Kate Woolstenhulme grew up on a ranch near Jackson Wyoming in Teton Valley Idaho, actively pursuing outdoor sports and being an everyday kid in Idaho.

She went to college in Utah and Kansas, where she pursued a bachelor’s and masters of fine arts degree in studio arts and later parlayed those skills into a business refurbishing high-end private jets.

Living and working in large cities, Woolstenhulme told American Shooting Journal that she felt a need to get a concealed carry permit so she could protect herself. But finding a fashionable bag for carrying a concealed weapon proved challenging, so she set about making her own.

http://fashionmaniac.com/women-concealed-weapons/

Kate Woolstenhulme was stumped by a vexing problem after she finally got her concealed-carry permit: Her gun didn’t go with her purse.

Woolstenhulme and her husband owned a private jet management company and regularly met with high-profile customers, so she needed a business-friendly handbag for her hidden weapon. Manufacturers of gun-friendly purses, she says dismissively, offer things that are “functional for women” but “not in tune with the fact that women like style.”

It's been said that necessity is the mother of invention. It's with that in mind that Kate Woolstenhulme created a line of designer handbags that allow women to carry their concealed weapons in style.

The gun debate reached a fever-pitch last year following the horrific shootings in Aurora, Newtown, and most recently, at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. Even some gun enthusiasts are starting to question the government’s regulations on security checks and black market sales.

But now one woman has seemingly placed herself in the middle of the debate in an unconventional way.

Meet Kate Woolstenhulme, the Dallas-based founder of Designer Concealed Carry handbags, a line of bags designed for hiding handguns that is now expanding to include new products. 

While Kate Woolstenhulme was waiting for her concealed-carry permit to come through, she looked around for a handbag to hold her weapon. She couldn’t carry it in a regular bag and be digging for it while an attacker shot her dead. That would be pointless. But she lived in Miami, where you rarely wore a jacket, which could hide a holster, and where clothing tended to be tight. Holster bags for women did exist, but they weren’t made with fashion considerations in mind. “Living in Miami, you’re wearing colorful clothes, so choosing a black or brown handbag just wasn’t going to work for me,” Woolstenhulme said. In her business—she refurbishes private jets—looking fashionable was a job requirement. She thought, I can’t be the only woman on the planet who wants the same style in her handbag that she had before she decided to carry a firearm.

Dallas, TX –-(Ammoland.com)- Designer Concealed Carry, the leading line of high end and stylish handbags with removable, adjustable holster which fits any size handgun, announced today its new line of handbags with improved innovative features for women to safely carry their handgun or other defensive weapon while keeping it accessible.

“Women want to feel confident, responsible and safe and Designer Concealed Carry offers that along with beauty and style in a handbag that can safely secure a handgun,” explains Kate Woolstenhulme, founder of Designer Concealed Carry. “Woolstenhulme’s Bags are so well designed and beautifully crafted that no one would ever think that a gun was secured safely inside of it!”

Kate Woolstenhulme walks out of the grocery store, she does so with vigilance. Woolstenhulme keeps a handgun securely tucked inside her purse, which also has room for pepper spray and a laser pointer capable of inducing temporary blindness.

Woolstenhulme began carrying a gun in 2008, around the time of Barack Obama’s presidential election. She looked high and low for a purse that met her fashion and safety standards. After a particularly disappointing shopping trip, she had an epiphany.

A Dallas designer has created a handbag collection for women who want to carry their handguns next to their wallet.  

Kate Woolstenhulme, founder of Designer Concealed Carry handbags, offers styles that start at $269 for a canvas carrier and go up to $4,200 for a crocodile version.

Fashionista reports that the bags have dual-locking zippers with a holster that allow the owner to quickly grab her weapon - but also stop it from flying out.

Living in the left-leaning, media-elite world of New York City, it's difficult to imagine—let alone understand—that 34% of Americans own a gun. And 43% of those gun-owners are women. Laws about carrying weapons in public vary by state and municipality, but unless you live in Illinois, you probably pass a civilian every day who is carrying a gun. That may sound scary as shit to you—I know it does to me—but I've put my liberal bias aside to speak with Dallas-based Kate Woolstenhulme, the founder of Designer Concealed Carry handbags, a collection engineered to safely conceal your gun in a way a traditional purse can't. The bags, which start at $269 for a canvas style and go up to $4,200 for a crocodile version, have dual-locking zippers with a holster that allows the owner to quickly grab her weapon, but not too quickly. The hope is that a kid couldn't run up and grab a gun and shoot people. And that it won't fly out of your purse like a wallet or a cell phone. Woolstenhulme's story is, if anything, unique. And her attitude toward weapons reminds me that a big part of this country lives by another set of social mores.