I think that we're being under-reported, frankly. Outside of licensed firearms, nothing is really tracked. And if somebody asked you if you have guns in your house--c'mon, what's your response?

Locally, I think our county population is 265k, and I believe that there are 60k pistol permits issued. I think a bigger part of the problem are the 2/3rds of gun owners that own long guns. They're not necessarily on our side--some of them actually support our "SAFE" Act, because for what they do (hunting and trap shooting), they don't see a need for a semiautomatic rifle or a 10-round magazine, and being secretly elitist and a little hoplophobic, conclude nobody else has a need for them either.

The other bits I agree with. I think a lot of people go out of their way to be loud and obnoxious about their ownership. I saw a knucklehead in the supermarket a couple weeks ago with an empty competition-style holster. One of those "barrel plug and a ledge" jobs. Woulda almost been fine, most people wouldn't recognize it as a gun holster. Except he was also wearing an obnoxious shirt.

We've made some great strides in normalizing concealed carry. Having women be the fastest-growing segment of handgun owners and CCWers is a big victory--bigger than I think the industry realizes. Women set societal norms in our country. What is acceptable to women tends to be what is socially-acceptable. Prohibition happened, in large part, because women got tired of men coming home drunk every day, and decided to do something about it.

Where we falter is what we do with that. I think the industry and the shooting community trivializes female shooters in a lot of ways, and I think that shooters themselves are doing the community a disservice in how they behave and act at the range. It's not a boys' club anymore.

At the same time, I think we work too hard to treat women as being different than male shooters. Yes, there are obvious physical differences, but I also think that there's a strong association in men's minds that a woman shooting must be a new shooter, or in need of coaching (and so many of them really, really don't need any help).

But anyways, Chat, I'd point out that you guys fought for and won concealed carry. In the blue states, the fight is more existential. Yeah, I never thought I'd be able to get a CCW permit, but I worry about where my right to even possess or shoot is going to go. Am I going to have to drive to Vermont to pick up reloading supplies when they figure out I can make my own ammo (internet ammo sales are banned)?

The other deal is, we're still tied to the permit system. Guys raise a ruckus over mental health, orders of protection, and other forms of extrajudicial disarmament--but that's every day for us. The issuing judges can decide to invalidate our permits to own without trial or cause.