Note: This article was originally posted on NRA Blog: https://bitly.com
USA -(Ammoland.com)- Women in the United States continue to join in the shooting sports at increasing numbers, proving that firearms culture isn’t just a boy’s club, but a way of life for everyone.
For nearly a decade, the number of females participating in shooting sports has increased in nearly every category, including hunting, target shooting and muzzleloading.
These aren’t a handful of extra women picking up guns and bows, but rather thousands of females learning new skills, taking up time-honored traditions, entering the competitive field, and investing in their self-defense through shooting.
By the numbers
From 2006 to 2015, the National Shooting Sports Foundation reported an increase of nearly 70 percent in the number of women participating in bowhunting. That same report details a more than 56 percent jump in women in target shooting, with a massive 75 percent increase in the number of women shooting pistols.
As of 2015 more than a quarter of American handgun users are women, with that number sure to increase coming off a record year for gun sales in 2016. Women also constitute about one-fifth of shotgun and rifle shooters nationwide.
Even muzzleloading, a bastion for hunting purists and traditionalists, experienced a nearly 49 percent boom in the number of females participating. With the exception of a minute 1.7 percent fall in firearm hunting and similar 1.6 percent drop in paintball participation, women are joining the shooting sports in record numbers.