‘Empowered woman’: Focused on self-defense

By Lauren Loftus

A hot pink AR-15 shotgun. High quality leather purses specially designed for concealed carry. A double barrel pistol easily concealed in a bra.

These were the norm at the A Girl and A Gun Women’s Shooters League national training conference in Waco, Texas, last month. Under the theme of “Breaking Barriers,” Smith & Wesson Corp sponsored the conference.

Julianna Crowder founded A Girl and A Gun in 2011 in her hometown of Austin as a social club. Soft-spoken with a mane of fiery red hair, Crowder said she faced definite barriers trying to establish an all-women’s shooters league at some ranges.

Customizable pink AR 15 rifles for sale at the A Girl and A Gun second annual conference in Waco, Texas in March.

Slowly, Crowder began to find slivers of acceptance, which she said is now more reflected in the male-dominated gun industry. Her humble approach to meeting new women has turned into a national business with chapters popping up across the country.

Becky Moon, a vendor at the conference, said, “You can be in a bowling league or a pistol league. It’s about girls getting together, it’s just fun.”

Her company, Moonstruck Leather, sells hand-stitched leather holsters and purses for ladies’ concealed carry. Moon said women “have stepped up and learned to defend themselves.”

Indeed, at the core of any class, live-fire demonstration or conversation was an unwavering commitment to self-defense.

“More women are understanding they need to protect themselves instead of relying on police,” attendee Ginger Peacock said.

Peacock, who started A Girl and A Gun chapter in Marietta, Ga., was at a shotgun home defense session at the outdoor T.I.G.E.R. Valley range where women learned how to load and fire a shotgun as quickly as possible in the event of a home invasion. Peacock explained it was a useful exercise because “most bad guys” break into homes in the middle of the night.

Ginger Peacock, who founded the Marietta, Ga. A Girl and A Gun chapter, takes aim during a shotgun home defense class at the T.I.G.E.R Valley outdoor range in Waco, Texas.

“You’re totally annihilating the person who shouldn’t be in your house in the first place,” she said.

On the other hand, Peacock and her classmates said that for them, owning guns has progressed beyond self-defense when they learned how to shoot and discovered they were good at it.

“It’s empowering,” Peacock said, “I know that’s overused at this point, but it is.”

Lauren Loftus is an Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation News21 Fellow.