I must say, I have quite a bit of experience in this area... dating amongst a heavily anti-rights population of ladies. I have dated MANY women who are initially anti-gun, but only because they have no positive exposure to firearms information. These are women who you can work with and they can turn out to be amazing catches. For that reason, I disagree with the folks who say "tell her about your hobby and if she objects, move on". You don't want to hide your hobby from her, nor do you want to scare her with a discussion of tactics. Here are some approaches that I have used; each bullet point might be a series of questions I would ask of one date:
-Do you like the outdoors? Do you fish? <if you get answers of "yes", then continue> Have you ever hunted? <if you got answers of "no", maybe table the topic>
-Did you grow up in an outdoorsy family? Did your father hunt?
-Have you ever shot a gun? <lots of good answers from this one, especially if she says in a positive tone "no, have you? I'd like to learn" <- Jackpot
>
-I think women should carry pepper spray. Do you carry it? <make sure she is comfortable with you first, or that question could scare her. If she says "yes
", then you can proceed from there, perhaps>
-Have you ever lived in a dangerous area? <if "yes" continue> Was it a scary experience? Or, how did it make you feel? Did you take any steps to ensure your safety? <you can judge her comfort level in this type of topic and continue or change topics>
I had a woman coming to visit me once. On the phone, I told her flat out, "so that you are comfortable visiting me, I want to let you know that I own guns". It scared her... She asked me lots of questions, to the point that she learned that I carry a gun. That scared her more and she didn't understand it. She asked me "when I visit you, will you please not carry a gun around me?". I reluctantly told her "yes, but with one catch... The first thing we do when you get here, is that I take us to the range and teach you how to safely handle a gun.". I was shocked when she agreed. She came to visit me. We had a great time at the range and I did not push the carry-issue after that. I took her out into the city for a show that night. As soon as we had walked back to the car, driving home, she said to me "I think it would be fine for you to carry a gun around me". I asked her what made her make this decision. She said "walking back to the car at night, I had come to the realization that I had taken from you the ability to protect us". It was a very good visit.
I was very serious about one girl, so I asked her flat out "are you afraid of guns, because I own some". She said "no", but I soon found out that she was not truthful in her response. Soon after that, she tried to stop me from carrying. I told her "that is not happening". She told me that I was not welcome to bring a firearm into her house - so, I stopped visiting her place. It was frustrating and it eventually ended.
