Setting the Standard for Women in Firearms | Training. Insights. Intelligence.
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AR-15 Rifle vs. 9mm PCC: What’s the Difference?

Many modern PCCs are built on the same AR platform as a traditional AR-15. They feel familiar in your hands, accept many of the same accessories, and operate with nearly identical controls. But while they share a common manual of arms, they were designed around two very different cartridges, and that single design decision influences everything from how they operate and how far they shoot effectively to the competitions they’re used for and the training required to use them effectively. Many of the handling skills transfer between the two platforms, but the ballistic performance, operating systems, and intended applications do not. This article takes a closer look.

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06/26/2026
4. Running & Gunning: Orange Track

Mechanical Safeties and Decockers: Building Reliability Under Stress

Mechanical safeties and decockers are more than firearm features. When integrated into a consistent shooting process, they help shooters build safer, more reliable, and repeatable performance under pressure. Rather than treating these controls as isolated tasks, competitive and defensive shooters should incorporate disengaging the safety into the draw and presentation, and use the safety or decocker to reinforce the transition from engagement to assessment, movement, or holstering. As training becomes more complex through movement, target transitions, reloads, and decision-making, these integrated habits help maintain firearm control, improve consistency, and reduce errors. While speed is an important performance metric, long-term success depends on developing a reliable process that connects firearm manipulation, visual processing, decision-making, and safe gun handling into one seamless sequence, ultimately building confidence through disciplined, repeatable execution.

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06/23/2026
3. Formidable Holster Skills: Green Track

The Decisions Behind the Lever

A mechanical safety or decocker does more than change the condition of a firearm. It can also reinforce the decisions that guide safe and responsible gun handling. By connecting these controls to intent, awareness, and accountability, shooters can develop a more thoughtful relationship with their firearm. Explore how safeties and decockers become physical expressions of the choices we make before, during, and after every shot.

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06/16/2026
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Women Push Beyond the Limits at DRIFT Academy

Sixteen women from across the country gathered at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) for three days of intensive vehicle survival, personal protection, and tactical decision-making training during the 2026 DRIFT Academy, held June 9–11 at the world-renowned motorsports facility near Danville, Virginia.

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06/14/2026
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How to Optimize Your Brain at the Range

Every time you draw a pistol, acquire your sights, press the trigger, manage recoil, or transition between targets, your nervous system is building and refining an internal model of what it expects to happen next. The shooters who improve the fastest aren’t necessarily the ones who shoot the most rounds. They’re often the ones who become exceptionally good at observing, predicting, evaluating, and adapting. Understanding this process can fundamentally change how you train.

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06/08/2026
2. Mastering Fundamentals: Blue Track

Safety On, Safety Off

The most important safety on any firearm is not a lever, button, or switch. It is the person holding it. Mechanical safeties and decocking levers are valuable tools, but they do not make a firearm safe. They support safe firearm handling when used correctly and consistently. Like any tool, their effectiveness depends entirely on the skill and discipline of the shooter using them.

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06/08/2026
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The A Girl & A Gun Color Track System: A Roadmap for Every Stage of the Shooting Journey

What if you could identify the one area of training that would have the biggest impact on your growth as a shooter? That’s the purpose of the A Girl & A Gun Color Track System. Designed as a roadmap rather than a ranking system, Color Tracks help shooters understand where they are in their development and what skills, resources, and experiences are most likely to move them forward. Every shooter has different goals, different strengths, and different opportunities for growth, which is why there is no one-size-fits-all training path. By discovering your Color Track, you’ll gain a clearer understanding of what to focus on next, allowing you to train with greater purpose, measure your progress more effectively, and get more value from every class, drill, and range session along the way.

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06/01/2026
1. New Shooter Zone: Amber Track

What’s That Lever For?

Mechanical safeties and decocking levers are important firearm features, but they serve different purposes and should never replace safe gun handling practices. A mechanical safety helps prevent a firearm from firing by blocking part of the firing mechanism, while a decocking lever safely lowers the hammer on certain double-action/single-action pistols without firing a round. Because firearm safety systems vary by manufacturer and model, some guns have external thumb safeties, while others rely on internal safety mechanisms or combine safety and decocking functions. Understanding how your specific firearm operates is essential, as no mechanical device can substitute for following the fundamental rules of firearm safety, including keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, keeping your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot, and knowing your target and what is beyond it. By learning your firearm’s controls, reading the owner’s manual, and training with qualified instructors, you can build the confidence and knowledge needed to handle firearms safely and responsibly.

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06/01/2026
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Ready Position vs. Defensive Display: What Every Responsible Gun Owner Needs to Know

Understanding when you can legally and responsibly present a firearm is one of the most important parts of self defense training. This article breaks down the critical differences between a ready position, a defensive display, and unlawful brandishing in clear, real world terms. Learn how your intent, body language, movement, and decision making can shape the outcome of a defensive encounter both tactically and legally. Through relatable examples and practical insights drawn from modern self defense training principles, you will gain a better understanding of how to stay prepared without escalating danger unnecessarily. Whether you are new to concealed carry or an experienced shooter, this guide offers valuable lessons on awareness, de-escalation, firearm presentation, and use of force. Understanding these distinctions could help protect not only your safety, but your freedom as well.

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05/26/2026
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Women and Real-World Gear Choices: 2026 AG & AG National Conference Report

Every year, A Girl & A Gun’s National Conference delivers one of the clearest snapshots of how women are training, competing, and preparing across the firearms community. More than 700 women participated in UNITE 2026, generating one of the largest real-world firearms equipment datasets focused exclusively on women shooters in the United States. During the event’s Gear Check process, participants logged 783 pistols along with rifles, shotguns, optics, support gear, and safety equipment, providing valuable insight into the firearms and products women trust most on the range.

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05/22/2026
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Ready Positions for Every Environment: Virtual GNO

What do you do with a firearm when you’re not actively shooting? The answer seems simple, but the reality is far more nuanced. In this month’s Virtual Girls Night Out, Director of Training Tatiana Whitlock explores the often-overlooked topic of ready positions and explains why there is no single “right” answer for every situation. From compressed ready and low ready to high ready and Position Sul, Tatiana breaks down the purpose, advantages, limitations, and real-world applications of each technique. More importantly, she challenges common misconceptions and demonstrates how environment, range rules, physical ability, and safety considerations should drive your decisions. Whether you’re looking to build solid fundamentals or seeking a deeper understanding of firearm handling, this GNO offers valuable insights that will help you become safer, more adaptable, and more confident every time you handle a firearm.

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05/21/2026
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Low Ready: The Space Between Awareness and Action

The Low Ready position is one of the most commonly taught handgun positions in firearms training, yet its true purpose extends far beyond simply pointing the muzzle downward. While it often begins as a structured range position used for safety and drill organization, Low Ready ultimately serves as a critical bridge between awareness and action in defensive shooting. This article explores how the position supports decision-making, environmental awareness, communication, and emotional control under pressure, while examining the important differences between square-range habits and real-world defensive applications. By understanding when, why, and how to use Low Ready responsibly, shooters begin developing not only stronger gun-handling skills, but also the judgment and restraint that define mature firearms proficiency.

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05/18/2026
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Know Your Gear: The Safety Skill We Don’t Talk About Enough

At first glance, a simple rifle bag mix-up at a training event might seem like an isolated mistake, but the incident revealed something far more important about human performance under stress. In the middle of a busy conference environment filled with noise, movement, schedules, and mental overload, a shooter unknowingly handled another participant’s rifle despite noticing subtle differences that should have signaled something was wrong. The experience became a powerful reminder that stress, fatigue, routine, and cognitive overload can quietly narrow awareness and push even experienced individuals into autopilot. More importantly, it highlighted that responsible firearm ownership is not just about technical skill, but about maintaining intentional awareness, recognizing human limitations, and building habits that help identify problems before they escalate.

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05/13/2026
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Position Sul: The History, Purpose, and Truth Behind One of the Most Misunderstood Ready Positions

Few handgun ready positions spark as much debate as Position Sul. Mention it at a training event, and you’ll usually hear one of three things: someone loves it, someone hates it, or someone explains it with complete confidence while getting it completely wrong.

Developed by Brazilian law enforcement in the late 1990s, Position Sul was created to solve a specific problem: safely managing a handgun in crowded, confined spaces without unnecessarily muzzling other people. It was never intended to be a universal fighting stance or default ready position.

When used correctly, Sul can be an effective tool. When misunderstood or overapplied, it can create both tactical and safety issues. Like any technique, its value depends on understanding when, why, and how it should be used.

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05/12/2026
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Book Club: Without Conscience

At this month’s A Girl & A Gun Book Club meeting, members came together to discuss the thought-provoking book Without Conscience by Robert D. Hare, a groundbreaking exploration into the minds and behaviors of psychopaths and individuals who lack empathy and remorse. What began as a conversation about psychopathy quickly evolved into a much broader discussion about situational awareness, personal safety, human behavior, and the responsibilities that come with firearms training and instruction. The book left many members both fascinated and unsettled, challenging deeply held assumptions about what danger actually looks like and how manipulation can appear in everyday life. Throughout the evening, women openly shared insights, personal experiences, and practical ways to recognize harmful behavior patterns while emphasizing the importance of awareness, emotional protection, and preparedness. More than just a book discussion, the meeting became an empowering conversation centered on personal growth, confidence, and building healthier relationships and safer communities. For women seeking meaningful dialogue, encouragement, and real-world insight in a supportive environment, this gathering proved to be both eye-opening and deeply valuable.

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04/23/2026
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Fix Your Reload, Find Your Speed

Every shooter wants faster reloads, but the shooters who seem impossibly quick are rarely chasing speed itself. They are chasing efficiency. Smooth reloads are built through consistency, awareness, and disciplined movement that removes wasted motion before the timer ever reflects improvement. A clean reload is not about frantic hands or rushed decisions. It is about building repeatable habits that allow the gun, the magazine, and the shooter to work together without hesitation. When indexing becomes automatic, vision stays connected to the target, and both hands move with purpose, reloads stop feeling like a rushed interruption and start becoming a seamless part of the shooting process. These five principles break down the small details that separate fumbled reloads from confident, efficient gun handling, and once understood, they have the power to transform performance on the range.

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04/20/2026
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Slide Lever vs. Racking the Slide

Which Reload Method Is Faster, More Efficient, and More Accurate? There comes a point in your training when opinions stop mattering. The timer tells the truth. It shows you where you are fast. It shows you where you fumble. And it makes one thing very clear. The reload is not the goal. The next accurate shot is. Let’s settle the debate the right way. Do you rack the slide, or use the slide lever? The answer is simple. You test both and let your performance decide.

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04/13/2026
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Finding the Right Fit: What Every Woman Should Know About Choosing and Shooting a Firearm

There is a moment that happens for so many women when they step into the world of firearms. It is not loud or dramatic. It is quiet, and often filled with questions. Am I choosing the right gun? Why does this feel harder than it should? Is it me, or is it the equipment? These are not beginner questions. These are smart questions. And they deserve thoughtful answers. During a recent Virtual Girls Night Out, I sat down with Aimee Langdon of Langdon Tactical to explore exactly that. What started as a casual conversation quickly turned into a deep dive into one of the most important topics for any shooter: finding the right firearm for you.

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04/09/2026
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Spring Cleaning, but Make It Tactical

Spring has a funny way of calling you out.

It starts with the sunshine, maybe a cracked window, a little fresh air, and suddenly you are side-eyeing everything you have been ignoring since November. Closets. Gear bags. And yes, that gun safe you have been confidently closing the door on all winter like, “I will deal with it later.” Well, later is now. It is time to open the safe.

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04/06/2026
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It’s Not You, It’s the Gun: GNO with Aimee Langdon

If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s you or your equipment holding you back on the range, this is the conversation you don’t want to miss. In this Virtual Girls Night Out session, Robyn Sandoval spoke with Aimee Langdon of Langdon Tactical for an honest, behind-the-scenes discussion that goes far beyond surface-level advice. Together, they unpack what really matters when choosing a firearm, why so many women struggle with guns that “should” work, and how to confidently navigate an industry that hasn’t always been built with them in mind. From practical insights on fit and performance to real conversations about training, gear, and credibility, this discussion delivers the kind of clarity that can immediately change how shooters approach their time on the range. For anyone looking to shoot smarter, not harder, this is one recording worth hearing in full.

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04/02/2026
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Carrying Isn’t Enough: What Our Data Reveals About the Gap Between Carry and Capability

At A Girl & A Gun, we are in a unique position to understand how women are actually training. Each year at our National Conference, hundreds of women from across the country come together with a shared goal: to improve. They bring their experiences, their skills, and their insights, and in doing so, they give us something incredibly valuable: visibility. Through our pre-event skill assessment survey, one pattern emerged with surprising clarity: a consistent gap between carrying a firearm and regularly practicing the drawstroke.

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03/24/2026
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Slide Manipulations & Strength Building Exercises

This month’s Virtual Girls Night Out tackles one of the most misunderstood, and often frustrating, skills in shooting: slide manipulation. Far beyond simply “racking the slide,” this session breaks the process down into clear, repeatable techniques that work with your body instead of against it. From foundational mechanics like locking, releasing, and cycling the slide to understanding how proper technique can eliminate unnecessary struggle, this training reframes what many shooters assume is a strength issue into a skill-building opportunity. If you’ve ever felt like the gun was winning, this session shows you exactly how to take control back.

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03/19/2026
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Stronger Hands, Better Shooting: 10 Exercises Every Shooter Over 45 Should Be Doing

If your grip is failing, your shooting is already telling you. Maybe your sights don’t track the way they used to. Maybe your hands fatigue faster than they should. Maybe your trigger press feels inconsistent. That is not random. That is your body asking for attention. For women 45 and up, this matters even more. We are not chasing strength for the sake of it. We are building strength with purpose and protecting it with smart, consistent movement. These drills are practical, effective, and built for real life. Stay consistent, and your hands will show up for you when it matters most.

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03/19/2026
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Top 5 Pistol Reload Drills to Master Slide-Lock Reloads

Reloading a pistol smoothly and efficiently is one of the most important gun-handling skills a shooter can develop. When the slide locks back, the pistol is telling you something important: it’s hungry and you need to feed it. Whether you are brand new to handgun training or an experienced shooter refining advanced skills, these five pistol reload drills will help you master slide-lock reloads and keep the gun running when it matters most.

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03/10/2026
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Slide Manipulation for Sub-Compact Pistols

Sub-compact pistols are easy to carry, lightweight, compact, and concealable. Many shooters choose them as their first defensive gun. Yet these same features make them more challenging to operate The common assumption is that the shooter lacks strength. In most cases, that assumption is incorrect. The challenge is almost always mechanical. Once the shooter understands how sub-compact pistols function, the solution becomes much clearer.

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03/10/2026
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Being On Deck: Why Match Flow Matters

Everybody knows what “on deck” means. If you haven’t played baseball or softball, you’ve at least heard it in A League of Their Own, Field of Dreams, The Sandlot, or Bull Durham. If not, we might need to schedule an A Girl & A Gun movie night. But where did those words come from? And more importantly for shooting matches, what exactly are you supposed to be doing when someone says you’re on deck? Those simple phrases are part of a system that keeps competitions moving safely and efficiently. Understanding that system is one of the first lessons in shooting match etiquette, and it helps every competitor contribute to the flow of the squad.

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03/07/2026
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How Can I Improve My Trigger Control?

Trigger control is one of the most important handgun shooting fundamentals because it directly affects accuracy, consistency, recoil management, and follow-up shots. Mastering trigger control involves much more than simply pressing the trigger. It requires understanding how the trigger moves through each stage of the trigger press, optimizing trigger-finger placement based on your hand and firearm, knowing when and how the trigger resets, and developing the mental discipline to execute every shot with confidence. This comprehensive guide brings together four in-depth articles that explain the mechanics, technique, and mindset behind effective trigger control. You’ll learn how trigger travel influences performance, why proper finger placement varies from shooter to shooter, when riding the trigger reset can help or hinder your shooting, and how anticipation and decision-making affect accuracy before your finger ever touches the trigger. Whether you’re a new handgun owner building strong fundamentals or an experienced shooter refining your skills, these proven techniques will help you improve trigger control, shoot with greater consistency, and develop the confidence needed for success in self-defense, competition, and recreational shooting.

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03/01/2026
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Situational Awareness for Everyday Life

Recently, I read Jim Shanahan’s perspective on situational awareness in the Rangemaster Newsletter, and his position on the subject was inspiring. Rather than anchoring the discussion in Cooper’s Color Codes or treating awareness as a fluctuating mental state, he reframed it entirely. He defined situational awareness as the intersection of space, time, and self, elevating it from a reactive mindset to a structured discipline that can be observed, measured, and intentionally developed.

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02/26/2026

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