Why am I engaging in chauvinistic self-flagellation? Because it is the truth. Male shooters are the worst at promoting shooting amongst women, period.

I’ve been trying for over a decade to get my wife to carry a gun for self defense and the best I was able to do was to convince her to have one on her night stand. I took her a couple of time to the range to shoot (and she can shoot!) and to come with me to IDPA matches with the secret wish she would get in the mood and, if not compete, to get excited enough to carry and practice regularly. Of course I failed miserably.

For Christmas, I gave my dearly beloved wife a copy of The Cornered Cat: A Woman’s Guide to Concealed Carry by Kathy Jackson. The next thing I know, she is quoting me chapter and verse from the book and showing a sudden interest on shooting. I has made the mistake of buying her a gun but although she was good with it, she was not comfortable so she demanded a new gun and that she would decide which gun to buy. Luckily a couple of guys at the club had guns for sale and she picked a Kahr CW9 that fit her very petite hands. How petite? The darn gun looks like a full size 1911 when she holds it. My only intervention in the process was to shed the bucks I had saved for another gun (bye bye Glock 34) and pay the guy.

So, having heard Kathy Jackson in a couple of ProArm Podcasts (the all female podcasts are called Broad-Casts) I decided not to compound the mistakes I have been making and trying to instruct her myself so I floated the idea around the club to have an Estrogen Only Class meaning all females including the instructors. Boy were we not ready for the avalanche! The guys asked their wives/lovers and the response has been HELL YES! pretty much across the households specially when explained that our jobs will consist in maybe driving them to the range if needed, go do the shopping and taking care of the house and the kids while they are in the class. Any male that crosses the range entrance would be considered viable target to be used in the class after properly neutered. I think so far we have some 15 ladies interested and the idea was suggested just last Sunday in the Club’s Forum.

So right now I am bouncing from website to website finding all the equipment that she will require. Midway USA already has the order for the range bag, eye and ear protection and other sundries. Spare mags are in back order from Tombstone Tactical (very cool and polite people BTW) and she is hunting for the belt. I think for the class, I will be forced to alter a Fobus holster and give it the proper offset for her while she decides in her particular method of carry. Have you seen the prices for concealed carry purses? My jaw dropped when I saw that I could almost by 2,000 rounds of 7.62×30 for what those things cost!

Oh well, she’ll be getting her Concealed Weapons permit this month anyway and start carrying. That was the idea from the get go.

So guys, I don’t know if our experience can be applied to your particular cases, but it is worth a try. We do need to get more women in to the shooting sports and the Gun Culture. Let’s bury or ego and get to it.