Mark Skinner at the Maryland Small Arms Range in Marlboro, Maryland, says that women come in for a variety of reasons, but the majority seem to be recreational. "A lot of women come in saying they just want to learn how to shoot a gun, that they never have before. Some say they've just gotten divorced, and they want a gun in the house for protection because they think [he's] crazy. And most women want something cute, something small," explains Skinner.

For the past eight years, the Maryland Small Arms Range has hosted Ladies Night on Mondays, which attracts a large portion of their female customers, followed closely by Couples Night on Wednesdays. Skinner said that of all the women that come into the facility, around 45 to 50 percent end up registering for and buying a gun.

Sporting goods stores have wasted little time jumping on the bandwagon, and have adopted specific marketing strategies geared towards women. The online store Gun Goddess, for instance, sells "fun and feminine shooting accessories" ranging from concealment purses and holsters to "gun bling" and "ballistic jewelry." (Some of their offerings bring to mind the parody site Glamguns.com*, which pretends to offer mini-gun enthusiasts a Hello Kitty rifle, known affectionately as the HK AK-47, and the My Little Carbine, "for the little girl in everyone.")



So what exactly is behind this recent wave of girl-friendly gun enthusiasm? And what does it mean for the future face of violent crime in America?

Gun-related crimes have historically been carried out overwhelmingly by men, with women representing only a fraction of the perpetrators. However, recent alarming figures challenge the pervasive stereotype that men -- and men alone -- have a biological proclivity toward aggression. Statistically, women are the fastest growing demographic in prison. According to the Institute on Women and Criminal Justice, the female incarceration rate has grown 757 percent from 1977 to 2005. In 2010, 113,000 women were incarcerated, 33 percent of whom had been convicted of violent crimes. These numbers force us to take a more discerning look at the causes of female-instigated violence, particularly gun-related crime.

An estimated 15 to 20 million women in the United States now own or carry a concealed firearm. And according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 8.7 percent of gun-related homicides are perpetrated by a female offender -- a small but not insignificant number. Research suggests that women are still more likely to commit homicide in their own intimate family circles, with poison being the leading 'weapon' of choice.

But instances of gun-related massacres perpetrated by women- though rare- do occur. On February 12, 2010, Harvard University-trained neuroscientist Amy Bishop was taken into custody after opening fire on a faculty meeting at the University of Alabama. Bishop shot and killed three faculty members in the Biological Sciences Department and critically injured three more, reportedly after learning that she would not receive tenure.