If I see another one of those “Women are buying guns!” stories in the mainstream media I’m going to scream like a little girl. Yes, I’m in touch with my feminine side. And it’s in touch with a Benelli M2. I don’t think you need a bloodstream filled with testosterone to want to play with things that go BOOM and/or keep and bear arms (or “guns” as the formerly low-T Justin Beiber likes to call them). If anything, women have more of a need to carry concealed then men, what with their relatively diminutive size and the threat of an uninvited impregnation attempt. I suspect that there’s no one reason women shun guns. But if I had to choose one factor . . .
I’d say it’s cultural. Once a group is denied or turns its back on guns—be they women, African-Americans or Jews—they “get used to it.” Widespread ignorance means that owning a gun becomes easier than not owning one. Not to coin a phrase, all Jews is local. If you don’t know someone who shoots, or a lot of someones, firearms simply aren’t on your radar.
Bottom line: the above stats are from Michigan. Eighty thousand licenses in a state with roughly 10 million inhabitants indicates a non-gun culture. I bet the percentages are a LOT higher in Georgia, with a higher percentage of female licensees as well.
Still, what’s the issue here? Why aren’t there more women gun owners?