Are women safer with guns around?

Courtney Free was four years old when she was introduced to guns.

Her father was an avid hunter who took Free and her brother shooting and to the range for target practice. Later in her life, Free bought a 9 mm Smith & Wesson for practice at the range and a shotgun for duck hunting.

“Living in the South, it’s almost a rite of passage," Free said. "You get your BB gun, then you get a shotgun and then when you get older you get a rifle to go deer hunting.”

Free also purchased a 9 mm Ruger LC9, a sleek handgun she started carrying concealed for self-defense. She's one of a growing number of American women who believe carrying guns will allow them to better protect themselves in case of an unexpected violent attack.

But statistics from the Violence Policy Center suggest the opposite. A 2003 study revealed women who live in a home with a gun are nearly three times more likely to be murdered than women who live with no gun in the home.

Louisiana ranks fourth in the nation for most female homicides, according to a 2013 FBI Supplementary Homicide Report. The average female homicide victim was 36 years old, and more than 90 percent of murdered women were killed by someone they knew. Fifty-five percent (22 of 40) of Louisiana's female homicides in 2013 involved a firearm.

The Violence Policy Center's "When Men Murder Women" report concluded, “The picture that emerges from 'When Men Murder Women' is that women face the greatest threat from someone they know, most often a spouse or intimate acquaintance who is armed with a gun. For women in America, guns are not used to save lives, but to take them.”

Guns and Self Defense: Myth or Magic?

Janalee Tobias, a conservative Mormon housewife and president and founder of Women Against Gun Control, deals daily with women who wonder if buying a gun is a smart life choice. Tobias said she has seen women transform and develop confidence as well as competence as they learn how to properly handle firearms.

“Guns are magical," Tobias said. "If people think you have a gun, they’re afraid of you.”

Several The Well Armed Woman Chapters exist in Louisiana to educate and empower female gun owners. Adrianna Eschete, chapter leader for the Bayou Region in Houma said women increasingly are finding themselves in roles where they need to protect others.

"Today, more and more ladies are independent, travel alone for their careers, are single moms, take care of a household while the husband works away from home for long periods of time, run errands after daylight hours," Eschete wrote in an email. "Because of these and many other circumstances, we find ourselves as the protectors, rather than the protected, of ourselves and our families."

So it was in Shreveport in January 2014.

Elzie Pipkins, then 63, managed to reach the gun she had stashed in her safe when 16-year-old Devon Antonio Young broke into her home. He was armed with a shotgun and demanding money. Now he's dead.

“I was only defending myself and my family inside of my home,” Pipkins told The Times. “It wasn’t on the outside, this was on the inside. When someone comes at you with force to do bodily harm, you have the right to defend yourself.”

A 2015 report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation stated more than 48 percent of women surveyed said they kept a gun for self-protection and home defense. More than 80 percent of women reported feeling more secure because of owning a firearm, while 74 percent said they considered owning a gun a matter of survival and self reliance.

According to the report, the average female gun owner was between 25 and 34 years old, white, employed full time and married. She also had a college degree and lived in a rural area.

Kristen Blakeney, 28, lives with her husband and five-year-old son out in the country near Calhoun. She got her first handgun from a boyfriend who wanted to be sure she could protect herself. Blakeney currently owns several handguns, shotguns and an AR-15. Blakeney said she can't rely on police for help in case of an emergency because of how far away she lives from the city.

"I live in the sticks. You have to depend on yourself out here," Blakeney said. "It all comes back to my son. What if something happened? My kid needs a mom."

Patrick Peele taught his two daughters how to handle firearms from an early age and said they have since taken concealed carry and basic firearm safety classes, in addition to NRA-sponsored classes on self and home protection.

"They’re not under my roof anymore," Peele said of his daughters, both grown and with families of their own. "I want them to be able to protect themselves and my grandbabies.”

Peele added, “You hear people saying I’d take a bullet for my child. Well, why don’t you use a gun to protect yourself and your child so you can be there to raise your child?”

More than 80 percent of women surveyed in the NSSF report said owning a firearm made them feel more secure. Half said that owning a gun made them feel empowered.

Margot Bennett, Women Against Gun Violence executive director, said despite feelings of empowerment many women have been misled by fear and propaganda to purchase guns for self-defense and are not aware of the facts of gun violence.

“The only message women are hearing is that guns make you safer. I understand the way having a gun makes them feel but feelings aren’t always accurate. Statistics don’t lie,” Bennett said.

Data from the National Crime Victimization Survey disclosed that in a five year period between 2007 and 2011, only 0.8 percent of individuals surveyed said they “threatened or attacked with a firearm” in self-defense. An FBI Uniform Crime report disclosed that of 270 justifiable homicides in 2013, only 23 involved a woman killing a man. Of those cases, a total of 13 — or 56 percent — involved a firearm.

That same report analyzed the total number of attacks on one female by one male and found that 53 percent of female homicides involved the male using a firearm to kill the woman. In 280 cases, the woman was shot and killed following an argument.

Nearly all local domestic violence-related killings — from Jane Guiden in 2012 to Annie Bond in 2013 to Cynthia McCray earlier this year — came from the business end of a gun.

Bennett said women involved in domestic disputes can quickly become victims of domestic homicide and the presence of a gun can escalate a situation.

“Instead of a physical assault, it becomes an assault with a weapon because it’s accessible,” Bennett said, and added, "If you insist on having a gun, you need to be able to use it properly and you need to be prepared to kill someone, which is not something that’s an easy thing to do.”

Bennett said most of the women who ask her about buying guns haven't thought through street scenarios, such as what they would do if they were carrying a gun and were surprise attacked from behind. Bennett said alternative means of self-protection, like taking self-defense classes, could prove more effective in such a situation.

“I’m a strong advocate of learning self defense," Bennett said. "You have a better chance of stepping on an attacker’s instep, swinging your head back and breaking their nose, than swiveling around, pulling a gun out of a holster and shooting someone.”

Local restauranteur Carolyn Simmons doesn't have a gun, partly because she's sure if she needed it to defend herself she'd be more likely to add deadly element to an already dangerous situation.

"If I had a gun on me and tried to pull it out, the person who's trying to assault me would probably get it away from me. I'd be adding a weapon to the mix," Simmon said. "I feel perfectly safe without one."

The reason she does, Simmon said, is because she keeps herself — both in her home neighborhood of Highland and at her restaurant, Blue's Southern Comfort Food — surrounded with good people she trusts. It doesn't bother her some people prefer a weapon on hand to defend themselves, but it concerns her when they fight to carry them in places like schools and other settings where children are present.

Other self-defense alternatives taught to women in colleges and seminars across the country — like vomiting on an attacker or peeing their pants — are met with scorn by gun-toting ladies.

“It’s completely insulting to our intelligence to be told to throw up on an attacker, to pee our pants, to blow a whistle,” Tobias said. “It became crystal clear to me that you can spend years taking self-defense classes, but the best weapon that a woman can use for self defense is a gun. If we send the message ‘Criminals beware because American women know how to use firearms,' watch what would happen to the crime rates.”

Pam Smith, nicknamed "Miss Open Carry Texas" following her appearance on a radio show, said guns will always be her self-defense weapon of choice.

“With tasers, stun guns, I have to wait till they can literally do me harm," Smith said. "That’s very fearful."

Smith added that people who carry guns often don't have to kill someone to stop a threat: sometimes making criminals aware of the presence of a gun is enough to deter a would-be crime. She mentioned as an example a particular day when she was 17 years old and driving down a lonely backstretch of highway with her father. They noticed a car tailing them. Her father pulled over to the side of the road and stuck his gun out the window.

Whoever was driving the car stopped lingering behind them and drove off quickly.

Smith said her firearms training classes taught her situational awareness — how to avoid dangerous situations and to be more aware of her surroundings — as well as teaching her a mindset to deal with would-be attackers. Women tend not to want to hurt others, Smith said, but she learned to value her own life and the life of her loved ones.

“If that’s in their mind, they have an agenda, and they’re going to take it out on someone," Smith said of criminals. "It’s not going to be me. You shoot to stop them. You don’t aim for a leg. I won't regret for having to save my life or a loved one from someone who doesn't care."

Proper Training, Situational Awareness are Critical

Both female gun owners and advocates of gun control agree proper training and situational awareness are critical to a woman being able to protect herself.

Leslie Conger bought her first handgun when her husband was sent to work in an oil field and she was left alone for months at a time. She felt so uncomfortable with the gun that she kept it stowed in her closet. She knew she needed formal training and enrolled in several firearms classes. She said the empowerment she currently feels is because of that training.

“I would say if you want to buy a gun, training is imperative. It’s the No. 1 thing you have to do,” Conger said. “Instead of having gun control laws and taking people’s guns away, the No. 1 thing we need is training and gun education. It’s teaching respect for guns and respect for people’s lives. Respect for human life is lacking in this country. That’s the problem.”

Courtney Free said the firearms classes she took taught her more than gun safety. She learned a deeper respect for guns and a situational awareness mindset that could one day save her life.

"Owning a gun brings more responsibility, more awareness," Free said. "It’s more about situational awareness, the transitions between your car and the Walmart. People always have their heads in their phones, they're not aware of what’s going on. You have to pay attention to your surroundings."

Fast Facts About Female Gun Owners

42 percent of women owned more than three guns

65 percent of women sought recommendations from family before buying a gun

42 percent of women surveyed carry concealed

56.3 percent of female gun owners have kids in the home

84.7 percent of women reported attending zombie hunting activities

73 percent reported taking at least one training class

98.3 percent reported training was very important

58.1 percent of women bought their guns from a gun shop

42.6 percent come from a mass retailer: Walmart, Cabelas, Bass Pro Shops

- Data from the 2013 National Shooting Sports Foundation