Handgun ownership rising among women
More women in the Miami Valley are choosing to purchase and carry handguns for protection, reflecting a national trend, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis of permit data, opinion polls and interviews with firearm and criminal justice experts.
More than one in five who have applied to carry concealed handguns in Butler, Greene, Miami, Montgomery and Warren counties are women, and owners of local gun stores and shooting ranges say women are increasingly participating in training and target practice.
Although violent crime continues to decline in the region, experts said more women are choosing to pack heat because it is becoming more culturally acceptable, and they are also worried about their safety.
"We are seeing more women and that's a good thing because they are the ones who need it," said John Thyne, principal owner of Peabody Sports in Kettering.
But gun-control advocates say the trend also could be linked to irrational fears of losing gun rights and more women may mistakenly buy into the gun-lobby rhetoric that gun ownership improves their personal safety.
The FBI performed 16.45 million background checks for firearm sales in 2011, shattering the previous year's record of 14.41 million checks, according to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Background checks do not necessarily lead to gun purchases, but most do, and the record checks and sales are being fueled in part by the growing number of women who are buying firearms, experts said.
About 23 percent of adult women last fall said they personally own a gun, which is up from 13 percent in 2005, according to Gallup polls.
Although men are twice as likely to own a gun — 46 percent do — their numbers have dipped slightly from 47 percent in 2005, according to polls.
The story is the same in the Miami Valley.
The overall number of concealed-carry licenses issued in Montgomery and Warren counties were down last year from previous years, but the number of women permit holders continues to climb.
Concealed-carry permits are not public records, but the Dayton Daily News was able to obtain data about the permits. However, not all sheriff's offices could produce the same type of information.
In 2011, women accounted for 459 of the 2,029 new and renewal concealed-carry permits issued in Montgomery County, according to the county sheriff's office.
The share of permits held by women increased to 22.6 percent last year from 18.4 percent in 2010. Warren County issued 349 active concealed- carry licenses to women in 2011, up from 328 in 2009, according to the Warren County Sheriff's Office.
About one in five concealed-carry permits ever issued in Greene and Miami counties were for women, according to permit data. In 2011, about one in four concealed-carry permit applications in Butler County were from women, according to Daily News tabulations.
Dana Tackett, president of the Miami Valley Shooting Grounds in Vandalia, said between 25 percent to 30 percent of participants in his facility's concealed-carry classes are women, and the vast majority of women purchase handguns, which are usually used for self-defense.
"Here at Miami Valley Shooting Grounds, about 80 percent of our shooters are handgun shooters, and of that, if you ask them why they are shooting, 90 percent will tell you it's for protection, self-defense and recreation," Tackett said. "It sucks to be a victim."
Violent crime is down across the country, but about 49 percent of the victims of violent crime are women, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey.
Nancy Newbauer, 64, of Butler Twp., said she obtained her concealed-carry permit in 2009. She said carrying a gun appealed to her because there is not a police officer on every corner, and women today are more independent and cannot rely on other people to defend them.
"I just don't want to become another statistic," she said. "I feel a greater sense of security since I got my concealed-carry — I feel informed, I feel safer and I feel I can defend myself."
Newbauer said economic and political uncertainty is also likely contributing to the surge in gun sales among both genders.
Like Newbauer, many women feel vulnerable to crime because they feel physically outmatched by men, said Linda Walker, Central Ohio Chair of the Buckeye Firearms Association. But Walker said possessing a gun changes the situation and gives women an advantage. "I think women are becoming awakened to the fact that their own self-defense is in their own hands, and they can't wait for a husband, boyfriend or police officer to protect them," Walker said. "Women know that when seconds matter, police are minutes away."
Women today also are more comfortable with firearms, and cultural shifts make it more acceptable for women to possess guns, develop shooting skills and join gun clubs, said Art Jipson, director of the Criminal Justice Studies program at the University of Dayton.
More TV shows, movies and other forms of popular entertainment depict female protagonists as strong and capable of protecting themselves, and life in some degree is imitating art and vice versa.
"The message we are tending to see in the culture is one of empowerment, and you do not need to depend upon a family or a male in your life, whomever he is, and that you can be just as powerful," Jipson said.
But Toby Hoover, executive director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, said gun sales are linked to fear, and the gun lobby is very good at making people afraid. Hoover said she questions whether many of the women who obtain conceal carry licenses do so simply at the behest of their husbands and partners who own guns. She said gun ownership does not usually make people safer.
"It's very disheartening that even women are falling into this category of thinking they are carrying around something with them all the time that they are ready to use to take someone else's life," Hoover said. "But the threats on your life are not usually coming from strangers."
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