Website mygunculture.com just put out what they consider to be a fantastic “15 Gifts for the Gun-Loving Girl” list, and a quick perusal of the content was more than enough motivation for me to make a few seasonal suggestions of my own. Christmas is only a few days away, but if you’re like me you’ve procrastinated to the very last moment and will be joining the frenzied droves of shoppers packing the roads and aisles on Christmas Eve itself. And if you do happen to have a true gun-loving girl (woman) in your life, I have a few suggestions of my own.

On the mygunculture.com list every single item was deeply female-specific: sparkling jewelry, rhinestone-festooned hair clips/combs, scarves, and a brightly colored purse holster (and let’s not get me started on purse holsters). And while it’s true that the gun-loving girl in your life is, well, female, something else is true as well: we love guns. And while our tastes may differ and we have varying levels of devotion to firearms, if the gun-lover in your life really does love guns, I’m here to tell you shopping for her is going to be easy: hit the gun store. Do you know what I really want for Christmas? Guns. Guns and ammo, and I don’t mean the magazine.

Guns are, of course, a rather high-ticket item, especially if you’re looking at higher-end handguns or particularly awesome rifles. Then again you can snag a rifle chambered in .22LR for a decent price, and those are fun guns. They’re like potato chips: once you fire a .22, you don’t want to stop. There’s just something about them. Ammunition is more affordable and comes with quite a bit of variety; sadly, few people believe me when I reply “ammo” when asked what I really want to find under my tree on Christmas morning. But you know it’s true, there’s no such thing as too much range time or too much ammo, so snag a box or three of ammo and make good on that promise to spend some trigger time with your gun-loving girl.

Dear Santa…

What else can you get a true gun-loving girl? Well, what do you want for Christmas? A new holster? Range bag? Trigger gloves? A Lee reloading press? Those of us women who really, truly love guns enjoy the same things you do: guns, ammo, and quality gear. Finding a rhinestone-bedazzled fake-casing bracelet under the tree isn’t nearly as awesome as a case of 10mm, and finding the firearm chambered in said cartridge is even better. I’m not discounting the fact that some women would be thrilled to have gun-related jewelry, and I, myself, have a few earrings and rings made of actual casings or blatantly gun-themed styles. But why not buy the real thing first? We’re gun-loving women, and we want guns! And ammo! So when you realize it’s almost Christmas and you still need to do some shopping, make things easy – and fun – and make a beeline for your local gun store. If she’s a true aficionado, she’s going to love getting the real thing more than any piece of themed jewelry. And please, I beg of you, leave the purse holsters, bra holsters, and other gender-specific gear on the shelves. We’ll talk about that more in the coming weeks.

Merry Christmas, guys! Now, get to the gun store and buy something truly nice for the gun-loving woman in your life.