Harmeet Dhillon’s Range Day and the Disrespect Women Still Face in the 2A Community

It should not be a shock when I say women are frequently disrespected in the 2A space simply for posting. They are told they are not strong enough, not smart enough, not capable enough to operate firearms.Social media comments often state that women should “just get a revolver” because they are simple to operate under stress. Another common example is the assertion that a semi-automatic is too complicated for a womanto operate. To make things worse, the more extreme comments do not even try and give unsolicited advice, but make absurd comments like, “I don’t like seeing women with guns because I’ve seen them with cars.” If I call out these comments, people say that women are treated equally in the 2A community and I am just being a “man-hater” or I make these types of comments up for attention. But the negativity is real. Not long ago, even one of Bearing Arms own writers, Tom Knighton, saw how bad it is, and wrote about it. 

Each time a woman posts range videos or target photos, someone inevitably runs to the comment section to make a sarcastic or ill-will comment instead of just being supportive and encouraging. YES, we know that men get the same types of comments; however, the disproportionality is striking. It’s even gotten to the point where non-proficient men feel compelled “offer advice” to competent, capable and even professional shooters just because they are women.

Sometimes it feels like no female shooter, from novice to pro, is safe from ridicule. Case in point, even women in the some of the highest positions of our government are not immune to chauvinistic and misogynistic statements about their firearm training. Recently, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon became a victim of just this. The DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights posted a photo of she and a friend training at the range, and the way she was treat treated downright disgusting.  She was criticized for everything from her groupings (which were mostly center mass), to her stance, hell, even her ethnicity and anything else internet trolls could think of to degrade her with. No mention of the fact that she is actively challenging Illinois assault weapons ban, Massachusetts numerous infringements or California’s CCW permitting racket— she had a few rounds outside the silhouette.

As a woman, of course this is no surprise to me. I see it every day.

Yeah, I can’t help but think about how in recent years women remain the largest demographic of firearm purchasers, yet we are still treated like second class citizens in the 2A space. When I ask the question why, the most common response is men arguing that they’re“picked on as well” or it just “boys being boys,” but everyone knows better that that. For those who do make supportive comments (or even no comment at all sometimes), thank you. For those who simply “like” the post and move on, please know that by clicking that heart or thumbs up, you have inadvertently validated and sometimes inspired people to attack their own community members. Who benefits from that? Oh yeah, the anti-gun politicians, rich donors like Michael Bloomberg and their minions.

So how do we start to combat this First, is understanding that men and women are naturally biologically and psychologically different.  In relation to firearms, when a man is mocked, it does nottypically have the same result that it does for a woman when it comes to firearms. Negative comments towards men when learning how to use a firearm typically makes them want to train more. When a woman is mocked, it makes her even more intimidated and insecure and can lead to her to not continue to grow in capability. Over time, with enough repetition, those who were allies can become apathetic, or go to the extreme and become adversaries.

Yet, when support and encouragement is given (to everyone), WE all benefit. No matter what perspective you take, the more Americans we have exercising and defending our 2A rights the better. Ironically, those who constantly say that we need to bring more women into the 2A space are most commonly the ones to turn around and treat them poorly or will not speak out against those that do.

Take the time to help create the change we all want to see. Just imagine the positive impact that women seeing a man call another man out for poor behavior/comments creates. Believe it or not, when a woman speaks out against the negativity or apparent misogynistic/chauvinistic behavior, we are ridiculedand dismissed as being overly emotional.  Fortunately, in AG Dhillon‘s case, she turned the negativity into an engagement opportunity that continued to expose the bad behavior. Unfortunately, the majority of womenaren’t comfortable doing that and many will just stay quiet and fade back, not wanting to ever post their firearm training journey and the positives which come from gun ownership.

Given the 2A is for everyone, we all need to continue to welcome everyone into the space instead of pushing them away, especially women. Be the change that you want to see and stop accepting negative, degrading and sexist comments from our community.

Editor’s Note: The Second Amendment is for all of us, and 2A advocates should be cheering on those like Dhillon who are excited about going to the range. 

Help us continue to strengthen and secure our Second Amendment rights. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.