A generally neutral (from a political perspective) article from the RAND Corporation an organization that is not known as a friend of the Second Amendment. The article addresses how the long-standing relationship between American women and guns is changing. As more women become gun owners, the ripple effects—on safety, public health, and even cultural attitudes—will likely change too. What's certain is that the old assumptions about who owns guns and why, changed markedly in the 2020s. Policymakers, researchers, and communities alike will need to pay attention to how this new era of firearm ownership develops.
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Trending Data Among Women First-Time Gun Owners – 2025 Update
While we are on the topic an article from A Girl and A Gun—the best source for women and firearms: The growth of women in the firearms community has become one of the defining shifts in the shooting industry over the past several years. Headlines often focus on record firearm sales, but the more meaningful story begins after a woman purchases her first firearm. Why she decided to buy, what motivates her to seek training, and what keeps her engaged offer a much clearer picture of where our industry is headed.
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), approximately 11 million Americans purchased their first firearm during 2020 and 2021, the last years for which data is available. It is estimated that roughly half of those first-time buyers were women.
To better understand this historic influx, A Girl & A Gun surveyed thousands of new female gun owners during those years. Our 2025 survey revisits that original research, allowing us to compare motivations, behaviors, and purchasing patterns over time. Rather than capturing a moment in history, these three data sets now reveal an emerging trend: women are entering the firearms community with different expectations, different experiences, and an increasingly intentional commitment to developing lifelong skills.
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Smith & Wesson No. 1 Third Issue Revolver Made for Presentation to Swedish Opera Singer Christina Nilsson
Continuing with the theme of women and firearms ownership: The Smith and Wesson factory delivered this beautiful revolver to D.B. Wesson’s office on February 19, 1870 and it is believed that Wesson presented the revolver to Swedish Opera Singer Christina Nilsson during her 1871 American tour. Christina Nilsson was born in 1843 and essentially became the equivalent to a pop star of her day, enjoying a 20-year career as one of the world’s leading operatic dramatic coloratura sopranos. Nilsson passed away in 1921 at the age of 78 and the revolver remained in the Nilsson family until 1994. Gustave Young embellished the revolver is to the highest standards of the day in the same style he used for Ulysses S. Grant’s revolver and other important arms. The revolver features the finest quality detailed foliate scrollwork and filigree with gold inlaid bands at muzzle and rear of cylinder, grape vines along sides of barrel, bird heads spewing scroll along sides of frame and wolfs head with scroll at top rear. The unique mother-of-pearl grips are also quite spectacular inlaid in gold with Nilsson’s initials on the left panel and “S&W” on the right. Nilsson performed at Steinway Center in New York City in September of 1870 and Roy notes that D.B. Wesson frequented New York City, possibly delivering it to her around that time.
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Sloppy Gun Carrying is a Real Problem
From TSA: The record number of firearms discovered at TSA checkpoints was set in 2023. This means more people are carrying guns, at least off body, and the 93% loaded means that most of them are properly ready for defensive use. It is possible that TSA’s designation of “loaded” does not differentiate between a chamber that is loaded or empty, so it’s possible that some or many of the “loaded” guns did not have a round chambered.
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Random Thoughts on Being ABLE to Intervene
Unless you live completely disconnected from current events, you probably know about the In-N-Out Burger mass murder incident. Three people attempted to intervene with varying degrees of success with no one actually stopping the violent criminal actor (VCA).
One individual who attempted to intervene was a former Twin Falls Police Officer and a former Idaho State Police Officer; however, he was not employed in law enforcement when the incident occurred, so he was an “armed citizen.” He presumably had firearms training in both law enforcement organizations for which he worked; however, he was not able to intervene.
What happens to skill sets (assuming that you have them) when you encounter a situation that elicits “immediate onset threat to life stress” i.e. something that causes your body to dump massive amounts of chemicals into your body to prepare you to fight to the death or flee? Why would your combative skills, empty hand or weapon, not transfer from the gym/range to the street when you need them the most? In other words, why do would we choke and perform sub-optimally when under immediate onset threat to life stress?
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Russia’s Hybrid War Hits NATO
In the additional noteworthy information category from a very informative source: Russia is no longer only fighting in Ukraine. Drones, sabotage, and electronic warfare are testing NATO’s defenses and political resolve. The next disruption may arrive as a grounded airport, a darkened grid, or a bank unable to process payments.
That is hybrid warfare: inflicting damage while complicating attribution and discouraging a collective military response. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warns that Moscow may stage supposedly “accidental” drone or missile strikes to test whether NATO’s Article 5 commitment is practical or theoretical. Danish intelligence says Russia is accepting greater risks, including sabotage that could cause casualties.
The incidents are accumulating. Germany blamed Russia for the failed August drone attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport. On Sept 13, a Russian drone struck a Ukrainian passenger train two kilometers from Poland. NATO fighters downed a drone over Lithuania two days later. Warsaw this week called a fire at a Starlink ground station sabotage, although responsibility remains unconfirmed. These developments follow the unprecedented mass Russian drone incursion into Poland on Sept 10, 2025.
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Belly Bands: Not a Universal Solution
A useful article via the Rangemaster October 2026 Newsletter. In my younger days I lived on the economy in a city where high levels of crime and terrorist threats were a daily fact of life. When I would go running, I carried my Glock 19 in a Neoprene sports support belt tightly wrapped on my upper chest. The pistol stayed in place when I was running and the one time, I had to draw my pistol it worked well. Tom Givens suggests taking a Kydex IWB holster, remove the belt attachment, and super glue the holster into the pistol pocket of the belly band. This gives you a rigid holster and makes one handed re-holstering possible--a much better idea.
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Defenses Against Unarmed Aggressors
Comments from Massad Ayoob: The use of deadly physical force is only allowed in a situation of immediate, otherwise unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm to oneself or other innocent people. That situation is determined by three criteria, which have to be simultaneously present. Ability: the opponents possess the power to kill or cripple; Opportunity: they’re capable of immediately employing it and third, Jeopardy: their actions and/or words indicate to a reasonable and prudent person that their manifest intent is to kill or to cripple.
Disparity of force is one of the elements that can create the “Ability” prong of the three-pronged test of Ability, Opportunity, and Jeopardy. Disparity of force means the opponent or opponents are not armed with a weapon per se but something about their capability in the assault makes it so likely that the defender will be killed or crippled that it is the equivalent of them having a deadly weapon and it warrants the defender’s recourse to a weapon such as a firearm.
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Chiappa Firearms M1-9 Carbine M1 Carbine-Style 9mm Blued Rifle
The Chiappa M1-22 creates the look and feel of the venerable USGI M1 Carbine, but chambered in the inexpensive and easy to shoot .22 LR. A great .22 rimfire rifle in its own right, the M1-22 has the exact overall dimensions as the original M1 Carbine. Available with either a wood or polymer stock, they are interchangeable with genuine M1 Carbines. Each M1-22 comes with two 10-round magazines. The 9mm Luger-chambered carbine has the same overall dimensions, trigger groups design and sights as the original. The receiver has a 3/8" dovetail machined into the receiver, and dovetail-to-Picatinny adapters are also included for mounting optics. The straight blowback design makes the M1-9 ultra-reliable and easy to clean and maintain. Cartridges are fed from standard Beretta M9/92 magazines.
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PXT--A New Era of Rifle Barrel Technology
As the U.S. military pushed to extract greater performance from existing weapons platforms, PROOF Research moved into medium-caliber cannon barrel development and conducted a complete reassessment of rifling profiles, twist rates, pressure, projectile behavior, and barrel manufacturing.
By the early 2020s, that same focus had expanded into small arms — from 5.56 up through .338. Researchers realized that certain applications would require significantly more energy on target. Achieving that meant pushing chamber pressures to roughly 80,000 psi, well beyond the more common 62,000 psi.
Initially, this presented major challenges on the ammunition side. Containing that level of pressure without cartridge case failure required extensive experimentation with materials and propellants. Once the ammunition began to produce the needed performance, the barrel’s performance became the next hurdle.
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