Women are changing the face of American firearm ownership and new research confirms personal protection is helping drive the shift.
A September RAND Corporation analysis found women accounted for nearly half of new gun owners in recent years. The General Social Survey data reveals personal firearm ownership among adult women climbed from 10 percent in 2018 to 16 percent in 2024, a not insignificant increase. Women’s share among all firearm owners also increased from 22 percent to 32 percent, while men’s ownership rates remained relatively stable.
The RAND report clearly lays out the impact women gun buyers are having on broader gun ownership demographics.
“Since 2018, women in nearly every category of race, age, marital status, education level, and income have increased their gun ownership,” the report states. “In most of these cases, women’s percentage increases in firearm ownership exceeded those of men belonging to the same group, often by 50 percent or more.”
The shift is playing out at shooting ranges nationwide, including metro Atlanta, where African American women are joining gun clubs, seeking firearm training and exercising their Second Amendment rights in growing numbers.
Women Are Changing the Face of Firearm Ownership
The Bass Reeves Gun Club, the founding chapter of the National African American Gun Association, reports approximately 700 active members, with continued growing interest from Black women. Atlanta’s majority-Black A Girl & A Gun chapter has tripled in size over roughly two years, approaching 200 members.
“Women join every week, predominantly Black women,” chapter leader Daphne Enmon told Capital B Atlanta. Enmon emphasized that purchasing a firearm is only the beginning. Women also need to learn how to use those firearms safely and responsibly.
The Atlanta reporting also identified concerns about political instability and racial violence among the reasons some women are seeking firearm training, underscoring that the motivations behind gun ownership are varied.
The trend extends well beyond Georgia. As referenced earlier, RAND researchers also found increases in women’s firearm ownership across nearly every demographic group examined. Ownership among Black women rose from approximately 7 percent in the 2014–2018 survey period to more than 11 percent during 2021–2024. Among Hispanic American women, ownership more than doubled.
Particularly noteworthy is the increase among mothers. Women with children were 1.5 times as likely to own firearms as women without children during 2021–2024, a shift researchers found was driven almost entirely by single mothers.
NSSF’s latest First-Time Gun Buyers study reinforces this trend. Nearly three-quarters of first-time buyers sampled in its 2021–2024 research were women, compared with slightly less than half in its 2020 sample. While those figures represent study samples rather than national market shares, they demonstrate the importance of women in the firearm industry’s expanding customer base.
Personal Protection Is Personal
For some women, that decision follows tragedy.
Retired Georgia school principal Sana Sims purchased her first firearm and joined NAAGA after her son was killed in a drive-by shooting in Baltimore. Sims, now in her 70s, told Capital B Atlanta she wanted proper personal-protection training and now practices regularly.
Sims’ experience reflects the motivation behind a broader trend. RAND researchers found women place greater emphasis on self-protection than men when explaining firearm ownership. Previous victimization and fear of violent crime are particularly important motivators among women.
That determination was also evident in 2023 congressional testimony from California firearm retailer and domestic abuse survivor Geneva Solomon, who described her decision to take responsibility for protecting herself and her child.
“I had to become my own first responder,” Solomon told lawmakers at the time. Solomon sadly passed away in 2024.
Women work late, they travel alone, manage households and raise families. Police provide an essential public safety service but officers cannot guarantee they will arrive before a threat unfolds. A woman facing a violent attacker deserves the ability to make her own lawful decisions about personal protection.
Firearm ownership doesn’t guarantee safety. It demands proper training, safe handling, responsible storage and sound judgment. That’s why NSSF’s First Shots program, including its partnership with A Girl & A Gun, plays an important role in introducing women to firearm safety and responsible ownership.
For firearm retailers and shooting ranges, this expanding community also presents opportunities to provide quality instruction, welcome new participants and build lasting relationships with responsible firearm owners.
The women choosing to take their Second Amendment rights into their own hands and filling up firearm training classes aren’t waiting for someone else to take responsibility for their safety. They’re getting educated, practicing and making their own decisions about protecting themselves and their families.
When seconds matter, women should not have to depend solely on someone else arriving in time.
The right to self-defense belongs to her, too. And the RAND report reveals they are utilizing that right and the gun-owning community welcomes them.
Jenn Jacques is Public Affairs Manager at the National Shooting Sports Foundation.