Valentine's Day sales of pink pistols and other handguns rise

With women's participation in gun sports on the rise and manufacturers responding with feminine firearms that are even pink and red, many are buying a new gun as a gift for their Valentine.

A few years ago, Mike Blackwell, owner of Big Boy's Guns and Ammo in Oklahoma City, started noticing that his store's sales went up in the week before Valentine's Day.

“The Saturday before Valentine's Day is one of our best days of the year,” he said. “The last two years we've set sale records.”

The shop, at 8620 SW 74, carries a variety of handguns geared toward women in colors like pink, red, green and yellow. Also stocked are pink headphones and goggles for women to wear to the range.

Women's participation in target shooting has increased 46.5 percent from 2001 to 2010, according to the latest data available from the National Sporting Goods Association. And their participation in hunting rose 36.6 percent over the same time period.