On the Firing Line : Female Gun Ownership Up in Violent Times

As the flame erupted from the black semiautomatic pistol in her hands, Candace Bryan flinched, absorbing the recoil of the shot.

Twenty feet in front of Bryan, a hole instantly appeared in the chest of the silhouette target, and the San Clemente resident’s stoical face was creased by an almost imperceptible smile.

Forty-nine rounds of ammo and several bullet-riddled targets later, Bryan stood in the lobby of the Firing Line, a shooting range on Jamestown Lane, with fellow students from her firearms class and looked at her performance. Bryan, a first-time shooter, said she was happy with her performance but also a little uncomfortable.

“I hate that society has gotten to the point that I’m taking this class,” she said, frustration in her voice. Bryan said she had become increasingly worried about crime and had come to the shooting range to learn how to use a gun.

“The riots have been a real motivator to me,” said Bryan, 39. “I saw that the people who fared best had guns.”

Bryan is not alone in that sentiment. Gun stores and shooting ranges across Orange County report that an increasing number of women are buying guns and attending firearms classes. Although much of the evidence for an increase in the number of female gun owners in Orange County and elsewhere is anecdotal, a 1988 Gallup poll commissioned by Connecticut-based gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson found that between 1983 and 1986, gun ownership among women jumped 53%, to more than 12 million.

And Ken Jorgenson, a spokesman for Smith & Wesson, said sales of his company’s popular line of Ladysmith handguns--which are designed with grips for women’s smaller hands and with reduced weight to make handling easier--doubled from 1991 to 1992.

Handgun ownership in Orange County as a whole is also on the rise. The state Department of Justice, which tracks legal sales of firearms, said that handgun sales in Orange County have increased more than 20% since 1988.

Randy Garrel, president of Grant’s for Guns, a Costa Mesa gun shop, said there had been a noticeable increase in the number of women who purchase guns in his store. Garrel said he considers the trend a sign of the times.

“It’s a logical extrapolation of the women’s movement,” Garrel said. “They’re tired of being victims and they’re taking care of themselves.”

Garrel attributed much of the increase in handgun sales to rising crime rates and the riots in Los Angeles. “We used to refer to the county line as an ‘Orange Curtain’ that kept crime from Los Angeles out. But that’s not the case anymore,” Garrel said.

One woman at the Firing Line’s Brea range, who did not want her name used, said she was particularly worried about gang violence but said it was the general increase in crime and the inability of police to curb it that led her to learn how to use a gun.

“The police are doing the best they can, but I don’t think it’s possible for them to protect everyone,” said the woman. “There’s not that many of them and they’re limited in what they can do.”

As she packed her gun into a white canvas bag emblazoned with the words “International Quilting Festival, 1991,” the 52-year-old La Habra resident said she found it a little ironic that she was learning to use a gun. She had once disliked guns so much that she broke her son’s toy rifle over her knee.

“It’s not something I wanted to do,” she said. “I’ve resisted, but after a lot of thought and talking with professionals and people I trust, I’ve decided to learn how to use a gun.”

In a recent interview, Peggy Tartaro, the executive editor of Women and Guns, a magazine written by and for female gun enthusiasts, speculated that changing roles of women in society has contributed to the increase in female gun owners.

“More and more single parents, many of whom are women, are assuming responsibility for the safety of their family units,” Tartaro said.

Gun manufacturers would seem to agree.

An advertisement placed in the current issue of Women and Guns by Riverside County-based Lorcin Engineering Company Inc., a gun manufacturer, appears tailor-made for a mother worried about her children as well as her pocketbook.

In the ad, a stylish black semiautomatic pistol lies on top of a copy of Vogue magazine. To the side of the gun sits a framed picture of three smiling young children.

“Not just another fashion statement,” the ad reads, “but an above average means of protection, at a better than average price.”

Critics contend, however, that gun companies and other pro-gun organizations are taking advantage of women’s fears to earn a profit and argue that guns are not the answer to women’s concerns about personal security.

“I know that having a gun is not enough,” said Kathleen Burke, a 23-year veteran of the New York City Police Department and former president of the International Federation of Women Police Officers. “As an officer, I was not even allowed to carry a gun in my purse. It was just too hard to get it out during an emergency,” said Burke, who questioned the average woman’s ability to use a gun properly.

Even if a woman could pull out her gun, Burke added, it might be used against her. “It’s a scary feeling when you’re looking up at the barrel of your own gun and praying that the person who took it away from you doesn’t know how to use it,” recalled Burke, who said that she had once had her gun taken away from her during a scuffle with three assailants.

Gwen Fitzgerald, a spokeswoman with Washington-based Handgun Control Inc., agreed with Burke’s assessment. She cited a 1991 FBI crime study that reported 25% of police officers killed by a gun are shot with their own weapons.

“Those cops who were killed were well-trained to deal with those sorts of situations. How many people with firearms in their home can say the same?” Fitzgerald asked.

Fitzgerald urged women to get some perspective on the issue and criticized the NRA and other pro-gun lobbies for preying on women’s fears for profit.

“I don’t want women to abdicate personal safety,” Fitzgerald said. “But we don’t want women to get duped by groups that have singled them out, either.”

For 65-year-old Nancy Stewart of Laguna Niguel, a small, gravelly-voiced woman with a fiery halo of red hair, the politics of gun control were the least of her worries.

Stewart, who came to the Firing Line to sign up for a basic firearms class, said the feeling of personal safety was her central concern.

“With all the rapes going on and my husband gone, a gun is security; it makes you feel more confident,” she explained.

“I think that buying a gun is a good idea,” Stewart said as she stood beside the framed pictures of John Wayne and Dirty Harry. “I’ve gotten this far in life and I want to stick around a little longer.”

Pistol Sales Going Great Guns

Handguns sold: The relatively recent attraction of women to handguns is another part of their growing popularity in Orange County. Between 1988 and 1991 the total number of handguns sold here increased 28%. 1992: 36,535* * January-October

County Comparison: During the first 10 months of 1992, the county ranked second only to Los Angeles County in number of handguns purchased. The more than 36,000 sales amounted to about one pistol for every 69 residents. Los Angeles: 95,783 Orange: 36,535 San Diego: 22,962 Alameda: 16,062 San Bernardino: 14,463 In the Cities: From Jan. 1 through Dec. 18, 1992, more than 27,000 handguns were purchased by residents in 25 of the county’s cities. The number bought by those living in unincorporated areas was unavailable. Actual sales were most active in Santa Ana and Anaheim; the rate per 1,000 residents highest, by far, in Los Alamitos.

Handguns Rate per 1,000 purchased residents Anaheim 3,554 14.1 Brea 435 12.9 Buena Park 885 12.5 Costa Mesa 1,244 12.6 Cypress 753 17.0 Fountain Valley 756 14.0 Fullerton 1,337 11.4 Garden Grove 1,953 13.2 Huntington Beach 2,548 13.8 Irvine 1,080 9.4 Laguna Beach 207 8.6 La Habra 689 13.4 La Palma 230 14.7 Los Alamitos 326 26.7 Newport Beach 624 9.2 Orange 1,883 16.4 Placentia 502 11.9 San Clemente 585 13.6 San Juan Capistrano 423 15.4 Santa Ana 4,132 13.6 Seal Beach 315 12.4 Stanton 335 10.7 Tustin 713 13.0 Westminster 998 12.5 Yorba Linda 732 13.3 CITY TOTAL 27,239 12.0

Note: No sales were recorded in Dana Point, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo and Villa Park.

Source: California Department of Justice

Researched by TIM CHOU / Los Angeles Times