Report: More Women, Suburbanites Carrying-Using Guns :: 08/01/2014

The sports aspect of shooting guns may not be restricted to country boy stereotype anymore, as new statistics show the emerging face of today's shooter is vastly different.  Almost half of today's first time gun buyers in the country are female (48 percent of gun owners), usually purchasing a gun for self-defense and self-sufficiency. Also, most people buying guns today for the first time include people ages 22-30 living in suburban areas, according to a survey by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which keeps a tally on all things related on firearms retail trends.

"The gun retailers themselves don't keep track of the data," says Bill Brassard, senior director of communications for the NSSF. "We tally them by what we see in background checks."

An online survey of U.S. consumers was also conducted by the NSSF.

The organization, based in Newtown, Connecticut, releases annual reports, which in recent years show that first time gun buyers today are "active, using their gun on average once per month or more and are already participating in one or more shooting activities."

Of these first time gun purchases, 87 percent are for home defense, 76 percent are for self defense and 63 percent of this demographic say they always wanted to own a gun. First time buyers are spending an average of $500 on their first gun.

Semiautomatic pistols are the most popular, followed by shotguns, and revolvers, according to the data.

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/2014/08/report-more-women-suburbanites-carrying-guns.html