A popular video is shooting around the Internet in which Natalie Foster—a woman, evidently—is advocating two things: that women need to get into shooting because it’s fun, and that male shooters need to be supportive of women when shooting. The video is available on the NRA website, if you are interested.

Ms. Foster’s points focus on her observations that many men tend to dismiss women in shooting for anything other than self-defense. Yes, their wife or daughter better know how to handle that .38 special in the nightstand; beyond that, women have no place hunting or shooting skeet or plinking. Ms. Foster says, boldy but quite truthfully, that if men want shooting to become more legalized, they better move over and let women in.

As loyal readers know, the Царица is involved in shooting—because she likes it. Yes, she is aware that this has powerful self-defense equalization benefits, but she just plain likes hitting targets with a variety of different kinds of firepower. She would agree with Ms. Foster that women should be shooting because it is fun. However, she has yet to encounter any male chauvanism in any of her many shooting experiences.

In fact, the guys have been quickly moving over to give her room to shoot, and ask for her opinions on the weapons she shot. They express interest in her experiences as an equal participant. This is not to refute Ms. Foster, but to encourage other women.

When the Царица visited her first outdoor range, she was shocked to see it wasn’t crowded with frat guys and ex-military grim-faced types. In fact, she immediately commented on how many women there were, how many were over 60, how many were under 25, and how many shooters of either gender were white, black, Near, Middle, and Far Eastern, and Hispanic. When she went to her first indoor range, the Царица counted that out of 100 shooters, exactly 30 were female. Almost a third.

No wonder she felt welcome. When a friend of hers recently entertained the idea of going to a range, the Царица encouraged her to go. You will be welcome, you will be well represented by others. You will fit in, she advised. Whatever you think about the shooting sports, you will be amazed at how inclusive it really is. When her friend finally went, she too could not suppress her delight in how many women, minorities, and age groups were represented. She brought her kids, the youngest of which is a 12-year-old girl…and there were kids younger than that shooting that day.

Her friend’s shooting instructor for the day is a former Marine who quickly got her hitting targets very accurately. When finished, the Marine wanted to know her opinion of the 9mm Glock she had just handled. He didn’t ridicule her, make fun of her, or correct her: he agreed with her. A Marine agreed with her on the finer points of using a semiautomatic pistol. That had never happened before.

Ultimately, this post is an encouragement to our many women readers who have not yet gone shooting: swing by a couple of ranges. You can go by yourself, it’s okay! See what the folks there look like. Find a friend, male or female, who knows how to shoot and ask to go. It isn’t a chore for them—good shooters are honored to take a new shooter to a range.

The Czar is terribly ancient, and remembers when ranges were hard to find and heavily male dominated. We will tell you that the more women have gotten involved in shooting, the better it got. The ranges got cleaned, friendlier, and became family places. More of that please.

And for your first couple of visits, forget about shooting home intruders or target placement or how fast you can reload. Just have fun. As the Царица will tell you, it will be something you want to do again and again.

If there is any curiosity here, ladies, send us an email. The Czar would be willing, if anyone (male or female) is interested, in writing up what to look for in a range, what to do, how to rent a weapon for the day, asking for assistance, and so on.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.