Women With Weapons

Female only gun camps on rise in US

Debbie Ferns

"Debbie Ferns travels the USA organising "Ladies Only Gun Camps" complete with pink weapons to encourage women to take up shooting.
Mrs Ferns, 55, from Tucson, Arizona, has also written a book called Babes with Bullets, Women Having Fun With Guns.Every woman in America should shoot a gun," said Mrs Ferns, who has more than 20 in her home collection.
She added "As long as the woman is a legal and law-abiding citizen I feel they should at least have a basic education in firearms safety."
The three-day camps, which cost £400, are exploding across the country and in January next year a US TV show will begin documenting the female gun trend.
"It started with one camp in 2004 and now we're planning 15 to 20 camps for 2010," said Debbie, who has helped recruit over 1,000 women to the shooting world.
"Women love it. We get schoolteachers, lawyers, nurses, women from all walks of life.
"They come in as novices and go away with a brand new skill using a powerful tool.
"Quite often they make new lifelong friends at camp as well."
The women-only gun camps are particularly popular with women over the age of 35, up to those in their 60s.
"We have so much fun and it's very exciting.
"It's a fast paced program and by the third day of camp we have women safely drawing from holsters and shooting on the move," said Mrs Ferns. "We often get emails from women telling us that the camp has changed their lives."

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