Jamie Kerley, owner of The Ridge Gun Range, is on a mission to empower women with the skills and confidence to handle firearms for self-defense.
Kerley’s focus stems from a belief that women often don’t realize they can be targets.
“I’ve actually sat in the Walmart parking lot in my car for about 15-20 minutes and watched women just hop out of their cars on the phone, not paying attention to their surroundings. They don’t realize that at any moment they could be a target,” she said.
Kerley emphasized that in today’s world, everyone faces some level of risk. However, she believes many women avoid carrying firearms because they lack familiarity and comfort with them.
“They’ve never had anybody show them. I hate to say it like this, but other than their uncles or their dads,” Kerley said most women haven’t interacted with firearms.
Kerley herself has no law enforcement or military background. Instead, she describes herself as “just a chick who took a concealed carry course” and felt compelled to share her knowledge.
Now certified through the Department of Justice and the National Rifle Association (NRA), Kerley teaches North Carolina and Virginia concealed carry classes, with a special emphasis on welcoming women.
“We do a lot of that stuff here, especially with women. I’ve actually taught a young lady who has cerebral palsy—she has one hand, one eye, and a bad leg. I worked with her for about six months,” she said.
Kerley regularly offers women-only classes, believing they foster a more comfortable environment.
“I’ve had a lot of people come, and that’s what they say,” she said. “I had a lady and a guy who were staying at Meadows of Dan. They stopped by here, and they’re from Edenton, North Carolina. She said, ‘I’ve been looking for like three years for a firearm, and I went to every gun shop.’ She told me, ‘You’ve made me feel so comfortable.’”
Kerley noted that the woman plans to return for her concealed carry class.
As a woman in a male-dominated field, Kerley understands the challenges.
“At every gun range I’ve been to, I didn’t feel comfortable. I didn’t feel welcome. That’s what I wanted to change here,” she said.
Kerley also teaches women techniques tailored to their unique needs, such as how to draw a firearm from the various places they might carry it.
“For men, it’s easy. They’re either carrying” in one of two common ways, she said. “Women, we carry in all different places. So that’s one thing I do that a lot of other places don’t do.”
Since taking over the business on Jan. 1, Kerley has sought to create a welcoming, family-oriented atmosphere at the range, which was previously known as Rabbit Ridge Gun Range.
Instead of celebrating an annual anniversary in January, Kerley decided to hold a family reunion each October.
“The family is anybody who’s ever been here and anybody who’s welcome to be here because we’re open to the public,” she said.
The most recent reunion featured tables filled with food brought by regulars and a lively atmosphere on the shooting range.
“My whole goal here when I opened was to be like Cheers, but without the alcohol,” she said. “I didn’t want it to feel like just a gun range.”
Kerley also prioritizes gun safety education for children.
“There’s a lot of people who want their children to learn the correct way. You can’t teach them the correct way all the time in the backyard. Bring them here, and they learn about gun safety,” she said.
Her six-year-old daughter shoots a .22 rifle from a tripod, while her nine-year-old son practices with a pistol.
Kerley hopes to dispel misconceptions about firearms.
“My whole goal is to get everybody to know that guns aren’t the problem; it’s the people behind them. If they’re not safe and don’t know the correct way, that’s a lot of the problem,” she said.
The Ridge Gun Range charges by the day and allows visitors to bring their own firearms and ammunition, which is also available for purchase onsite.
“The only thing I don’t allow in here are armor-piercing or tracer rounds, but everything else I allow,” Kerley said.
The facility includes a regular gun range, a long-distance rifle range, and a clay range.
For more information, contact Kerley at (276) 251-2013 or theridgerange@yahoo.com. Details are also available at Facebook.com/TheRidgeGunRange.
