Because firearms (guns) are mostly seen as weapons of war or tools for hunting, which has been in the male domain, women are usually not thought of as being capable shooters, users of guns. In the last two decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women who have taken up hunting, and even more women buying guns not just for recreation, but for self protection. In fact, handgun sales for self defense have become a huge business, and a great percentage of these guns are now being sold to women.
Just to set the record straight, for those who are unfamiliar, guns are not used only for warfare or hunting. Generally speaking, more guns are used for recreational purposes than most people realize. But, today self defense has become a huge factor in gun ownership in America. There is no doubt that America is the largest user of firearms in the world, especially when it comes to recreational use such as hunting and target shooting. There are more forms of target shooting than shooting at paper bull's-eye. There are clay targets, there are steel targets....all sorts of targets for all forms of shooting for rifles, shotguns, and handguns. Americans love shooting sports, and most own guns for this purpose more than any other. But with increasing crime, more and more people today, women in particular, acquire guns for self protection.
Perhaps the best known American female shooter was the great Annie Oakley of the 19th and early 20th Century. Annie Oakley was a phenomenal shot with either rifle, shotgun, or pistol. She performed for the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and was known to beat men in shooting matches. However, in America, someone like Annie Oakley was considered an exception. Women as a rule were not considered to be suited for shooting, something that everyone thought was a "manly" skill or ability! We seemed to have developed a somewhat skewed view of shooting and women, despite people like Annie Oakley who proved otherwise! But, I believe that attitude and view is changing.
In the last Summer Olympics (2016), Kim Rhodes, an American woman shooter set the Olympic record by winning her sixth medal in six consecutive Olympics! She won her first Olympic medal, a gold medal in Skeet in the 1996 Olympics. Since 1996, she has won a medal in each subsequent Olympics for a total of six, three golds, one silver, and two bronze! No one has been able to accomplish such a feat, not in any sport or any country! Yet, how many Americans have heard of Kim Rhodes? A pity! Anti-gun sentiment can sometimes go too far!
Russia, during World War Two, trained and deployed 2000 female snipers. Some of them were as good, if not better than their male counterparts. The Russian trainers said that women were easier to train and had the right temperament for shooting! Men tend to rush things and show less patience!
With the increase in women buying guns for self defense in America, the business of teaching shooting handguns for self defense has become a big business. My brother Jim, who retired here in Arizona after more than 30 years with law enforcement in California, teaches CCW (Concealed Carry Weapons) classes at one of the local gun shops. The business is booming and more than 50% of his students are women! He tells me that women are a lot easier to teach! Men tend to think they know everything already and don't take instructions as well as women! He has been doing this for more than 15 years now and is convinced that women are not only better students, but make better shots!
I don't have the experience that my brother has, teaching shooting to men or women! My first experience teaching a woman to shoot took place in 1967. About a year after Jo and I got married on Okinawa, I took up hunting again, which I had not done for more than 5 years. Jo wanted to go hunting with me so I decided to teach her to shoot. It was a fairly straight forward and easy process, so I thought nothing of it. I basically showed her how to hold a shotgun properly, how to point it at a target and swing the gun with the moving target. I stressed the safety factor and she seemed to grasp it readily. We shot skeet at Keystone Gun Club which was located in Mercy area. Jo shot skeet decently, no Annie Oakley, but good enough. We went hunting and to my surprise she was able to hit flying birds. Since that time we hunted together on and off, in the states as well as overseas.
My next teaching opportunity came with our children. I taught our son Tony gun safety and shooting at an early age, when he was about 5. Tony listened to my instructions and followed them as much as he could. But as boys will, he did go off on his own "style" now and then and developed his own shooting technique. When his sister turned 5, I started her with the same small BB gun that I had originally gotten for Tony. Natalie picked up shooting quickly and was outshooting neighborhood boys her age! We lived in a rural area at that time and all the neighborhood kids had access to BB guns etc. So Natalie was often involved with boys shooting. She was the only girl in that area! When they got older, I started them on shotguns and clay targets. I noticed immediately that Natalie was a better shot than Tony. She followed my instructions faithfully, while Tony tended to go off on his own and would get frustrated when he started missing while his sister was breaking targets! I didn't think much of it at the time. I wasn't trying to make champion shooters out of my kids, just wanted them to be familiar with guns.
Many years later, I started my grand kids with shooting. Again, it wasn't to make them avid shooters or hunters. I just felt that as with their mother when she was little, they should become familiar with firearms. I started them with the same BB gun that I used to start Tony and Natalie. At the time, there was a physical difference in size that was considerable. My oldest grand child, Claudia, was bigger than her brother David and the youngest, Liam. She was able to handle the BB gun easier. But once again I noted that like her mother, she followed my instruction more carefully while the boys sort of "winged it." As they grew older, I switched them to .22s and finally to shotguns. I took Claudia and her two brothers who were now much bigger, and Natalie, their mother, to shoot clay targets. Natalie didn't forget her instructions from the past and shot fairly well. Claudia, who was shooting a shotgun for the first time followed my instructions carefully and was soon busting those clay pigeons as well as her mom. The boys did not fare as well. I believe the boys would have done much better if: 1. They were not shooting with their mom and sister. 2. If they were instructed by someone who was more authoritarian, like a Drill Instructor!
Whatever the case may be, I found my somewhat limited experience in teaching women to shoot very interesting.
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