Gun Control & RKBA

Why More Urban Women Own Guns: Self-Defense — and the Second Amendment

The image of the U.S. firearm owner is shifting, a definitive survey shows. Urban American women explain the change: "Women are the prey."

·September 21, 2016

MIDDLE RIVER, MARYLAND — She only owns a handgun. She’s more likely than male gun owners to live in an urban area, and less likely to have grown up in a gun-friendly household.

And regardless of how many and what types of guns she owns, she’s more likely to report owning firearms for protection than men.

This is the portrait of the American female gun owner, as depicted by the most definitive survey of U.S. gun ownership in two decades. While gun ownership has long been dominated by men in the U.S., the survey finds that the percentage of women who choose to pack heat is increasing.

Of those who own handguns only, 43 percent are women, and nearly a quarter of those women live in urban areas, according to new research from Northeastern University and the Harvard School of Public Health.
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“I really think women are driving the growth [in gun ownership] because it’s now accessible to them in ways it has never been before,” Lightfoot said.