Gun Dealers So Happy They've Scared Women Into Buying More Guns

Las Vegas gun show targets women, other first-time buyers.

Gun manufacturers love to sell more guns, despite all the related, senseless deaths, and an emerging market is women. Rifles, shotguns, and other large penis substitutes were usually the guests of dishonor at the annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show in Las Vegas. Now, the SHOT show (get it?) is highlighting "small, lightweight and concealable guns" because that's what girls like.

The Crime Prevention Research Center, a gun-rights group, boasted that the number of Americans with concealed-carry permits rose to almost 18.7 million in 2019. It was a still depressing 12.8 million in 2015. Gun lovers don't consider this statistic evidence that Donald Trump has made America significantly less safe. No, Trump's actually delivered exponentially more freedom for us than that tyrant Barack Obama. We're now free to secretly pack heat in the event someone at the supermarket tries to take the last melon from us.

 Oklahoma and Kentucky legalized concealed carry without a permitlast year, which on the one hand is really dumb but on the other, bloodier hand is great for business. Other states have reduced the cost of permits (firearm populism!) and "simplified" the tests for permits. We presume it's something like "Howmad are you right now?"

Gun dealers have quickly responded to the changing market. Jeffrey Duenk, an attendee at the Las Vegas trade show, told the Wall Street Journal that he's designed his three-year-old business with the Ms. 45 crowd in mind. There's "clean, bright rooms" and "no dead animals on the walls." It's a classy operation. He just needs to add a fridge stocked with LaCroix.

The Post Falls, Idaho-based Tactica Defense Fashion offers clothing and accessories for women who want to hide unsightly gun-shaped bulges. President Sandi Little said sales have taken off since the company launched last year. She doesn't directly thank Trump for raising the alarm about those imaginary yet still scary migrant caravans, but she probably should.

"We're after the professional modern woman today," said Ms. Little as she stood near a display showing a sweater with a special opening for a handgun. "She has a job, she has kids .... But she also wants to feel safe."

Women are not safer with a gun in the house. Kids and guns are a lethal combination. But you don't win friends with salad, and you don't sell guns with facts. Gun lovers claim that concealed carry helps keep women safe because "bad guys" don't know if they're armed or not. This isn't supported by most data. Worse, concealed carry fosters an environment where the police don't know if people are armed or not. That's consistently fatal for black people. The gun-obsessed also like to bring up -- seriously, the just won't stop -- the few cases where an armed civilian stopped a mass shooting before more than just several people had died. This is like when people believe buying something they don't need when it's on sale actually saved them money. However, that kind of "logic" will only leave you bankrupt. Gun "logic" will eventually leave us all dead.

Seven years ago, during the dark days of Obama's empire, the clientele at Marc Rohrenbacher's firearms class was "mostly middle-class, beer-belly, white guys." Now that their king is president, Rohrenbacher's classes are as diverse as Trump's judicial nominees aren't: "Now we have all types, including wives, daughters and college students."

Women certainly have a reason to be afraid during Trump's administration, but this isn't the best response.

[ Wall Street Journal ]

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