- 52 minutes ago
Gun ownership is on the rise among women. Refinery29's Jacki Huntington goes to the NRA Carry Guard Expo in Wisconsin to understand concealed carry and why more and more women are choosing to own guns.
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00:01More and more women are buying guns.
00:03For the longest time, it's always been assumed that it's the men who are the protectors.
00:07But when you really start to ask who is the most responsible person in a household, it's the mom.
00:15It's my job to protect my family with whatever tools are available.
00:18And a firearm is just one of those tools.
00:20But what does a gun culture full of women look like up close?
00:31I went to the National Rifle Association's first annual Carry Guard Expo in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to find out.
00:38I'm expecting to see a lot of middle-aged Midwestern white people, to be honest.
00:47Right?
00:49The demographics of American gun ownership are predominantly white.
00:53In the U.S., about half of white men and a quarter of white women say that they own at
00:58least one gun.
01:00That's compared to 24% of non-white men and 16% of non-white women.
01:06There's a paramedic outside, I guess, just in case.
01:09Apparently, the Wisconsin Center made a lot of exceptions for the NRA.
01:14So there's a shooting range inside.
01:17Unheard of.
01:18Unheard of.
01:29There are many different kinds of gun owners.
01:31You've got your hunters, your sports shooters, your collectors, your ex-military.
01:36If you join, you get a duffel bag.
01:39But this is the NRA Carry Guard Expo.
01:42And Carry Guard is insurance.
01:44Gun owner's insurance for those who plan to use the firearm in self-defense.
01:49For as little as $13.95 per month, you can pay for the costs associated with shooting someone.
01:56So that means that this crowd is full of people who are either licensed to carry a concealed firearm or
02:02they're interested.
02:04Concealed weapons permits are regulated at the state level.
02:12As of 2017, more than 16 million permits have been issued across the U.S.
02:18It kind of makes you wonder how many guns are around you on a daily basis.
02:23It's an inherent responsibility that says,
02:26I'm going to use this gun to protect myself and to protect my family.
02:28This is Amanda Suffolkul.
02:30She runs a gun education nonprofit called Realize Firearms Awareness Coalition,
02:35based in Northeastern Ohio.
02:37She spends her nights, weekends, and spare waking hours in defense of the Second Amendment.
02:42She coordinates a number of public outreach initiatives.
02:45Question and answer radio show.
02:47Women stay on the range.
02:49Police and community relations.
02:51And one of them is a fashion show.
02:57I'd like to welcome you to the first ever, the NRA Carry Guard Expo Concealed Carry Fashion Show.
03:06When new people start to carry a gun, the first thing that happens is they're like,
03:09okay, I put this gun on and they believe that they've got this neon sign pointing to that spot.
03:14And that's not really the case.
03:16And so the fashion show shows them that that's not it.
03:21They're looking at the models and they're not seeing the gun until the model shows the gun.
03:26Some of the models work for the companies that are demonstrating the products.
03:29Other models are volunteers.
03:30So we just put out the word and said, would you like to volunteer to model on the runway?
03:34Some of them are really comfortable and other ones are like, I'm doing this, but I'm way outside my comfort
03:38zone.
03:38And I just, I love that.
03:40I mean, I really love that they're, that they're all willing to give it a try.
03:48Hold up.
03:51Before we go further, you need to know that things weren't always like this in the US.
03:56Let's go back to the Bill of Rights.
03:57Here it is, the Second Amendment.
04:01A well-regulated militia, being necessary for the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep
04:08and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
04:10It's an odd sentence, grammatically speaking.
04:13And for a long time, no one really thought too much about this amendment.
04:17Meanwhile, the Civil War happened.
04:19Afterward, in 1868, the 14th Amendment was adopted, declaring that all persons have equal protection under the law.
04:26Around the same time, two men founded the National Rifle Association because they were so bothered by their fellow Union
04:32soldiers' poor shooting skills during the war.
04:35They wanted the sponsored trainings to prevent casualties in the future.
04:39Fast forward to 1966, when deep racial tension inspired the founding of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in
04:48Oakland, California.
04:49Many states, including California, allowed citizens to openly carry guns in public.
04:54The Black Panthers took advantage of this.
04:56They were pioneers of the modern pro-gun movement.
04:59Am I under arrest? Am I?
05:01Take your hand off me if I'm not under arrest.
05:03They linked their 14th Amendment rights to the long-ignored Second Amendment and interpreted it as allowing for an individual
05:10right to bear arms.
05:12Code section 12020 through 12027, and also the Second Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the citizen a right to bear
05:20arms on public property.
05:23High-profile assassinations rocked the country at large, and gun control was a priority at the state and federal levels.
05:29Today we began to disarm the criminals, and the careless, and the insane.
05:35Even the NRA supported the push for new federal gun laws.
05:39Well, I think it's a ridiculous way to try and solve the problems that have to be solved among people
05:44of goodwill,
05:45and there is absolutely no reason why out on the street today a civilian should be carrying a loaded weapon.
05:52But in the wake of state and national gun control efforts in the early 1970s, more than a few gun
05:58-owning men took exception.
05:59They bristled against the increasingly apolitical nature of the NRA, and at an annual meeting, overnight,
06:06a few like-minded members overturned the leadership and constitution of the organization.
06:11The rest is history.
06:13Well, almost.
06:15As the public understanding of the Second Amendment transformed throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s,
06:20the Supreme Court declined to weigh in.
06:23Until Dick Heller came on the scene.
06:25Hi, I'm Dick Heller. Dick Heller is the name.
06:29In 2008, the outcome of D.C. v. Heller changed the legal interpretation of the Second Amendment
06:34to what Americans like Amanda and the modern NRA believe it to be today.
06:38As your president, I will never, ever infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Never,
06:48ever.
06:48But when you go on the NRA's website, there's a little discussion of the Second Amendment's text.
06:53It's represented in shorthand as a self-evident concept.
06:57Today, about 55 million Americans own at least one gun.
07:02But that number belies the true presence of guns in the U.S.
07:06There's an estimated 265 million firearms in the country.
07:10More than one for every adult.
07:12But half of these guns are owned by 3% of gun owners.
07:18Okay, back to the expo.
07:20Throughout the weekend, people will attend workshops on topics like homestead security planning and basic hemorrhage control.
07:29They'll shop for concealment furniture with cool secret compartments.
07:34That'll hold the locker.
07:36Wow!
07:37That hand got an E10.
07:38Oh, that did well.
07:40Good job.
07:47Now I'm going to feel on everything and see if it has like a secret pocket.
07:51And they might even seek out stylish and functional accessories to go with their gun.
07:56So this is one of our most popular designs.
07:59It's smaller than most of our bags.
08:01So it's kind of like a clutch but obviously has to be able to fit the weapon.
08:06This is Chirag.
08:08His family runs a leather goods company and part of that business is crafting handbags designed to conceal handguns.
08:14They call it chameleon bags.
08:17All of our bags come with an adjustable holster.
08:20It fits pretty much any size gun up to like a 1911.
08:23So it's fairly big.
08:26It's ambidextrous.
08:27So whether you're left or right handed, you know, you can kind of get set up.
08:31Oh, okay.
08:31Because the zipper.
08:32Yeah, you just kind of leave it.
08:33You know, if you're in an uncomfortable situation, you just unzip it and kind of be prepared either with your
08:38left hand or you switch it around and it becomes your right hand.
08:43My mom designs pretty much all of it and we're just trying to fill the need for a fashionable concealed
08:50carry purse.
08:51Cool.
08:52That's the idea, yeah.
08:53Do you own a gun personally?
08:54Um, no.
09:01This is Pamela.
09:02She's on the hunt for a concealed carry purse.
09:08I love the idea that they're making it fashionable to conceal and carry for women.
09:14You know, men can put a holster and it's fine, but for a woman, I think fashion is important when
09:21you're talking about conceal and carry.
09:27I just started to learn to shoot and actually just bought my first handgun probably about, um, just about a
09:34year ago.
09:35I really recognized that as a woman I needed to be able to defend myself at any one, at any
09:41time.
09:43I think that there's that conception that guns are horrible and they're horrible when they fall in the hands of
09:50someone who doesn't know how to handle them.
09:52The overwhelming majority of gun owners are like Pamela.
09:56They own a gun for protection.
09:58But people in the possession of a firearm are two and a half to four and a half times more
10:03likely to be shot in an assault than someone without a gun.
10:07The presence of a gun in a woman's home triples her chances of being fatally shot.
10:12And chances are the person who will kill her isn't a stranger.
10:16What's more, women who are victims of crime use firearms in self-defense only 0.4% of the time.
10:23More than 500 American women are fatally shot by current or former romantic partners each year.
10:29The presence of firearms in a home makes it five times more likely that domestic abuse will turn deadly.
10:37But more and more self-defense is something that is aggressively advertised to women.
10:43An armed society is a polite society and armed and trained women mean fewer rape victims, mean fewer assault victims,
10:52mean fewer soft targets.
10:54Armed and trained women, they make the world a better place to live in. They really do.
10:59The efforts of American firearms retailers to market to women are pretty transparent.
11:05Show your friends, neighbors and family that past the fears and politics, there's nothing quite like firing a gun.
11:15When gun retailers first started marketing to women decades ago, they had a simple strategy.
11:22Shrink it and pink it.
11:24But the women who bought and tried these products realized they wanted something that was actually designed for them.
11:30So they made their own products and they started their own companies.
11:40I'm Jackie.
11:41Hey, you're with the video. I talked to you about it.
11:43Nice to meet you.
11:43Yeah, nice to meet you.
11:45Okay.
11:46Oh, right on.
11:48Hi.
11:48Hey.
11:49I'm Jackie.
11:51Mike, nice to meet you.
11:52Cool.
11:53Yeah.
11:54Yours is really cute.
11:54I would go that short if he wouldn't.
11:56Oh, thanks.
11:56He was like, I don't like it short.
11:58This is Tessa.
11:59She designed a stretchy and ridiculously strong universal holster that lets her strap her guns securely to virtually any part
12:07of her body.
12:08She calls it lethal lace.
12:13You can try and break it.
12:14It's not doing nothing.
12:15I really thought there was going to be a point at which it was like, no, stop.
12:18It's one holster, but it functions like five different holsters in one.
12:23So that's what...
12:24Is it strong enough to be like a Glock 26?
12:29Uh-huh.
12:30I actually have that going.
12:31Mm-hmm.
12:31So if you put it in, okay, you have that handle.
12:36Now the Glock 26 is not as long.
12:38So when you put the Glock 26 in the pocket, it's not going to stick out even this much.
12:42So it'll be easier to wrap.
12:44You can leave the handle out or you can cover it up depending on where you are and what danger
12:50level you're in if you need that quick jaw.
12:52If you're wondering, Tessa didn't grow up around guns.
12:55As a nurse working late shifts at night, walking in the parking garage at 3 a.m., I didn't feel
13:01safe.
13:02So I took a concealed carry course, got my concealed carry permit, got my weapon, was trying to figure out
13:09something that would work with my scrubs.
13:11That's what sparked it that I was going to figure out a way to fix my problem.
13:16And in the process, make a product that's been pretty popular. Popular enough to win an award at the Concealed
13:22Carry Fashion Show.
13:29Julie models the Femme Fatale corset holster, which has lace covering a 6-inch wide corset, elastic designed to fit
13:37comfortably just below the bra.
13:38While the Carry Guard Expo crowd enjoyed the fashion show, another crowd was protesting against it nearby.
13:44And we say not today, NRA!
13:47I feel the NRA promotes gun violence. We're all about saving lives, and more guns just equals more death.
14:00Hello?
14:02Hi, is this Annalisa?
14:04Yes, it is.
14:05Annalisa Dickman does outreach for the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort, WAVE, a grassroots organization that works to prevent gun violence
14:13and gun deaths.
14:14There's been so much violence in Milwaukee over the summer. There have been young children that had been killed.
14:22When we heard that the Expo was coming, that there was going to be this fashion show, we thought that
14:27trying to make light of the notion that guns should be everywhere in society by having a fashion show was
14:34really distasteful.
14:36It was a publicly owned facility, and normally guns are not allowed in the convention center.
14:41So we really felt like they were using public money in a way that doesn't promote public safety.
14:49And their response to us was basically, you know, it's good for the, you know, economy for them to be
14:55here.
14:56We just couldn't not make a statement about that.
15:10What is it like to shoot a gun?
15:15I'd never done it before.
15:26Growing up, my dad always had guns around the house, you know, rifles, shotguns, he was a hunter.
15:31So I was always around them.
15:33Been married for, well, 18 years on Monday and to an avid hunter.
15:36This is Jenny. During the day, she works in advertising.
15:40But in her spare time, she hunts with her Springer Spaniels and teaches at WFTC.
15:44And today, she's going to teach me and three other women the fundamentals of shooting a handgun.
15:50My goal for you when you leave today is to be educated.
15:53I mean, you're not going to remember everything, but there's going to be some of these points that I'm going
15:56to drill into you so you do remember those and feel confident around firearms.
16:00A 9mm, that's typically what I tend to shoot. It comes at 115 grain, 124 grain, 147.
16:12Here, that is your ejector rod.
16:15So what that does is the little rims here of the cartridge just catches onto those and pops them out
16:21all at once.
16:22Okay. From there, you can use two hands the first time. Push it. There you go.
16:27Okay.
16:27Now try the rod.
16:28Cool.
16:29Now put it back in, and you're set to go.
16:35Until I knew I'd be coming here, I honestly hadn't planned on learning how to use a gun.
16:40Maybe ever.
16:43But after three and a half hours of very comprehensive instruction, I felt ready, nay, eager, to don some ear
16:51protection, goggles, and test what I had learned.
17:07There's this real geek factor with firearms, and I can imagine once you get into learning about caliber, handling techniques,
17:14accessories, and all that, that you could get really into it.
17:18For me, I can relate it to my interest in cameras, or music, or fashion.
17:23It becomes a hobby, sure.
17:26It becomes a hobby, sure.
17:26But maybe something more, a part of your identity.
17:30Obviously, this is the worst time I've ever shot a gun, and I caught a bullseye in the same hole
17:37twice in a row, which is wild.
17:42Today really complicated all of the views and notions that I've had about guns for so, so many years.
17:49I was really afraid of them, and that closed me off even from opening myself up to the possibility of
17:57learning how to shoot them or learning their mechanics.
18:00We went over all of that in the class today.
18:04Once you have one in your hands, it almost feels too easy.
18:07I would do it again.
18:09I'm still so far away from relating to people who carry concealed weapons, though.
18:18That seems like a jump.
18:22Since the Cary Guard Expo in late August, 175 people have been killed in 88 mass shootings.
18:29At least 764 people have been injured.
18:33Las Vegas happened.
18:35Sutherland Springs happened.
18:37Chicago.
18:38Casa Grande, Arizona.
18:40Plano, Texas.
18:41Pedro, Ohio.
18:43Mapleton, Utah.
18:44LaGrange.
18:45North Carolina.
18:46And several other events that weren't as covered on the news.
18:49Amidst the outpouring of grief, people, like always, called upon their representatives to do something.
18:56Critics denounced NRA Carry Guard as murder insurance.
18:59But in televised interviews, NRA President Wayne LaPierre held his ground.
19:05Depending on where you stand, the other side can seem unknowable.
19:09Alien.
19:10So it felt right to cap off this journey to interview a bunch of gun-owning white ladies in the
19:16middle of America who I don't really know by talking to someone I do know.
19:24This is where you start talking.
19:28This is my mom.
19:30She owns a gun and has a concealed carry permit.
19:33This is only the second time that we've ever talked about it.
19:37She's a really non-confrontational person and she doesn't really see what the big deal is.
19:42It all started because I like to learn new things.
19:46I tried going for my pilot's license and I took flying lessons.
19:51And this is one thing that I was curious about because guns scared me and I thought what better way
19:57is to go get a concealed weapons permit.
20:00And the class was like, I don't know, I'm probably wrong, but it was like six hours long.
20:04And after the test, you went out to the firing range and fired.
20:08And I did pretty darn good.
20:11I slayed that little white piece of paper, that little guy.
20:14You slayed it.
20:15I slayed him.
20:16He was all in the center.
20:17Was it shaped like a person?
20:19It was, yeah.
20:20Then later, I think it was like a year later, I went and bought a gun.
20:23I do carry it with me when I go up because I go mountain biking with my friends.
20:27And we take trips like in the mountains, rent houses out in the middle of nowhere.
20:33I'm not a big radical gun owner.
20:36It was just something that was nice to have.
20:39And it gave your dad peace of mind knowing that I had that with me just in case.
20:45Because he likes to worry about stuff like that.
20:48Just in case what?
20:50Just in case I would need it.
20:52You know?
20:52You never know.
20:54I don't know.
20:55I'm not fearful, but do you still not lock your doors at night?
21:09I think a woman gaining knowledge about any topic probably feels more empowered, but when
21:15you look at who owns guns and who is killed by guns, women wear a disproportionate burden
21:21of gun violence.
21:24Here is what sells guns.
21:26People buy guns because they are fearful.
21:29My buying a gun and having a concealed weapons permit is a really benign thing.
21:36It's not like I'm going out saving the world.
21:40It's just for me.
21:42It's just for me.
21:42It's just for me.
21:42It's just for me.
21:43It's just for me to be in the middle of nowhere.