbit out of his hat and clanged three times. Two of the next four got two hits, the others only one each. First time around, she hit as many times as the other five counted together.
    I am glad SHE is on our side….

  23. On a slightly different subject, I have had several motorcycle riding groups over the years, and I frequently would have fairly new riders join me. I much preferred to have a new woman over a new man, as the women would slow down if we were riding beyond her skills, while the men would get all testosterone and ego, and ride over their skill set, and risk injuring others in the group.

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