Yes, women buy long guns

Shooting Industry, March, 2004 by Massad Ayoob

The home-defense long gun has traditionally been the shotgun. Many women are comfortable with the gold standard, the 12 gauge. Ace shooters like Gila Hayes and HK's Debbie Morris turn in awesome performances with full-power 12-gauge slugs. However, most women don't have their skill or experience, and will be more confident with a lighter-kicking 20 gauge.

Benelli, Mossberg, Remington and Winchester all make 20-gauge repeaters in sizes that will work well for your female customers. If she is of smaller stature, she will be much better served by shorter-stocked youth models offered by many companies.

However, many women have switched from shotguns to handgun-caliber carbines or .223 rifles for home defense. With proper ammunition, they are as safe as handguns for this purpose, and more powerful.

In handgun calibers, the Ruger PC9 and PC40 in 9mm Luger and .40 S & W, respectively, are excellent choices. In .223, so is Ruger's Mini-14, or one of the shorter, lighter, handier versions of the AR-15 by Bushmaster, Colt, DPMS, Les Baer, Olympic Arms, Rock River, and Wilson Combat.

All these carbines and rifles are semi-automatic and are generally easier to learn to operate safely. However, your customers of either gender, who are new to rifles, will find it a difficult task to learn to work a lever action or other manually operated repeater at the high speed needed for effective defense use. As with the shotgun, a shorter-stocked rifle will work better for customer of smaller stature.

One advantage of the AR-15 models, in terms of confidence, is even a new gun owner knows that countless women have qualified with the functionally identical M-16 in the military. She knows that if all those sisters can do it, she can, too.

Guaranteed Sales

Women are a critical and growing portion of the defensive-firearm market. Stocking the guns that have proven to work best for them is a guaranteed sale to this important segment of the gun-buying public.

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