She also has a semi-automatic handgun inside a holster in her pants.
“It’s nice to be able to have that confidence and be an equal. That’s what guns do. They are an equalizer,” said the 30-year-old Indianapolis woman. She owns Tans By Tina and carries a Ruger LCP .380 pistol at all times. “I am never going to be able to fight off a man by myself. But I can with a gun.”
Protection and empowerment are the driving forces behind an explosive trend in Indiana: women with guns.
While safety is the top reason women are buying guns, plenty say they have other reasons to — to hunt, target shoot and as a way to connect with their husbands.
The number of women getting gun permits in Indiana has jumped from 86,617 permits in the second quarter of 2012 to 123,536 through the first quarter of this year.
Earlier statistics aren’t available because the Indiana State Police Firearms Licensing Division didn’t track by gender until the second quarter of 2012.
During the same periods, the number of firearm licenses issued to men rose to 434,253 from 378,995.
The trend for women is mirrored nationwide. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, women’s participation in shooting and hunting has increased in the past decade by 51.5 percent and 41.8 percent, respectively.
Guns with glitz
Retailers and manufacturers aren’t letting this demographic slip by. There are bra holsters, guns decked in pink camouflage and chic purses with gun compartments.
Glock has a series of subcompact and slimline handguns for women. Many manufacturers have female-specific styles. In Las Vegas, there is The Gun Store, an indoor shooting range that caters to bachelorette parties with pink AK-47s.
“I’ve lost track of how many pink and sparkly and purple and sparkly guns we’ve done for women,” said Brian Ludlow, owner of the Indy Trading Post, where buyers can get guns custom-painted. “The women, they are accessorizing their firearms.”
Just last week, he painted a gun bright turquoise for a woman. But he said some women are adamantly against “girlie-colored” guns.
“More and more and more we are seeing women in here,” he said. “We’re seeing so many more women coming into the shooting range too.”
That’s no surprise to Paul Helmke, with the School of Public & Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.
“The NRA and the gun industry have been aggressively marketing to women for a number of years,” he said. “They know that long-term demographics are not running in their favor — less boys hunting with their fathers, less young men caught up in the gun culture, decline of people living in rural areas — so they are trying hard to build a new customer base.”
Women are being fed the fear factor that owning and carrying a gun will make them safer, said Helmke, a former mayor of Fort Wayne and a gun-control advocate.
Clinics for women
If you’re going to carry a gun or have one in your home, gun safety experts say it’s crucial to get training.
Nationwide, female shooting clinics offered by the National Rifle Association have seen a 50 percent jump in participation, to 12,000 in 2013 from 8,000 in 2009.
Another growing educational gun program for women is called The Well Armed Woman. Its motto: “Where the Feminine and Firearms Meet.”
Since its founding in 2012, The Well Armed Woman has grown to 183 chapters in 42 states with 4,600 paid members.
Indiana has seven chapters, including one in Columbus and three in the Indianapolis area at Beech Grove Firearms Range, Eagle Creek Pistol Range and Tim’s Shooting Academy of Westfield.
Not only is the program designed to equip women with gun knowledge and skills, it’s a place for camaraderie.
“Guns, that whole world is such a man’s world,” said Vonda Young, a software development manager and leader of Westfield’s The Well Armed Woman chapter. “Unfortunately, from a female perspective you do still see a lot of chauvinism. In their minds, it’s still a man’s world.”
Women who go to chapter meetings range in age from 21 to mid-70s. They are stay-at-home moms and they are professional women in the fields of health care, IT and law. Young has seen pregnant women attend. She’s seen female members of a motorcycle club.
Young’s chapter has grown to 50 members since the first meeting in February. The monthly meetings have gotten so packed, she sometimes splits the class into two nights.
Young, 49 and divorced, used to be vehemently against guns. Her 27-year-old son talked her into getting him a gun for Christmas several years ago. Then, he took her to the shooting range. She fell in love.
She now has four guns and always carries one in her purse. “I’ve found if I’m having a bad day, one of those grumpy days, I can go to the range and blow through 50 target rounds, and I feel better walking out of there,” she said.
For Laurie Spear, 55, guns are a hobby. Her husband is a gun guy and a hunter. She also likes to follow the law.
“Whenever we would go out, my husband would ask me to carry his gun in my purse,” said Spear, who works in logistics. “I thought, ‘If we ever get pulled over and I didn’t have a permit, I’d be in trouble.’ ”
She attends The Well Armed Woman each month to “learn how to really use it.”
Feeling empowered
“Women are moving into the role of self protector, when historically they were the protected,” said Carrie Lightfoot, an NRA certified instructor and owner of The Well Armed Woman.
Women aren’t alone when it comes to getting guns for safety, said Capt. Dave Bursten of the Indiana State Police.
“In general, men and women elect to obtain their license to carry a handgun for the same reason,” he said, “to legally carry their handgun in public places for personal protection.”
That’s exactly why Schuett got her gun permit soon after her daughter, Angelina, was born in March 2013.
“I realized I would feel really silly if I were out with her and (my husband) wasn’t there to protect us, if something should arise, God forbid,” she said.
She carries her handgun on her person to make sure her daughter can’t get at it, protecting her from an accident as well as any bad guys.
“I have a little girl to think of.”
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