Award / Empowered 2A / Gun Owners Foundation

The DY9Z: 2026 Empowered 2A Gun of the Year

Named by Empowered 2A, the women's initiative of Gun Owners of America's sister foundation, and celebrated on the floor at GOALS 2026 in Des Moines. The signature Black Cherry with Silver slide is a Sports South exclusive, shipping nationwide right now.

Awards in this industry usually go to the loudest launch or the biggest ad budget. This one went to the pistol people actually carry. Empowered 2A, the women's program of Gun Owners Foundation — the education and litigation arm alongside Gun Owners of America — has named the Derya DY9Z its 2026 Gun of the Year, an honor for firearms that put real performance, reliability, and personal style within reach of every responsible gun owner, and especially the fast-growing community of women who train, carry, and defend their families with it.

The DY9Z earned it the unglamorous way: 15+1 rounds of 9mm in a slim micro-compact frame, an optics-ready slide, a factory trigger that embarrasses guns at twice the price, and fifteen colorways — all at a value price most competitors can't touch.

Design Intent

Built for Her. Built for Him.

Derya cares about the whole 2A community — women and men — and that care was engineered into the DY9Z from the first drawing, not sprayed on afterward. The changeable S, M, and L backstraps mean the same pistol locks into a smaller hand as confidently as a larger one. The slim, lightweight frame carries comfortably on any body type and with any wardrobe. The controls are positioned for positive manipulation regardless of hand strength, and the recoil behavior of a 15+1 micro-compact was tuned so a new shooter's hundredth round feels as controlled as a veteran's ten-thousandth.

The colors are the same idea carried to the surface. Every one of the fifteen frame colors is formulated in-house so nobody gets a watered-down version. There is no “ladies’ edition” here. There is one gun, engineered for everyone who carries it — which is exactly the intent Empowered 2A recognized.

Des Moines · August 1–2

Center Stage at GOA's 50th Anniversary

The Gun of the Year got its victory lap at the Gun Owners Advocacy & Leadership Summit — GOALS 2026 — as Gun Owners of America marked fifty years of no-compromise Second Amendment advocacy at the Iowa Events Center. Thousands of members, activists, and dealers came through the Derya booth, and one pistol on the table drew the crowd all weekend.

The Signature

Black Cherry Frame. Silver Slide.

DY9Z · Black Cherry / Silver · 9x19 · 15+1

This is the configuration that headlined the win. The deep Black Cherry polymer is a color Derya formulates in-house at its own injection facility — no off-the-shelf resin, no dye job. The slide follows the Derya finish doctrine: melonite first, silver cerakote over it — diffusion-hardened steel underneath, refined silver on top. Sophistication on the outside, a working gun's finish schedule underneath.

Distribution Exclusive · Available Now

Black Cherry / Silver is a Sports South exclusive.

The signature DY9Z is stocked exclusively through Sports South LLC — which means any dealer in the country can have it on the counter with one order. It is in stock and shipping throughout the USA today. Dealers: call your Sports South rep or pull it up in their system now.

In Every Box

Italian Steel: The ACT-MAG Standard

Ask any armorer where semi-autos actually fail and the honest answer is the magazine. That is the one corner Derya refuses to cut. Every DY9Z ships with an ACT-MAG magazine built for the 43X/DY9Z platform — made in Italy in Gardone Val Trompia, the Brescia valley that has been producing firearms for five centuries.

ACT-MAG earned its name as an OEM magazine maker for firearm manufacturers around the world, with a long track record of high-performing, precision-built magazines. That heritage is what feeds every round in your DY9Z — dependable for all, from the first-time owner to the everyday carrier.

Why It Won

The Case in Six Lines

Full specifications, the complete package contents, and the 3D model are on the DY9Z product page.

Fifteen Flavors

One Winner, Fifteen Ways to Wear It

Black Cherry with Silver is the signature — but the Gun of the Year comes in fifteen colorways, from Classic Black and Grey to Purple, Pink, Blue, FDE, ODG, Midnight Bronze, and Barrett Brown, in black-slide and silver-slide builds. See every one in The Flavors of the Derya DY9Z Pistols.

Get Yours

The Gun of the Year is at a counter near you.