Gun permit applicants increasingly are women

December 2, 2003
The Tennessean

Even after working several years as a prison guard, Twanda McCurry never felt the need to carry a gun for protection outside of work, and especially not after she went into a new business as an office manager at a bottling plant.

Until about three weeks ago.

That's when she decided to join the fast-growing number of Tennessee women who have permits to carry handguns.

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Since 2000, the percentage of gun-carry permits issued in the state to women has risen steadily from about 10% to almost 20% of those issued so far this year.

No one is exactly sure why. The reasons given vary from a growing interest in sports shooting among women to the belief that men — who are the majority of gun owners — rushed in to get gun-carry permits when they became more easily available in 1996, while women gradually gained interest.

To McCurry the reason was simply personal.

It was late in the afternoon about three weeks ago when McCurry and her sister pulled up to their townhouse apartment in Antioch. Three men rushed up, brandishing an assortment of weapons, including a handgun, a crowbar and a baseball bat.

Startled, the two women felt ambushed but managed to make it into their apartment unharmed. McCurry thinks it was only because the men realized they had made a mistake and backed off to find their intended targets.

Nonetheless, it left her feeling very vulnerable to violence.

''I never imagined I would have to purchase a gun to feel secure,'' said McCurry, 33. ''But life is too short to be afraid to leave my house or my car.''

After undergoing a background check, paying a $115 fee and taking a required training course, she got her gun-carry permit, making her one of more than 5,500 Tennessee women who have done so this year.

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Buford Tune, a former Metro police officer who runs the Academy of Personal Protection and Security. ''We're getting a lot of women who realized that they can't depend on anybody to protect them.''

The increase in his female trainees in the past couple of years includes those who may have to work late at night, those whose husbands or boyfriends may often be out of town, and those interested in becoming security officers, said Tune, who has run a weapons and personal safety school for 10 years.

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''We used to see about two out of 20 in a class were women. Now we're starting to see about one-half of the class being women.''

Gun sellers see a rise in women buying guns, as well. Female customers have increased by 25% to 30% in the past five years, said John Arnold, owner of Specialty Arms II in La Vergne.

A similar rise has been noted at Law Enforcement Equipment in Nashville. ''Something has happened in their life that they perceive as a threat, and they feel safer with this,'' said owner Tommy St. Charles. ''It gives them peace of mind.''

''After 9/11, there was a spike and you'll continue to see spikes'' with reports of local violent crimes, said Harris, who is legal adviser to the National Rifle Association in Tennessee.

There are 137,608 valid handgun permits in Tennessee, which is about 2.5% of the population.

Lisa Binkley, who lives in Goodlettsville, is glad she is among that 2.5%.

Binkley, 39, works as a security guard, but when she applied for a permit, she wanted to carry a gun for her own protection. ''If I'm out with my family or if I'm by myself, I want to be safe.''

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