There’s a multitude of reasons for women to seek earning their CCW. It can be for self-defense, or simply that more Americans are being educated that they can attain a concealed-carry permit. Tammi Erdman, an Armed Lady instructor, shared her reasons:

Ms. Erdman left Florida for Toledo in 1986, when her daughter was 11 months old, and took a position at the Huntington National Bank on McCord Road and West Central Avenue.

Three years later, on Dec. 21, 1989, the bank was robbed. In the case, two armed men entered, demanded money from tellers, and fled on foot.

“I travel over 1,500 miles to have a gun in my face and be robbed, when, in all honesty, it should have happened over there?” she says, speaking of the danger she thought she was escaping by leaving Florida. “I had nightmares for years that they took my kid.”

Ms. Erdman still talks about the robbery as if it were out of place, but her guns — those in her house, truck, and holster — and her strict preparation philosophy suggest a different attitude. Now, nothing is out of place to her, and she believes there’s no way to stop it without preparing herself to fight back.

While Ms. Erdman points to her own experience as justification for self-defense, many other gun owners in the United States simply point to the news.

It is apparent in recent news stories that the increased visibility of firearms in the national conversation has contributed to the record surges in gun purchases and CCW permits in 2016.