- Business Insider spoke to 3 moms who conceal-carry guns amid rising female gun ownership in the US.
- They do so to keep themselves and their families safe, despite the risks of having a gun at home.
- One carries her weapon in a holster or fanny pack and otherwise keeps it locked in a safe.
When Elizabeth Brownell, 28, runs errands in her home state of Virginia with her 6-month-old daughter, she has a Lululemon cross-body bag slung across her chest.
Inside the bag is a Glock 43x, a compact gun with a 10-round magazine capacity. On the gun is a trigger guard, which Brownell says makes it safe to carry her daughter on her chest at the same time.
Brownell bought her first gun in 2021 but didn't start conceal-carrying a weapon until she became a mom. "It wasn't until I was pregnant that I knew, OK, this world's a little crazy," she said. "I would feel a lot more comfortable if I was able to protect myself."
She worries about both targeted and random violence. What if someone physically attacked her while she was with her baby? What if there was a mass shooting?
Knowing that she has a weapon with her has soothed those anxieties, Brownell said. "For me, it was a night-and-day difference. Having a child is obviously completely different, knowing she's fully dependent on me. My full responsibility is to protect her."
More women are choosing to conceal-carry
Though it's difficult to find data on how many moms conceal carry weapons — meaning carrying a weapon in a manner that keeps it hidden from others — more women are becoming gun owners, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which reported a 77% rise in female gun ownership in the US from 2005 to 2020. Between 2019 and 2021, half of all firearm purchases were made by women; one in four women now report owning a firearm.
On social media, women are increasingly sharing videos of how they conceal carry while out in the world, using hashtags like #concealcarry and #concealcarrymom. According to Everytown, a US gun violence prevention organization, 21 states require a permit to carry concealed guns in public, while 29 states don't require a permit.
The moms who spoke to Business Insider for this story shared that their desire to conceal carry a weapon is an effort to protect themselves and their children, despite studies that show that owning a firearm puts people in your home at a greater risk of being killed by a firearm and that only 1% of all gun violence is related to mass shootings.
Angela, a 42-year-old mother in Washington State who declined to share her last name for family privacy reasons, said she started conceal-carrying after marrying her husband, who works in law enforcement. She worries about being the target of violence or aggression because of his job or a random act of violence.
The gun she carries regularly was a Christmas present from her husband and has been fitted with an optic — a device used to help aim a firearm more accurately — that she estimates cost $350.
The moms we spoke to carry their weapons almost everywhere
Angela has five children, the youngest of whom is 5 years old. Now that she doesn't have to physically carry her children anymore, she feels comfortable conceal-carrying a weapon. Sometimes her gun is tucked into a holster, which she said is only visible if she wants it to be. She only tells her children she's carrying a firearm if they're climbing on her or hugging her.
"When I'm wearing it, I just say, 'Hey, I've got my gun on me. You need to be careful.' It makes them aware of that," she said. "They don't ever try to reach out and touch it."
Sometimes, Angela uses a fanny pack instead of a holster to carry her firearm for activities like hiking — but either way, it's within reach.
"It's nice to know that if something were to happen, then I can at least protect me and my children."
Generally, she carries her weapon anywhere she's legally able, and when she doesn't have it with her, it's at home in a locked safe. It's illegal in Washington State to carry guns on sports fields or school grounds, and while she understands why, it does make her feel somewhat less safe there.
"I really do like having it on my person, close to my body, and having a trigger protector on it," she said.
How to be a responsible gun owner
Moms we spoke to who conceal carry are concerned about not only keeping their children safe from outside forces but keeping their children safe from their own guns.
Though the women talked to for this story expressed a desire for gun ownership as a means of protection, research shows that living in a house with a gun makes you more likely to die of homicide, and half of unintentional child injuries or deaths by firearm occurred within the home, though households that lock both guns and ammunition have an 85% decrease in risk for unintentional gun injury of children.
Dina Crowell, 27, who lives in Virginia, carries a handgun with her because of past instances of domestic violence that she says occurred when she was pregnant, but she takes care to ensure that the gun is out of reach of her 2-year-old child. She hasn't ever had to use her firearm, though she says she's kept her hand on the grip of the gun while an "aggressor is hovering" during "road rage."
"Murphy's law is always in effect with these things. You have maybe some other moms that just put the gun in their purses, and then their child ends up finding it and hurting themselves and other people," she said of stories she sees on the news, which scares her and is why she is careful to take precautions.
Crowell keeps her firearm in a holster when she's carrying it and stowed away in a locked safe when she's not. She tries to explain the gun to her child as a tool that will keep them safe if someone tries to hurt them and something that is not a toy for them to play with — but she doesn't expect those warnings to be enough. "That's why it's either locked up or I'm wearing it in a holster."
While using her PHLSTER Enigma holster (which is advertised as an "ultra-low profile" holster that allows the wearer to "dress around [their] life, not [their gun]"), she's able to carry her gun regardless of what she's wearing, hitching her weapon even if she's wearing sweatpants.
Her handgun cost $650, and the holster was around $90. Ongoing costs include buying ammo (which she buys in bulk for between $250 and $500) and time at the gun range, which costs around $50.
Despite being a gun owner who conceal-carries, Crowell believes it's too easy to buy a gun in her home state. "I think people are too uneducated for how easy it is to get a hold of them."