Most Popular Handguns at A Girl & A Gun's 2023 National Conference

Apparently great minds do think alike, at least when it comes to great guns for women. We have recently learned that the Walther PDP has propelled from ninth position in 2022 to surpass the world’s most ubiquitous firearm, the Glock 19, to top the leaderboard for the most popular choice of handguns by attendees at the A Girl & A Gun’s 11th Annual National Conference, AMPLIFY 2023. And even though Walther nudged out the Glock 19, the manufacturer retained its position as the No. 1 brand of handguns brought by attendees cumulatively (24.2%), with a variety of models identified. Although the rankings were not the result of a competition, data like this corroborates findings of NRA Women and other surveys of favorite handguns. The Walther PDP and PDP F-Series earned back-to-back NRA Golden Bullseye Awards for Handgun of the Year (2022-2023). You can see the complete list of handguns brought the AG & AG conference below.

As we’ve been promoting for some years now, we consistently report on this website that each woman should take the time to determine which gun is right for her. And thanks to the influx of guns in recent years that women enjoy shooting, the decision of which gun is best for her is a moving taget. That is great news for our industry. When information surfaces that supports previous data, we proudly celebrate the unity across our platforms. Many of the makes and models of the pistols are those that we see regularly appear on annual surveys by various girl gun groups. The fact is, female-centric firearm training groups like A Girl & A Gun are contributing greatly to the community of gun ownership among women, fostering exceptional training, responsible and safe gun use—all in a welcoming and supportive environment. So it’s no surprise that women are sharing what they love about their choices in firearms.

Such is this case once again, as some 600 AG & AG members from around the country attended the group's national conference, bringing along their peresonal handguns with which to train. While we have no way of knowing if many of these women were the same who attended the 2022 conference, the brands and models of the 843 handguns “in attendance” in 2023 looked like this:

1. Walther PDP (11.39%)
—16 PDP; 80 PDP F-Series pistols

2. GLOCK 19 (9.61%)
Gen 2, Gen 3, Gen 4, and Gen 5 models

3. SIG Sauer P365 (8.78%)
—26 standard models; 28 P365XL models

4. Sig Sauer P320 (8.07%)
—38 P320s and 30 X5 Legion models

5. Smith & Wesson M&P Shield (7.00%)
—39 were the standard Shield model and 20 were the Shield EZ

6. Heckler & Koch VP9 (4.63%)
—30 standard models; 3 Match models, and 6 SK models

7. Glock 17 (3.8%)

8. Glock 43 (3.86%)
—12 G43; 19 G43X models

9. Glock 34 (2.61%)

10. CZ P-10 (2.37%)
—4 full-size models and 16 compact models

Honorable Mention: Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 (2.14%)

Handguns for Women, Determined By Women
Glock was the Title Sponsor of the 11th Annual A Girl & A Gun National Conference, and Glock was by far the most popular choice among the participants: 24.2% of all handguns used were Glock models. The following lists all of the brands of handguns that the women brought to training: