They’re called girls with guns, women with weapons, females with firearm, babes with bullets and there are probably others. But whatever the alliterative phrase, it’s a case of what is usually thought of as the gentle gender and a developing relationship with packing hardware.

Sandy Froman is woman who might be called slight in stature. Despite her diminutive size, beach bullies don’t kick sand in her face because the former president of the National Rifle Association (NRA) carries a gun with her whenever legally allowed to do so.

"I love guns and have never met one I didn’t like," says the Tucson attorney. "Pretty much if a bullet goes in a gun and comes out the barrel, I’ve shot it – pistol, rifle, shotgun, I love them all."

The former leader of the four million-member firearms organization has been elected to a lifetime appointment on the NRA’s executive council.

Not bad for a woman who waited to pull the trigger on her first gun – a Colt .45 – until she was 32. And even that action was prompted by necessity when an intruder tried to break into her San Francisco Bay Area home while she was a student at Stanford law school.

"Guns were never a part of my life up to that point," Froman said. "My father didn’t hunt or target shoot. We didn’t own any firearms, and nobody I knew owned guns either. It wasn’t that I disliked guns, they just weren’t on my radar screen."

That was until the night a would-be intruder tried to pry the lock off her front door and scared her.

"That was a moment of truth for me. Realizing just how alone and vulnerable I was, how I wouldn’t have been able to protect myself," she said. "The very next morning I went and bought a weapon. The salesman recommended I take a gun safety class where we fired pistols on an indoor range. My hand-eye coordination is pretty good and I put all the holes in one tiny circle on the target and felt much better about my ability to ensure my own safety. It grew from there to competitive shooting, hunting, and teaching others as an NRA-certified instructor."

Her involvement with the NRA has continued on for 25 years; 14 on the board, nine as a director and a two-year term as the president, which concluded in April.

Owning a gun or having any kind of involvement with firearms is an individual decision, she says.

"While I think that all women ought to own a gun or at least know how to shoot one, I respect the right of a woman not to have a gun if that decision is an informed one," Froman said. "When I learned about my Second Amendment rights and realized they applied to women as well as men, I learned the issue wasn’t just about guns, but about the freedom to choose to own a firearm if you wanted to."

Another late-in-life shooter is Debbie Ferns, a Tucson-based motivational speaker, handgun instructor, and author of the book, "Babes With Bullets (Women Having Fun With Guns)."

"I have a continuing passion to preserve Second Amendment rights for future generations," says Ferns, who didn’t pick up a pistol until she was 45. "I’m proficient in literally every type of weapon from handguns to rifles to shotguns."

She, too is a member of the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

As part of her feminine image, Ferns hands out pink business cards, shoots with pink-gripped pistols and long guns, and refers to herself as a Princess in Pink.

She say she’s "not interested in dressing in camouflage and sitting in rain or snow, being wet and uncomfortable for hours" so she is not a hunter, but likes shooting sports. That stance prompted her to be part of a report on "NBC Nightly News."

"I felt as a part of pro-gun America, it was an opportunity to share how I felt about firearms and why I don’t want my Second Amendment rights infringed upon," Ferns said. "It’s like the bumper sticker says: Ignore Your Rights and Eventually They’ll Go Away."

Married with two grown daughters who both shoot, Ferns’ passion to educate women about firearms has prompted organizing womens handgun camps across the country to introduce participants to shooting sports, but not hunting.

"It’s women teaching women," she says.

A certified tactical three-gun instructor, Ferns feels shooting sports enhance a woman’s ability for self-protection and improve her self-esteem.

"I can’t tell you how many times women all over the country have told me that they’ve heard things that go bump in the night and had no one else in the house to protect them," she said. "Camps are part gun education, part pajama party, and total enjoyment as we all crank off a thousand rounds getting comfortable handling pistols. We assemble, disassemble, field strip and clean our weapons, load our own magazines, pick up all brass and clean the whole range before we leave."

Nancy Crowley is a shooting compatriot who lives on a small ranch outside of Albuquerque. She likes bolt-action rifles at long distances, punching the bullseye on targets 1,000 yards away.

"I was brought up to fear guns," she says, until she learned about guns and gun safety as part of self defense. "The transformation from women who are scared at the beginning into women who confidently handle firearms by the end of their training is rewarding. Near the end of our classes we bring out a variety of firearms with ammunition and we can’t get students to stop shooting."

There is evidence other women are becoming more comfortable with guns. Smith & Wesson is sponsoring a Ladies Shooting Camp Nov. 6-8 at Pima Pistol Club in Catalina. The 30-attendee roster is already sold-out with first-time shooters ranging in age from 25 to 75.

Lee Allen has it right with this story. We are seeing the requests for CCW classes at almost 50-50 men and women. With many of those numbers married couples getting permits together. This is a good article. Clark -Carryconcealed.net

About the Author: Lee Allen is a Tucson-based freelance writer who loves the outdoors. His Outdoor Observations column appears the third week of each month. AzBiz.com