00:00More and more women are buying guns.
00:02But what does a gun culture full of women look like up close?
00:08I went to the National Rifle Association's first annual Carry Guard Expo in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to find out.
00:16I just started to learn to shoot and actually just bought my first handgun probably about a year ago.
00:23I really recognized that as a woman I needed to be able to defend myself at any time.
00:30The overwhelming majority of gun owners are like Pamela. They own a gun for protection.
00:36But people in the possession of a firearm are 2.5 to 4.5 times more likely to be shot
00:43in an assault than someone without a gun.
00:45What's more, women who are victims of crime use firearms in self-defense only 0.4% of the time.
00:52More than 500 American women are fatally shot by current or former romantic partners each year.
00:58But more and more self-defense is something that is aggressively advertised to women.
01:04An armed society is a polite society and armed and trained women mean fewer rape victims,
01:11mean fewer assault victims, mean fewer soft targets.
01:15The efforts of American firearms retailers to market to women are pretty transparent.
01:20Show your friends, neighbors, and family that past the fears and politics, there's nothing quite like firing a gun.
01:31When gun retailers first started marketing to women decades ago, they had a simple strategy.
01:37Shrink it and pink it.
01:40But the women who bought and tried these products realized they wanted something that was actually designed for them.
01:45So they made their own products and they started their own companies.
01:51This is Tessa.
01:52She designed a stretchy and ridiculously strong universal holster that lets her strap her guns securely to virtually any part
01:59of her body.
02:00She calls it lethal lace.
02:06You can leave the handle out or you can cover it up depending on where you are and what danger
02:12level you're in if you need that quick jaw.
02:14If you're wondering, Tessa didn't grow up around guns.
02:17As a nurse working late shifts at night, walking in the parking garage at 3am, I didn't feel safe.
02:24So I took a concealed carry course, got my concealed carry permit, got my weapon, was trying to figure out
02:31something that would work with my scrubs.
02:34That's what sparked it that I was going to figure out a way to fix my problem.
02:39And in the process, make a product that's been pretty popular.
02:42Popular enough to win an award at the concealed carry fashion show.
02:51Julie models the femme fatale corset holster, which has lace covering a six inch wide corset, elastic designed to fit
02:59comfortably just below the bra.
03:01While the Cary Guard Expo crowd enjoyed the fashion show, another crowd was protesting against it nearby.
03:12Hello?
03:13Hi, is this Annalisa?
03:15Yes, it is.
03:16Annalisa Dickman does outreach for the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort, WAVE, a grassroots organization that works to prevent gun violence
03:24and gun deaths.
03:26I think women gaining knowledge about any topic probably fills more power than me.
03:31But when you look at who owns guns and who is killed by guns, women bear a disproportionate burden of
03:39gun violence.
03:41Here is what sells guns.
03:43People buy guns because they are fearful.
03:46For the longest time, it's always been assumed that it's the men who are the protectors.
03:50But when you really start to ask who is the most responsible person in a household, it's the mom.
03:58It's my job to protect my family with whatever tools are available.
04:01And a firearm is just one of those tools.
04:06It's my job.
04:08It's my job.
04:09It's my job.
04:09You
