Of course. I've mentioned several times on THR that my wife is as into guns, shooting, concealed carry and hunting as I am. And she has as many guns as I do, maybe more. Our oldest daughter is into all of those things too. And like our oldest daughter who took the Idaho Enhanced Concealed Carry Class with her fiancé last summer, my wife took it with me. I don't know what things are like elsewhere, but here I noticed that there were just as many women in that class as there were men.
I grew up hunting with both Dad
and Mom, and with my little sister too once she got old enough. However, my wife was born and raised in Southern California, and as much as she wanted to get into guns and shooting, her mom wouldn't allow it. Besides that, her dad, who wasn't actually against gun ownership, preferred keeping the peace with his wife and didn't push the issue. He didn't even stand up when my wife (his daughter) wanted to join the rifle team at school - they actually had those things in Southern California high schools back then.
So when my wife married me (49 years ago come June) she took to guns and shooting like a duck to water. By the '80s, she was one of the top IHMSA competitors in the state, and she'd killed as many deer, elk, ducks, geese and pheasants as I had. She's killed as many as most of the men I know, or knew back then too.
Then, by the '90s, with our kids grown and off on their own, my wife went back to work outside the home. Because we live a ways out, and my wife sometimes worked late, she got herself a little 38 snubby to carry back and forth to work. Sometime in the late '90s, she got a concealed carry license (several years before I got one myself) and started carrying all the time.
As far as whether or not there's some kind of trend nowadays towards more women owning guns goes, like I said - I wouldn't know about anywhere else. I
do know this: in the last couple of years, at least 4 women have approached my wife asking for advice about carry guns. In fact, just before this virus thing hit, a rancher friend of ours asked me to bring my wife and a couple of guns over to his and his wife's place because his wife wanted to start carrying. So we did, and we all went out behind the house and shot handguns for a couple of hours before going inside for coffee and conversation about carrying. BTW, over coffee, we found out the ranchers wife was into deer and elk hunting just like her husband.
However, I have to admit that our youngest daughter, who like her older sister grew up around guns and hunting, is far too tender hearted to kill an animal, and she probably doesn't even own a gun. So I don't know if you'd call it ironic or what that she's a wheel with one of the nation's largest hunting and conservation organizations.