A Georgia firearms instructor is hoping to train one million women how to shoot a gun in her lifetime. Savannah resident Marchelle Tigner wants to increase the number of African American women who know how to shoot. A study by the Pew Research Center released this month shows that just 16% of “non-white women” identified themselves as gun owners, compared with 25% of white women.
Other Pew surveys in recent years have shown a growing acceptance of firearms among African-Americans: In 2012, one found that less than a third of black households viewed gun ownership as positive; three years later, that number had jumped. By then, 59 percent of black families saw owning guns as a necessity.