It's like an awakening and they do, they walk away with a smile
and there is a sense of empowerment.
In the past I would've come with my husband.
So for me to participate and actually be in something like this is just very exciting.
I'd never heard of a competition just for women
Every time I come to shoot, I pretty much get my own private bathroom.
A sighting of women are so rare.
There has been a perception that it is a male dominated sport.
But once you have a firearm in your hand everyone's on a equal playing field.
You walk through the doors,
into the range
and as the final door shuts behind you,
I tend to just shut my eyes and breathe and all I can hear is my own breathing
and it's just like the weight of the day is just melting away.
And then I get to go to my bay and
start shooting.
My name's Inga.
I'm a mum of two young girls
and I enjoy target shooting
in both handgun and long arms.
So I got into shooting just after having my first child.
I just needed something to do for myself.
Shooting was extremely mother friendly when my children were babies.
The range officer was more than happy to keep my child entertained.
One of my recommendations for having more women at the range
was to try and revolve things around mums and letting them know that their children are welcome.
At the start of my shooting, well career I guess
a year ago I was kind of intimidated by all the men there.
They seemed pretty you know, I'm here to shoot like, look at me, kind of thing.
My name is Miranda, I'm 15 and I do recreational shooting.
When my dad kind of came to me with this idea saying,
“I was shooting when I was young and I'd like to take it up again."
And so I thought I'd just join him when he offered.
Oh it certainly means I get more time to spend with her on the weekend which is great.
I've never had anything to do with guns. I don't touch them,
I don't like to see them, I don't like the look of them, I don't like the whole idea of shooting at all.
I think the safety precautions they have around it now are now very good
so I actually thing shooting for young children whether they be boy or girl,
in Australia is a very, very safe thing to do.
I do have my gun license before I got my car license
but with cars I feel like they're actually pretty dangerous.
I use a 22 Anschutz.
It's a fairly small gun, it's just a regular bolt-action rifle.
It's not too large so the kick back is not too great, and it doesn't you know, hurt, or I don't flinch.
All clear.
Considering I'd never done a competition before I thought,
"Oh well, if this is maybe my first time, I'm gonna be in an environment where"
at least it’s like supportive, and although competitive, not too competitive
and I'm just gonna have a fun time and just like, try it out.
Inga,
Alicia and Jo.
So detail one,
Today we're very excited we're having a
ladies competition shoot.
It's the first one that has been organised
by Sporting Shooters New South Wales.
We are seeing an increase in interest from female shooters.
There's a lot of talk about gender equality
and I guess the rise in popularity of other very male dominated sports.
and I think it just makes sense that shooting follows.
So a day like today one of the main aims is to get more ladies involved
and ultimately getting them comfortable with going out and competing on the range with the men
and hopefully beating the men.
I feel really zen when I've come out.
Even though I might have been struggling with budgets and reconciliations all day
and then ended up with whinging kids after school,
by the time you're finished you, you've completely forgotten
what the dramas were five hours ago
and you just, you just sort of like float home.
After Inga's been to the range, yeah she's obviously a little bit more relaxed and yeah.
Always got a smile on her face.
By having a female only shoot
for me
it means I can say hey I have this competition that I have to participate in,
you're gonna have to take the kids I gotta go.
And then I've got the afternoon free
to my sport and hopefully meeting some other lovely ladies.
Did everyone enjoy themselves?
Yes!
Based on the success of today we will definitely be offering more of ladies only type activities.
I think it portrays to the general community a really good message.
Okay...
We have very, very different gun cultures and we have
very different laws.
It was a real tragedy and it upset me that their lives were ended that way.
But take the firearm out of the situation and it could've been a knife,
could've been a chainsaw.
They could've been poisoned.
Everyone's a responsible vehicle owner until they mow down people in the street.
I only want to be able to shoot firearms
so I've got a sport that I can partake in.
It's not just like a macho gun head sorta
thing anymore.
It was actually really empowering to see so many women of
different ages, different backgrounds, they'd all come from different locations.
It was like we were all there to support each other.
I truly hope more women join this sport
so I can have some more friends.
I can't wait for my daughters to come of age
so we can do this sport together.