Rama: Pretty in pink

Sunday, January 8, 2012

A CALL from an old shooting student brought me to Kamagong Gun Club, Sunday afternoon, for some range time with three guys and a visiting gal who is here with her husband for the Sinulog.

The three gentlemen were all long-time gun owners but they hadn’t had formal training. The lady said she had some shooting time in Canada.

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I’ve had a lot of male students over the past couple of years. Blame it on testosterone.

But lady students are few and far between. I’ve taught a lady lawyer, a lady doctor, two lady nurses and… that’s about it. I can add a few more, there weren’t too many then either, but they were in classes I only co-facilitated.

But a report from CBS News shows that in the US, at least, the face of the American gun owners is changing.

More women, says the report by CBS broadcast journalist Katrina Szish, are picking up rifles, shotguns, pistols and revolvers and, between 2001 and 2010, the number of women joining shooting matches went up 47 percent.

That is actually confirmed by the way firearm manufacturers abroad are producing guns in pretty pink. Accessory makers are also now selling purses, a few also in pink, with pistol slots incorporated in trendy designs.

I know for a fact that some of these pink guns have been on the shelf here for years now.

A ranking executive at a local hotel once booked me for some lessons after buying from Armscor’s Joel Concepcion a pink semi-auto. Sadly, the classes never pushed through.

Moreover, the number of lady shooters participating in local matches has also been on the up and up, especially in the junior division. In a few years, they’ll be joining the regular categories and making waves.

One lady shooter in the local circuit now, though not with a pink gun, is Frontsight Gun Club’s Elena Singson.

She shot competitively throughout high school but went on hiatus while pursuing a degree in psychology at a local university. She now works at a BPO company and shoots as often as her schedule permits.

I don’t think anybody who is not wired into the shooting community would ever suspect that this young human resource practitioner – who wore a “girly” dress to a recent club gathering – packs heat on weekends.

The CBS report paints the same picture.

“We’re not talking Dirty Harriet here,” noted Szish.

Her report included an author and a mother of three and a yoga instructor.

“I always dress up. I’m very traditionally feminine in certain ways. But when I’m shooting a gun, I guess I feel empowered, and empowerment is sexy,” said Jill Kargman, the first interviewee.

“All of us are brought together by the love of the sport,” noted Lesa Ellanson, a certified shooting instructor for the National Rifle Association’s “Women on Target” program, whom Szish also featured.

Szish shot Ellanson a line many here would probably share: “Guns are masculine.”

And Ellanson replied with a statement I cannot help but applaud: “It would depend on how you define femininity. I think a capable woman is the most feminine expression of power that there is.”

I’ve written before that lady students actually out-shoot their male shooting counterparts in the initial stages of firearms training because they can get
themselves to relax faster than men do and relaxation is the name of the game.

They are also better attuned to the complexities of the shooting process – the gun being gripped right, the stance correct, the sights in proper alignment, the breathing proper and all that.

Men, on the other hand, tend to itch to break the trigger and ask questions later. No offense, guys.

(knrama@gmail.com)