CityView Magazine

Powder Gals is a membership-only group and is private for safety purposes. Shooting seems to be a sport that is growing in popularity with women, so much so that an entire day has been ded- icated to females with firearms at Guns Plus in Spring Lake. Wednesdays there are all about the ladies, all day long. Walking into Guns Plus means being immediately overwhelmed with weapon paraphernalia like guns, holsters, am- munition, knives, bows and arrows — you name it. It's a man's world, or is it? Walking into a shop like that, where even the men who work there look a lit- tle rough and rugged, could be intimi- dating for a woman. But the staff are friendly, helpful, extremely knowledge- able and — they adore the ladies. "Wednesday is the busiest day of the week," said Bernard Burr, a Guns Plus employee who, like many of the guys who work there, is prior military and also worked on the police force. "We have women shooters from novices to grandmas to national competitors." Paul Goodwin, Range Manager at Guns Plus, said, "We get anywhere from 15 to 40 women showing up to shoot on Wednesdays." He said he is amazed at how many women like to shoot. "Ladies are known to be natural shooters. They have really good hand/eye coordina- tion," Goodwin said. Women go to Guns Plus, which is currently being filmed to be featured on truTV's reality show "Hard Core Pawn" to shoot for many different reasons. Some have husbands in the military, some have had frightening experiences and others get started because they have loved ones who enjoy it. Surprisingly though, Burr said, "the overwhelming majority of women who come to shoot at Guns Plus are not military wives." Felicia Hyde, a regular at Guns Plus, walked out of the shooting range wear- ing her cute pink shirt and matching pink ear protection. The first thing she said was, "Let me wash my hands first." Burr explained that the lead in the gun powder can be damaging and even cause lead poisoning. Shooters should be care- ful and make sure to wash their hands and change their clothes aſter shoot- ing. Pregnant women should not shoot 62 | March/April • 2012

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