More Women Turning to Firearms Out of Fear : Self-protection: An NRA-certified instructor says demand for her introductory handgun classes has exploded in the last few months.

For a long time, Maury Mangan hated even the sight of guns. The men in her life had them, but she firmly believed that firearms were one of society’s problems, not a solution.

After she was accosted three times by threatening men, her resolve began to crumble. Then, when a New Jersey woman was killed in a carjacking at a suburban mall, the last threads of opposition snapped.

On a recent Sunday, Mangan stood on the firing line at the Lake Island Rifle and Pistol Club, clutching a revolver and slowly blasting away at a paper target 50 feet away. When the chamber was empty and she turned around, she was smiling.

Mangan, a nurse from Oceanport, N.J., is one of an increasing number of women who have turned to firearms for protection. Although there are no reliable statistics, gun sellers and advocates agree that women are a rapidly expanding segment of the gun-buying market.

“A lot more women are buying firearms,” said Mark Campbell of Shooting Systems Inc., a gun dealer in St. Louis. “More women are living by themselves and say they want protection.”

The National Rifle Assn. has seen the number of women members increase by about 100,000 a year recently, according to Elizabeth Swasey, the NRA’s director of women’s issues and information. Her office, established in 1990, is one indication of women’s newfound clout.

Five years ago, Swasey said, only 5% or fewer of those taking the NRA’s introductory personal protection course were women. More recently, she said, instructors across the country have told her that 50% to 75% of their students are women.

Women are still less fond of guns than men. In a recent Gallup Poll taken for Life magazine, 68% of the women responding said gun laws should be stricter; only 52% of men agreed. But the differences in attitude may be eroding.

“In many ways, it’s an extension of the women’s movement,” Swasey said. “The same way we’ve decided we’re perfectly capable of taking care of our economic well-being . . . now we’re deciding that we’re also capable of taking care of something that’s much more important, which is our personal and physical well-being.”

While many men buy guns for sport, Swasey said there was a one-word explanation for women’s newfound interest: “Fear.”

Gun-control advocates accuse the NRA and gun manufacturers of exploiting that fear of violent crime with advertising, much of it aimed at women, that portrays handguns as an essential form of self-protection.

“While we don’t have a problem with law-abiding people owning weapons for legitimate purposes, what we really don’t like is people preying on fear,” said Susan Whitmore, a spokeswoman for Handgun Control Inc.

Women and Guns, a magazine that began publication in 1989, is filled with ads aimed at the women’s market. There are women’s holsters and holster-equipped handbags. There is a listing for a store in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., called the “Bang Bang Boutique.” And there are guns designed with women in mind, with slimmer grips and smoother finishes.

One manufacturer, Lorcin, has a full-page color ad that shows its .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol lying on a desk atop a copy of Vogue magazine. Nearby is a gold-framed picture of three children.

“Not just another fashion statement, but an above average means of self-protection,” the ad declares.

Women and Guns also carries a full-page advertisement for Smith & Wesson’s “LadySmith” line of guns.

Smith & Wesson created the line in 1989 after commissioning Gallup polls on gun ownership. They showed that the percentage of women interested in buying a gun had doubled between 1983 and 1988.

Smith & Wesson named the LadySmiths after a similar line it offered in the late 1800s. Many women then were recreational shooters, according to Chris Dolnack, the company’s marketing manager. But today’s buyers are overwhelmingly interested in self-defense.

“There are a surprising number of women in the health care field who own guns,” Dolnack said. “Nurses and X-ray technicians tend to work a swing shift. So . . . they feel more vulnerable at the times when they’re getting off.”

Mary Warner, an NRA-certified instructor in New Jersey, said demand for her introductory handgun classes has exploded in the last few months, with women making up the majority of her students. On this Sunday, her class had seven students--four women and three men. Two of the four women, including Maury Mangan, were nurses.

“If we don’t do something soon, as women, we’re going to be prisoners in our own homes,” Mangan said. Like many of Warner’s students, she had been pushed over the line by the carjacking death of a woman in Piscataway last November.

In other parts of the country, other crimes have had similar effects. The Los Angeles riots prompted many women in Southern California to arm themselves. In Lexington, Ky., three carjackings in early December caused a spurt in handgun sales to women.

One recent study showed that women who arm themselves may be in greater danger than ever, because husbands or friends could wind up using the guns against them. But firearm advocates are convinced that a gun-toting woman is less likely to become a victim.

“We’ve always, as women, been trained not to like guns,” Warner said. “Frankly, I consider them the ultimate in feminine protection.”