We are witnessing a quiet revolution in the American gun landscape. Women, traditionally a minority among gun owners, are now the fastest-growing demographic purchasing firearms in the U.S. This surge, particularly pronounced during the tumultuous years of the pandemic, challenges conventional notions about gun ownership and raises important questions about self-defense, empowerment and societal shifts. It also presents a unique opportunity for us in the gun safety industry to address new consumer needs and priorities.

Major shift in gun ownership

The percentage of female gun owners has surged from a mere 13% in 2005 to 25% in 2023.  According to a survey by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), women accounted for nearly 40% of all new gun buyers between 2019 and 2021. While the pandemic and civil unrest in 2020 fueled a general increase in gun sales, women emerged as the fastest-growing demographic of gun owners.

This notable shift underscores evolving societal attitudes towards gun ownership and women’s roles in personal and community safety.

Historical context

While the recent surge is unprecedented, it is important to note that the roots of female firearm ownership extend back in history. During World War II, many women stepped into roles that required them to handle firearms, challenging traditional gender norms. Later, the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s and 80s saw a rise in female participation in shooting sports.

Factors impacting the trend

Self-defense and Empowerment: Women often cite personal protection as the primary reason for owning a gun, with concerns about domestic violence and crime playing a role in their decision.

Janice Tosto, a 58-year-old Black woman, exemplifies this trend, seeking a firearm due to escalating “lawlessness” in her neighborhood.

“I don’t want to hurt an innocent person,” Tosto emphasized. However, she firmly believes her personal safety necessitates owning a firearm. “If I have to injure and potentially kill someone, I’m OK.”

Pop Culture and Media: The portrayal of strong, independent female characters using firearms in movies, TV shows, and video games has normalized gun ownership for many women. This representation not only breaks down traditional gender stereotypes but also sparks interest and curiosity in gun ownership among women who may have previously dismissed it.

Changing Gender Norms: The breaking down of traditional gender stereotypes has led more women to embrace activities previously considered masculine, including firearm ownership.

Some women who own guns identify as “feminist carriers” and regularly carry their firearms for self-defense. These women often seek out firearm training and practice, leading to increased confidence and proficiency.

Gender Economic Shift: Women are not only a growing demographic but also a dominant economic force. They contribute an estimated $7 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product annually, are the primary shoppers in 72% of households, and increasingly hold bachelor’s degrees and breadwinner roles.

“Women’s increased income and continued role as primary shoppers have amplified their influence on consumer spending,” states U.S. Retail Equity Analyst Lauren Cassel.

Aggressive Marketing: Gun manufacturers and retailers have increasingly targeted women in their marketing campaigns over the past two decades.  Early ads primarily featured women as sexualized objects, appealing to men who might purchase guns for them. However, from 2013 onward, a shift occurred, portraying women as empowered and confident.

By 2016, advertising evolved to emphasize feminine competence, depicting armed women as responsible and well-trained, primarily for self-defense or protecting their families.  This “serious student” framing, used in nearly half of the ads studied between 2016 and 2020, focused on women pursuing firearms expertise through dedicated training.

 Social and Political Climate: Periods of social unrest and concerns about political polarization have also contributed to the rise in gun ownership among women.

Kylie Tyler, a Washington state gun owner, noted a shift in perception among her acquaintances. “In the Northwest, there has been a lot of civil unrest, and that specifically has caused a lot of people that I’ve talked to rethink that initial evaluation,” she told VOA.

Profile of female gun owners in the U.S.

Female gun owners, while comprising a smaller percentage of total gun owners compared to men, present a distinct profile.

According to Pew Research, women typically acquire their first firearm around age 27, significantly later than their male counterparts, who buy their first guns at age 19.  Protection is paramount for 27% of these women, serving as their sole reason for ownership, compared to just 8% of men.  While only 43% frequently engage in shooting activities, this disparity diminishes when accounting for early exposure. Media consumption and social circles revolving around guns are less common among female owners compared to men.

Despite 29% storing loaded guns at home, similar to men who own handguns, 26% also carry them outside.  A shared sentiment exists regarding gun ownership’s link to personal freedom

Industry Response

The firearm industry is evolving to meet the needs and preferences of a growing demographic of female gun owners. Recognizing the purchasing power and influence of women, companies are developing products and marketing strategies that resonate with this audience.

Gun safety companies are leading the charge with innovative solutions that incorporate smart technology and advanced safety features like facial recognition and fingerprint verification. Gun Leash is a prime example of this trend, offering a discreet and user-friendly firearm proximity alert system that prioritizes safety without sacrificing style or functionality. This approach aligns with the needs of female gun owners who value both practicality and aesthetics in their firearm accessories.

Anti-firearm violence nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety sees the positive potential in such technologies, noting that these “ensure that guns are accessible by their owners and no one else.”

In fact, gun manufacturers and accessories businesses are already developing lighter firearms with ergonomic grips, concealed carry purses and holsters designed with both fashion and functionality in mind.

Many firearm brands have now begun sponsoring women’s shooting events, creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for women to learn and practice firearm skills. Additionally, partnerships with female influencers and social media personalities are being leveraged to reach a wider audience and normalize gun ownership among women.

New era in American gun ownership

The surge in female gun ownership in the U.S. represents a complex interplay of personal safety concerns, evolving gender roles, economic empowerment, targeted marketing strategies, and the undeniable influence of popular culture. This trend not only underscores a significant shift in the demographics of gun ownership but also reflects broader societal changes and the growing agency of women in traditionally male-dominated spheres.

Gun Leash welcomes this new era in the American gun landscape, one where women are increasingly asserting their right to self-defense and empowerment through firearm ownership. We are proud to be at the forefront of this phenomenon, providing the tools and resources they need to safely and confidently exercise their Second Amendment rights. As the landscape of gun ownership continues to evolve, Gun Leash will remain dedicated to promoting responsible practices and ensuring that firearm safety remains a top priority for all.

Sources :

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8697522/

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/more-women-are-becoming-gun-owners/

https://www.voanews.com/a/usa_gun-ownership-steadily-increasing-among-us-women/6207787.html

https://lamag.com/contributor-content/women-are-arming-themselves-at-an-accelerated-rate

https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/womens-impact-on-the-economy

https://www.osu.edu/impact/arts-and-creativity/mizejewski-female-superhero

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/06/29/how-male-and-female-gun-owners-in-the-u-s-compare/

https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/gun-manufacturers%E2%80%99-ads-appeal-women-%E2%80%98serious-students%E2%80%99-firearms-boost-sales

https://www.npr.org/2016/01/27/464571529/gun-toting-women-give-rise-to-firearms-fashion-accessories

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/27/trends-shaping-gun-industry.html

Often when I’m doing a presentation for a potential investor, the discussion about biometric guns always comes up. Sometimes the investor will say “won’t biometric guns make your Gun Leash unnecessary?” Their logic is if someone finds a biometric gun, or steals a biometric gun, then the criminal won’t be able to use it. I always warn that biometrics guns aren’t a panacea that may have a lot more problems than people realize. First being, any technology is hackable. This is an indisputable statement. And biometric guns can still be lost or stolen. At forecasted prices of $1500 to $2,000, that’s gonna hurt.

But the more worrisome issue is all technology is fallible. This is the dangerous part. When you think your biometric gun is working properly, and it’s not, that could put you and other people in harm’s way. For instance, if you’re a law enforcement officer forced to carry a biometric gun, and you’re confronted by a person with a normal functioning gun. They draw their weapon you draw yours. They fire their gun, but your gun does not fire even though you pulled the trigger because something went wrong with the biometric assessment feature. Your gun failed to recognize your thumbprint. Or  it failed to recognize your facial features. Or both! This will happen. Mark my words. What is even worse is, if you think the biometric “smart gun” is working and it’s not and someone does get their hands on your gun and harms themselves or someone else. You’ll see the reality of this later in this email.

I remember the day the congresswoman from California, Katie Porter, grilled the CEO of Ruger firearms, Christopher Killoy. She pointed at her phone and asked why her iPhone had a thumbprint reader and Ruger guns which “shred people’s vital organs” don’t. (watch that video here) It’s a silly question asked by a person who clearly has zero real-world gun knowledge. This shows the lack of understanding by Porter to how these technologies work. A handgun is only used in an emergency. A life-or-death emergency I would say. You have one chance to get a shot off to save a life. And the possibility of a malfunction of a technology, like facial recognition or thumbprint print recognition at a moment in time, where your ability to grip the gun a certain way, may not be possible but you can still get a shot off if you’re not being challenged by a biometric reader device.

And a recent example of this illustrates my exact message. Here we have a gun safe manufacturer recalling 60,000 biometric gun safe, because a programming error made the thumbprint reader not selective enough to read only the rightful users thumbprint. This means a child could potentially see their parent unlock their handgun safe by placing their hand a certain way and by the child mimicking their parent, unlock the gun safe. In fact, there was one reported death and 39 reported non-death related failures of this gun safe that occurred before the recall went into effect. You can read the article here..

We know from the latest ATF report of 300 major cities, between the years 2017 and 2021, between 50% and 70% of the handguns used in crimes were previously owned by law abiding citizens, but then lost or stolen. The answer to reducing gun crime, continues to be, helping people not lose or have their gun stolen in the first place. Gun Leash continues to be the only product that will solve this problem.

The ATF website is a treasure trove of information for anyone who wants to spend the time poking around. In an effort to put a finer point on how many guns are lost each year I dug into the data showing handguns recovered from crimes listed in the e-Trace database. A few things really jumped out right away. What we know is 480,000+ guns were reported stolen in 2022. This number is NOT specifically handguns. It includes long guns, shotguns, pistols, revolvers, etc. . Yet ATF e-Trace got 623,000 requests from Law Enforcement agencies around the country that same year. That’s 143,000, give or take, guns being found used in crimes, but apparently not reported stolen.

Statista and Everytown position themselves as data repositories of gun related data. If you juxtapose their data over the ATF numbers, or even each others, there’s an even bigger gap. More could only be thought of falling into the lost gun category. Statista reports a total of only 5,484 (pistols, revolvers & derringers) stolen in the entire US for 2021!

And when consider you that people who “lose” their guns say they were stolen out of embarrassment and possible future liability, the gap between stolen and lost gets even fuzzier. When they realize they left their handgun somewhere and the gun isn’t there when they go back they say it was stolen.

Responsibility is essential in this discussion. Do you take the steps of a forward leaning conscientious gun owner and look at technology like Gun Leash to avoid the incidence? Or do you wait till after it happens to you to consider taking steps?

When I come home from work, I don’t immediately remove my firearm. In fact, as a rule, I wear my firearm from the morning when I place it inside my waistband, till I take it off at night to go to bed. I’ve often wondered if I’m the exception to the rule. It’s not due to fear of a home invasion, although they do happen even in the best of neighborhoods. I do it because I feel I have a responsibility to know where my firearm is every second of the day. This level of responsibility was instilled in me by my father Carmine who was a Gunners Mate in the Navy during WWII. And while he chose not to own guns after he got out, he bought me my first Mosberg 12-gauge pump shotgun when I was 16 and allowed me to go rabbit hunting my friend Joey and his father Joe.

Wearing my gun while home is not a discomfort in any way. I do it the same way as keeping my wallet in my pocket. So, do you do this too? And why? Or why not? I’d really like to know if I’m just weird.

I’ve always been a fan of Matthew McConaughey so naturally I was very interested to hear his opinions on gun safety and school shootings. When it comes to making schools safer, to me, it’s simple. As someone in the gun safety space this is a special topic to me. I spend most of my waking hours thinking about how to make constitutionally protected legal gun ownership safer.

Courthouses and government buildings tend to be visited upon by people who have grievances and grudges. And as such, these buildings employ human armed security, electronic security, and access / egress control. The last successful courtroom shooting to my knowledge was some 111 years ago known as the Hillview Massacre. Well before the technology to detect weapons walking through the door was available.

Why aren’t we using the money provided to schools to employ the same strategies we use to protect elected officials in government buildings as well as judges and court employees in courthouses? We know they work! And we also know the financial costs. Wouldn’t this be the first thing one would do if they truly wanted to protect children our in schools?

I know people have said they don’t want to expose their children to these measures because they believe it might make children “worry”. I would submit with all the coverage about school shootings, kids are already worried. Parents are buying bullet proof hoodies and backpacks with Body Armor inserts. How do you explain that to a child and not worry them?

Has anyone bothered to ask children if they had armed security guards and metal detectors to help prevent a school shooting in their school, would it make them feel safer? Not worried? We have a procedure and system that works. The bigger question is why we aren’t employing it? And, don’t tell me the cost is a deterrent. We just sent $75 Billion to Ukraine to help protect their people. Are US children not worth one of those billion?

Matthew this is the hill for you to die on. Right here. Get the US Government to fund the exact same methods they use to protect gigantic government buildings and courthouses to protect smaller schools and American children. Panic buttons are too late. As is therapy to deal with the mental effects and aftermath. Not allowing the shooter to get in and fire the first shot is the absolute minimum we should be doing with that money. And we have a blueprint for that already as I’ve discussed above. It works. So why aren’t we doing it?

A July 2023 article in a popular hackers website Hackaday reveals that the Apple Airtag’s have some serious privacy and safety implications that people should be aware of. Its possible to hack an Airtag and not only get it to report its location to others besides the owner, but even clone the Airtag in question and use it to pirate the owners account! In my humble opinion, these weaknesses disqualify Airtag from being suitable for handgun loss prevention. And hackers appear to be targeting the popular tracker unit to see just how far they can exploit it.

When I first imagined Gun Leash after almost losing a handgun, the primary objective was maintaining privacy. Not only in the Gun Leash beacon, but also our app. I refused to have our app served from the cloud, which would have been a LOT less expensive to build. And there are other roadblocks to getting any unique information from hacking the Gun Leash app that I won’t go into any further than that. Also the Gun Leash beacon does not receive. It’s a true beacon and transmits only. And as such can not receive any commands that would allow hackers to gain entry.

Gun Leash was developed to keep your gun safely by your side and save lives.  Our revolutionary firearm safety solution fits simply onto your weapon and into your life and talks privately to the Gun Leash app to alert you if your gun leaves your side. Best of all the Gun Leash technology does not track or report location. It respects the privacy of the gun owner. It’s a simple proximity technology that monitors the presence of the handgun. Keeping it from getting lost in the first place!

Gun Leash is also the size of a postage stamp so it will never get in the way of having to use your handgun.

Gun Leash will be released in the next weeks at our website GunLeash.com for a very limited pre-sale special offer.

Original Hackaday article 

If you were a politician who’s platform centers on reducing gun crime addressing the issue of lost or stolen guns, which play a significant role in criminal activities, would be a priority. Recent ATF data reveals that between 2017 and 2021, a concerning 50% to 70% of confiscated guns used in crimes could be traced back to legal gun owners who had lost or had their firearms stolen. To tackle this problem without infringing on our citizens’ 2nd Amendment rights, Gun Leash is patented technology capable of preventing lost and stolen guns. This innovative approach could potentially put an end to such incidents while safeguarding our constitutional rights.

It is disheartening, however, to discover that my efforts to seek support from both sides of the aisle have not yielded the expected response. Many seem uninterested in addressing the issue, seemingly favoring extreme positions of either an outright gun ban or maintaining the status quo.

Upon reflection, it appears that gun crime remains an emotionally charged subject that serves to mobilize constituents and drive political agendas. If the Gun Leash technology were to effectively reduce lost and stolen handguns, subsequently leading to a decline in gun crimes, the focus on banning firearms or fighting for the 2nd Amendment might lose its current appeal. As a result, politicians may not see it as politically advantageous to support solutions like Gun Leash, which could undermine their ability to galvanize public opinion and financial contributions.

Despite the challenges and cynicism, I can’t help but envision a future where Gun Leash accomplishes its 5-7 year goal, garnering significant adoption among the 81 million handgun owners, and ATF reports demonstrating a notable decrease in gun-related crimes directly linked to the implementation of this technology. My optimism drives me to persist in pursuing the cause of Gun Leash.

In the coming days, Gun Leash will launch a limited pre-sale, and it’s a pivotal moment for its success. As the saying goes, it’s time to take action and embrace the opportunity fully. Here we come, ready to make a difference in curbing gun crime and making our communities safer.

The ATF revealed this year that after looking at the statistics of 300 major American cities, between 50% and 70% of the guns used in gun-related crimes were previously legally owned but then lost or stolen. This is a major revelation that I have been aware of for over 2 years. Legally owned, lost and stolen guns are the real pipeline of gun related crimes. Not the gun show loophole, 3D printed or “ghost guns” .

Gun Leash technology is the only patented anti-loss anti-theft technology that gun owners will actually use because it doesn’t track or report location of the gun and owner. It respects the privacy of the gun owner. It’s a simple proximity device that monitors the presence of the handgun.

Who’s most likely to be killed by one of these handguns? According to the CDC 2020 data African American men. For African Americans the gun homicide rate was 26.6 deaths per 100,000, a 39.5% increase over 2019. For white Americans, the rate was 2.2 per 100,000. So who stands to benefit from the launch of Gun Leash? Young black men of the inner cities! I’m calling on Black Leaders in America to support Gun Leash.