Photo project about sultry Texas women and their favorite weapons

Photographer Shelly Colton (Shelley Calton), in an attempt to document the role of women in modern firearms culture, shot a series of portraits of her Texas girlfriends for the book Concealed: She's Got a Gun.

In American society, foreign policy and the economy temporarily faded into the background amid the tragedy in Texas, where a student of one of the schools shot 19 children and two teachers in cold blood. The states have already been covered by a wave of protests. However, even she could not prevent the opening of the National Rifle Association congress in the same Texas.

In June 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a law allowing residents of the state to carry firearms without a license or training.

Many armed local women prefer not to openly carry their firearms — for reasons, oddly enough, of safety and comfort. For some Texas women, a gun permit is more than a right. It's a matter of life and death.

The number of residents of the state who have a valid license to carry light firearms is steadily growing, which has given rise to an accompanying accessories industry, including a bra holster, camouflage leggings and gun holders in a leopard-colored car.

More and more women are arming themselves. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in February 2022 found that 7.5 million American adults—just under 3% of the population—purchased guns for the first time between January 2019 and April 2021. This, in turn, has led to the fact that firearms are in homes where 11 million people live, including 5 million children. About half of the new gun owners during this period are women, and 40% are black or Hispanic.

Photographer Shelly Colton is one of the women who own firearms.

At a young age, Shelly and her sister learned to shoot targets outside the city. Their father always kept a pistol on his bedside table and deer hunting rifles. For kids growing up in Houston, this is a common story.

Shelly Colton asked her friends to shoot for a photo project with their weapons. There were plenty of them.

The photographer quickly realized that most of these women had grown up with guns and felt quite comfortable holding them in their hands.

They keep weapons in a safe, under a mattress or in a drawer of a bedside table.

One woman told the photographer:

Other women sometimes hide guns in more unexpected places.

Shelly Colton does not agree with the statement that Texas women are turned on guns.

Others are in danger not far from home. One woman lives on an 800-acre ranch where cougars, wild boars and wild dogs are found.

Another heroine of the photo project told about her brother, who suffers from bipolar disorder and sometimes becomes aggressive and violent. She's ready to defend herself.

93 Americans die every day as a result of gun crimes. Although studies show that guns don't make society safer, these women are determined to take care of themselves.

The mandatory license courses teach that if you pull out a gun, be ready to use it. Otherwise, someone else uses it.