Women, especially women who never
have picked up a gun before, are the easiest people to teach how to shoot
one, says Art Aplan, a firearms instructor who served as range safety officer
at a Ladies Shoot sponsored by the Second Amendment Sisters last
weekend in Spearfish.
Women tend to be naturals when it comes to
target shooting, Aplan says, largely because they don't have a lot of bad
habits to unlearn. "It's the way women learn things," he says. "I
think they like to learn about the parts of a process and then put it all
together, and that's exactly the way we teach gun safety-education."
The dozen or so women who attended the afternoon
target-shooting event brought a wide range of gun experience and skill
level with them.
One woman came because her husband wants her
to know how to shoot his handgun. Another shoots muzzle-loaders for
fun and wanted to expand her target-shooting repertoire. A couple
of women had just purchased their first handguns for self-defense and needed
to learn the basics of owning a firearm. Another woman used to shoot
years ago and came for a refresher course. Some didn't own a gun.
Still another, a female police officer, wanted the target practice.
Many of the women came with husbands or boyfriends
who want them to know how to handle a gun for protection. Aplan has
already taught his 6 year-old daughter to shoot and hopes she'll decide
to own a gun as an adult. Even if a woman never fires a gun in self-defense,
he says many crimes are prevented just by brandishing a gun. {"Criminals
know the sound of a gun being loaded. They tend to leave when they
hear it," he said. He recommends that any woman who owns a gun take
the 12 hour course, Personal Protection, offered by the National Rifle
Association.
Wayne Warvi, a Rapid City firefighter, brought
his girlfriend to the shoot. He has 20 years experience answering |
Teresa Espinoza with her Glock pistol. |
emergency-medical calls and says guns are a great equalizer for women.
"I've never gone to a rape call where the woman had a pistol."
Nancy Errea, owner of a local gun shop and
the South Dakota director of the Second Amendment Sisters, a group that
promotes gun ownership and lobbies against gun control legislation, agrees
that women are naturally good shooters. "I don't know if it's because
we're such perfectionists about doing everything well or if it's that women
naturally have better hand eye coordination or just a lighter touch,"
Errea says, "but women are naturals."
Whatever the reason, women comprise the fastest
growing segment of recreational target shooters, Aplam says. He coaches
a dozen people privately, 10 of whom are women.
Teresa Espinoza knows why women like target
shooting.
"It's just plain fun," Espinoza says of target
shooting. "I do this 'cause I like it."
The computer programmer started shooting 30
years ago when she married her husband. She knew immediately that
it was the sport for her. "My father thought girls couldn't shoot.
I could go along on the hunting trip, but I couldn't shoot. My husband
said, 'Girls can shoot.' And he taught me how."
Today, the Espinozas travel widely to competitive
shooting contests, where she says she often beats male contestants in speed
and accuracy. "Competitive shooting is a good sport for women to
excel at," she says, patting the Glock semi-automatic pistol holstered
at her hip and smiling broadly as she compares her hobby to golfing, bowling
or playing tennis. "This is my tennis racket."
Errea plans to offer the Ladies Shoots again
next year. The event is free and open to any woman who wants to learn
to shoot a handgun.
Garrigan can be reached at 394-8410 or mary_garrigan@
thenewspaper.org |
o t i n g s t r a i g h t
