Despite my better judgment, I gave in to curiosity and watched a video over the weekend that I wished I hadn’t.  The video included the ridiculous statement that women will never be treated equally at the range, and it went on to paint almost all men in the shooting community as misogynistic knuckle draggers.  While there have been others that have done a fine job of chiming in on this inaccurate video, I feel the need to add my 2 cents.

While likely unintentional, this video does a huge disservice to those of us that are trying to encourage more women to participate in shooting and the shooting sports (dissing men is not cool either).  There’s no doubt that learning to shoot can be an intimidating experience (for both sexes), and adding to the fear and anxiety with a poorly thought out rant is extremely counterproductive to the cause.

I’m not an expert shooter, but I’ve been shooting for just over 3 years, and for the last two, I’ve been very involved in USPSA and IDPA.  I try to get at least 500-1000 down range every month, and that means lots of time at multiple ranges.  I’ve visited dozens of gun shops, pawn shops and gun shows in several states and I am hard pressed to come up with more than a couple of examples where I was treated badly.  In every case where someone was less than friendly to me, they were treating BOTH men and women with the same amount of disrespect.  In other words, it’s not you, it’s them.

I’m not saying the shooting community doesn’t have undesirable characters, of course it does (just like every other segment of the general population).  What I am saying is that if someone is giving you unwarranted attention or is treating you with disrespect at the range or gun store, it’s extremely unlikely it’s because you are female.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the people that make up the shooting community are the kindest and most generous people I have ever met.  I am extremely grateful for the help I’ve gotten from the men and women who have taken the time to help me become a better shooter, and I welcome their continued advice, solicited or not.