MORE Black Women With Guns

Target Market: Black Women With Guns

http://www.utne.com/mind-body/women-with-guns-zm0z12jazros.aspx#ixzz20Q1lmaxc

For J. Victoria Sanders, joining the ranks of women with guns means
earning a concealed handgun license and coming to terms with Black feminism.

Texas Department of Public Safety data show that the fastest-growing group of concealed handgun owners in the state has been, for at least five years, black women.


When I was six years old, my mother and I were robbed at gunpoint by two men looking for cash. One of them placed the gun at my head until she gave them her mink coat, which looked real but wasn’t, and the bus fare she had in her pocket. The incident was the first thing that came to mind when, more than 20 years later, I started the application process for a concealed handgun license.


I started my career as a reporter in 2001 at an East Texas newspaper headquartered not far from where James Byrd Jr. was dragged to his death by white racists four years earlier. It made me fully aware of the still-present dangers of being black in America. More recently, the attack and sexual assault of reporter Lara Logan in Egypt and the abduction of journalist Dorothy Parvaz, a former colleague of mine at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, reinforced my concerns about the physical vulnerability of female reporters. No matter where we are in the world, no matter our age or race, our lives are threatened by violence.


Journalists must be proactive in the face of bleak statistics and violent events.
For me, learning to handle and shoot a gun seemed the most direct way to fend off growing feelings of vulnerability, but what started out as a simple intention to earn a concealed handgun license ended up as a yearlong quest that involved a few stops at the gun range, being fingerprinted by Texas authorities, and staring for months at the incomplete application on my desk.

People presume that tall black women like me are tough and sufficiently able to protect ourselves, but I wanted an additional layer of insurance for my freedom to explore, unfettered, the realms I pursued as a journalist. As my own process unfolded, I noticed that the number of stories about women shooting for recreation or buying guns for self-defense had started to multiply and in Texas, at least, I wasn’t alone in my quest. Texas Department of Public Safety data show that the fastest-growing group of concealed handgun owners in the state has been, for at least five years, black women.




Social Connotations of Black Women With Guns
Red’s Indoor Range gives women shooters discounts on renting guns and ammunition on Mondays, so this past summer I went with two of my homegirls to kick off the week with some practice. We were each given earplugs, which we wore beneath silencing earmuffs. I rented a .380, bought a box of ammunition, and got to it. My hands, which normally never sweat, began shvitzing as I worried about somehow managing to shoot myself; my dear friend Andy, a Texas-bred black woman and a former junior NRA member, showed me where to put them.