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Don’t you just love the fact that firearms manufacturers are finally getting us? Check out these interesting statistics in the article below:
Local Gun Shops Target Profits From Women Read entire post here: https://www.wfae.org/wfae/1_87_316.cfm?action=display&id=7643 Scott Graf |
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| Pink and purple handguns at Hyatt Gun Shop in Charlotte. Experts say colored pistols are just one example of how gun and accessory manufacturers are responding to women’s interest in guns. |
Three new shooting ranges have recently or will soon open in the towns of Concord, Cornelius and Mooresville. Despite the slow economy, the owners of those businesses are confident they’ll do well. A big reason why? Each say they plan to profit from women who are buying guns like never before.
In the new shooting range at Eagle Gun in Concord, shots boom through thick glass the separates the range from the rest of the shop. On the other side of the glass, Sharon Skoff fires her handgun 60 times at a paper target a few yards down the range, missing on only three.
“I just refuse to be a victim if I possibly can,” Skoff says. “I actually went and got my concealed permit a couple months ago so I can carry.”
Skoff is a 47-year-old flight attendant. She’s been shooting for about a year because she’s scared.
“If you listen to the news at night, all you hear are women in parking lots… someone coming up, or threatening them for their purse or threatening their life for their purse or threatening their life or raping (them).”
As we talk, Skoff’s Louis Vuitton bag hangs by her side, just a few inches above her sandals, sparkly ankle bracelet and red toenails. She would have seemed out of place when Mike Threadgill first opened Eagle Gun 11 years ago. Not anymore.
‘The ladies are bringing in a lot of the money for the business,” Threadgill says. “And if they do that then I want to cater to ’em.”
Rachel Parsons is a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association. She says what’s happening at Eagle Gun is common. Gun and gun accessory manufacturers also starting to focus more on women because they’re a “huge emerging market”.
“You see firearms being developed that have smaller grips to fit a woman’s hand,” Parsons says. “Maybe they’re pink, or maybe they have pearl grips. And they’re a little bit less intimidating.”
Parsons says it’s difficult to quantify how many women are buying guns. The NRA doesn’t keep track of its members’ gender and states like North Carolina don’t ask ‘male or female’ on their gun permit requests. But anecdotal evidence is abundant. Take the National Shooting Sports Foundation. It says about half the participants in its program for new shooters are women.
Read the entire post here:
https://www.wfae.org/wfae/1_87_316.cfm?action=display&id=7643
