Shoot Like A Girl is a group that helps introduce women to the shooting sports. The organization offers training clinics and tours the country with a unique semi-trailer rig mobile range. This weekend, June 29-30, 2019, the Mobile Range will be at the Cabela’s store in Boise, Idaho. Women ages 16 and older can shoot at the mobile range on Saturday, June 29th from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday, June 30th from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.
Shoot Like A Girl (SLG2 Inc.) was established in 2008 with a mission to grow the number of women who participate in archery and shooting sports. The first five years focused on archery, but in 2013, SLG2 added Firearms Test Shots™ where women can shoot a 9mm pistol, .223 rifle with the use of a military-grade firearms simulation system.
New and experienced shooters are invited to attend this free event. At the range, women gain experience in handling and shooting handguns, long guns and compound bows using state-of-the-art technology.
The SLG team leaders say: “It’s FREE! It’s SAFE! It’s FUN! Ladies, stop by SLG2’s mobile range Saturday shoot a pistol, rifle and bow! If you’re new to shooting or have experience, this is a great opportunity to get instruction from some of the best female NRA-certified instructors and archery coaches in the country. You can also check out the latest equipment on display.” Note: Younger girls are welcome to attend, but they must be over 16 to participate.
“Shoot Like a Girl” long-sleeve shirt from Savage Infidel.
Check the ShootLikeAGirl.com Website for Mobile Range 2019 Travel Schedule.
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Here’s an interesting statistic — according to an NSSF survey, the percentage of gun owners who are female has increased dramatically since 2005. Seven years ago (in 2005), just 13% of U.S. gun owners were women. By 2012 that number had risen to 23% — a huge increase in less than a decade.
The vast majority of first-time female gun buyers acquire a handgun for defensive purposes. However, the statistics also show that many new female gun owners are also getting involved in sport shooting and/or competitive shooting. That’s a good thing.
In the video below, NRA News host Cam Edwards interviews Celia Bigelow, who has written about the rise of gun ownership among ladies on the Townhall.com website. Celia explains why American women are arming themselves, and why the Second Amendment safeguards a key fundamental right.
Celia writes: “As the number of proposed gun-control measures increase rapidly across the country, the amount of women purchasing guns is increasing even faster. While folks in the media are blaming the spike on the guns-and-glam advertising, women — including myself — have a different reason. It’s self-defense, stupid. [T]he logic is simple: Women want to protect themselves and their family, and guns are the great equalizer between sexes[.]”
Celia notes that liberals propose that women defend themselves using “call boxes, ball-point pens, whistles, buddy systems … as long as it isn’t very sharp and doesn’t have a trigger.” Celia is not convinced: “As a young, 22-year-old, 140-lb woman, I know that call boxes, pens, and whistles won’t do much good if [I am] ever faced with a crazed man twice my size. What frustrates these male elitists the most is that women are arming themselves, and it’s working.”
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This is the kind of program we like to see — a well-organized event that introduces hundreds of new participants to the shooting sports. In this instance, some 472 ladies attended a day-long event in Oklahoma City, OK. Part of the NRA’s successful Woman On Target program, the Oklahoma city Day at the Range Fun Shoot was a huge success.
Suzi Rouse, lead organizer for the event stated: “It was a great success as evidenced by the smiling faces and positive feedback on their evaluations”. Rouse heads up efforts for one of the most popular Women on Target events in the nation.
The Oklahoma City (OKC) event included pistol, rifle, and shotgun shooting with guns, ammunition, and safety gear supplied by the organizers and sponsors. This year, for example, Blaser Firearms provided two new .308 Win Mauser M18s. There were even prize give-aways during the lunch break.
The team at the Oklahoma City Gun Club has many years of experience now, and runs the big event like clockwork. While the Fun Shoot is focused on new shooters, there are many repeat lady participants, for whom this has become the social event of the year at the OKC Club. 2018 marks the 19th year the club has hosted a Fun Shoot for Women.
Spotlight on Suzi Rouse Event Director Suzi Rouse has served as President of the Oklahoma City Gun Club. She’s been a very effective leader in an activity typically dominated by men.
“Rouse grew up in a family where firearms were part and parcel of life. Rouse … has evolved into a strong advocate for female shooters. Rouse has long been active with the NRA and its marksmanship and safety efforts. And though the seed for the Women on Target program was planted in Wisconsin in 1998, Rouse was among the first women to get involved. She applied for and won a grant to train 12 women to be rifle, shotgun, and handgun instructors so the new shooters would be taught by other women. Rouse started the Oklahoma version as a ‘beta’ event a year after the Wisconsin debut, and the program went national soon thereafter.” — From America’s First Freedom.
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We’ve stated that getting more young people and women involved in shooting is key to the preservation of shooting ranges and the protection of our rights as gun-owners. The good news is that CNBC reported last week that more women than ever before are acquiring firearms and learning to shoot.
CNBC reports: “A good part of the [increase in gun sales] is women. While gun sales last year were up 14% nationwide from the year before, 47% MORE women are now shooting than they were ten years ago. And 23% of all women now own a gun — according to Gallup (2011 Gallup Poll)”. As a result of this trend, gun manufacturers’ profits are up and their stocks are rapidly climbing on Wall Street. Both Ruger and Smith & Wesson equity share prices are way up this year. Moreover, CNBC reports that mainstream retailers such as Cabela’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods are seeing “big profits from guns”. The NSSF observes that, across the nation, many local gun shops are now holding “Ladies Nights”, and enrollments in womens’ training classes is up significantly.
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As the National Governing Body (NGB) for the sport of Olympic-style shooting in the United States, USA Shooting (USAS) welcomes the dialogue created by the recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Mark Yost titled: Taking Aim at an Old Debate: Can female athletes compete against men?. In shooting, yes — but not in the Olympics. In this article, Yost points out several interesting facts and observations about our sport. This dialogue allows us to engage the shooting community, expand our thinking and establish pathways for bettering our sport for the future.
You will get little argument from many of today’s top shooters, both male and female, as to the shooting abilities of women throughout USA Shooting’s ranks. The success of the collegiate programs like TCU and many intercollegiate programs in the U.S. only echo these beliefs as do some of the sport’s elite shooters like Kim Rhode, a four-time Olympic medalist in trap and skeet shooting, or Katy Emmons, a three-time Olympic medalist from the Czech Republic who is married to [U.S. Olympian] Matt Emmons.
“I am a born competitor and whether it is men or women I want to win,” said Jamie Gray, a 2008 Olympian in Rifle. “In a sport that is equal between men and women I would most definitely enjoy the competition. I started out only knowing that men and women compete against each other. It wasn’t until I learned shooting was an Olympic sport that I realized men and women didn’t compete against each other. It is exciting to me that there are still sports out there that men and women can be equal, however for other reasons it may be better that there are different categories for each.”
From 1968 through the 1980 Olympic Games, Olympic shooting events were mixed, with opportunities for women and men to participate regardless of gender. At the 1980 Games in Moscow, there were six shooting events contested. At the upcoming Games in London, there will be 15 events contested. Opportunities for women to compete in Olympic shooting have not shrunk with the dissolution of “mixed” events, but rather have grown as a result not only in our brand of shooting but across all platforms of the shooting sports. In Olympic competition, 14 women got the opportunity to compete in shooting at the 1980 and 1976 Olympic Games combined. Since that time, the numbers have risen from 77 in 1984 to 145 female competitors at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Shan Zhang Won Gold in 1992
Recent history also suggests that woman can perform alongside men in shooting competitions. At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, female competitor Shan Zhang of China became the Olympic gold medalist that year in mixed-event skeet, topping a field of both men and women. Over two days of competition she produced a score of 373 out of 375, a new Olympic and world record. She also became the first woman in the history of the Olympic Games’ shooting competition, to beat all the male shooters in her event. Since that time, no mixed events have been held in an Olympic shooting competition.
“As a proud American female citizen, participating in a sport where gender-specific characteristics are not advantageous, I would overwhelmingly favor a chance to compete in a mixed event — or at least a women’s event with an equal number of targets as the men,” said Kelsey Zauhar, a USA Shooting National Team member in Shotgun.
“I think that anytime you have competition where size or strength is not a factor, females can absolutely compete with the males,” said USA Shooting National Team Pistol shooter and USAS Board member Sandra Uptagrafft. “The fundamentals of executing a good shot work the same regardless of gender, size or age. The question of why females no longer compete with males or why we have differing number of shots in the same events comes up often when I explain our sport to new people. It does seem sexist, but the fact that we have separate events from males in the Olympics actually is a good thing since more females can compete this way. There can only be so many people on the shooting line at one time. I personally am just happy to have a sport like shooting in which I can excel.”
FACTOID: Research by the National Sporting Goods Association shows female participation in target shooting grew by 46.5% between 2001 and 2010. And an October 2011 Gallup Poll found 23 percent of women own a gun. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, from 2001 to 2010, female participation in hunting grew by almost 37 percent.
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Shoot Like A Girl is a group that helps introduce women to the shooting sports. The organization offers training clinics and tours the country with a unique semi-trailer rig mobile range. This weekend, June 29-30, 2019, the Mobile Range will be at the Cabela’s store in Boise, Idaho. Women ages 16 and older can shoot at the mobile range on Saturday, June 29th from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday, June 30th from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.
Celia writes: “As the number of proposed gun-control measures increase rapidly across the country, the amount of women purchasing guns is increasing even faster. While folks in the media are blaming the spike on the guns-and-glam advertising, women — including myself — have a different reason. It’s self-defense, stupid. [T]he logic is simple: Women want to protect themselves and their family, and guns are the great equalizer between sexes[.]”
Event Director Suzi Rouse has served as President of the Oklahoma City Gun Club. She’s been a very effective leader in an activity typically dominated by men.
Shan Zhang Won Gold in 1992
