Don’t give up if a replacement firing pin is unavailable from your catalog suppliers. Instead, use these tips to solve the problem.

Here are all the items tested in Gun Tests magazine from 2011 back through 1999.

The group Media Matters for America hates NRA. Few organizations have more strongly proclaimed their disdain for our right to keep and bear arms and self-protection, says the NRA-ILA.

Lethal Force Institute’s Massad Ayoob gives a lesson on what to do if you are stopped with firearms in your vehicle. These essential tips will teach you how to safely interact with police when carrying a firearm while driving. (3:47).

Gun Reports - News

NPR Reports that shooting ranges and shops selling firearms are seeing more female customers than ever before, and that has them changing the way they do business.

Gun Makers Set Sights On Female Buyers

(GunReports.com) -- For years, gun stores were predominantly patronized by men. But these days, shooting ranges and shops selling firearms are seeing more female customers than ever before, and that has them changing the way they do business, NPR reports.

In one brand-new shooting range at Eagle Gun in Concord, N.C., shots from Sharon Skoff's handgun boom behind glass that separates the range from the rest of the shop.

"I just refuse to be a victim if I possibly can in life," Skoff says. "I actually went and got my concealed permit a couple months ago so I can carry."

Rachel Parsons, a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association, says women are a huge emerging market. What's happening at Eagle Gun is happening at shops all over, she says.

The latest data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation shows gun store owners reported a 73 percent increase in female customers in 2009 from the year before. Parsons says the trend is even being reflected by the number of guns made just for women.

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Reader Comments

I think this is a great trend that all of us should support. My wife is very pro-handgun, and she has eight of her own. She also encourages me to attend as many gun shows as I wish, and she is always excited to see what I have brought home. I think that one area that the manufacturers should be careful of, is the feminizing of the firearms so as to appeal to more women. Most of the women I see at gun shows sort of snicker when they see the pink grips, frames, and stocks on some of the pieces on display. While I did buy one of Charter Arms Pink Lady revolvers for my wife, she much prefers her Smith & Wesson Body Guard with Insight Laser.

Comment by: canovack | August 25, 2011

I think the Rhino revolvers are going to be big with women. They alleged provide less recoil and less muzzle flip than the familiar revolver constructions. That means big honking calibers for little bitty ladies - or any ladies for that matter. Gotta shoot what you can control.

Comment by: david b | August 25, 2011

I haven't handled a Rhino yet, but I am sort of anxious to find one, and judge it first hand. It sounds like it could be an interesting piece, and if it is as you say, david b, my wife might like it.

Comment by: canovack | August 25, 2011

Honestly, I've not shot one either Colonel. I was repeating what was said by the tester who wrote it up in American Rifleman magazine's May issue. I assume he knows what he's talking about, so I felt comfortable repeating it.

Comment by: david b | August 25, 2011

I so wish the gun manufacturers would cease manufacturing lethal weapons in pastel colors to attract female onwners. I find this practice to be most offensive, to the point of being almost stomach-turning. And I am a female CCW holder, age 74, and I wouldn't be caught dead with a pastel gun anywhere near me. I agree on the question of the Chiappa Rhino; indeed, if it weren't for the high price, I'd have one in a millisecond. And theyt'd better not issue the Rhino in pastel colors!! Gotta stop all this gender-specific crappoli! Guns are guns; LET IT BE!

Comment by: ladyrambo | August 28, 2011

Hey, lady rambo, I've gotta agree with you. As I noted above, I did foolishly buy my wife a Charter Pink Lady, which she promptly put away in her "keep things I don't use" drawer. I did, however, rectify my mistake by buying her the S&W BodyGuard 38. That brought her battery to eight pieces of her very own.

Comment by: canovack | August 28, 2011

Hey, canovack! Good to know that you're man enough to rectify an error in judgment, and I'm glad you're on my side on the question of pastel guns. A gun is a tool used for a specific purpose and a gun should NEVER be considered a "fashion accessory!" Recently a local female gunshop owner said that she'd rather sell a pastel gun to a woman who is fashion-minded, than have that same woman exit the store and remain unarmed. She may have a point, but I think it's a weak one. As a female, I ALWAYS carry concealed. To do otherwise (not being in uniform) invites attention and possibly unwanted taunts. And I live in Arizona, where open carry is perfectly legal and not a problem (providing you're male). I think that women should always and only carry concealed, so who the heck cares what color the gun is so long as it goes BANG as it should. What people can't see won't hurt them -- unless they NEED to be hurt.

Sorry about the typos in the previous post; think I got 'em all this time around.

Comment by: ladyrambo | August 28, 2011

Ladyrambo, I have been posting in this forum for several years, and as other old timers here will attest, I have always been an advocate of concealed carry.....for everybody. I can imagine that open carry for a woman would bring all sorts of undue attention, since it brings considerable attention when males carry that way. Concealed carry provides a surprise to the miscreants, and it protects everybody, since the miscreants don't know who is, and who is not, packing..... Therefore everyone gets a little more respect.....including the anti-Second Amendment hoplophobes.

Comment by: canovack | August 29, 2011