You know what the problem is, pro-gun folks who suggest that a gun makes you safer have an agenda. They're desperately trying to justify their own decision to own and carry a gun. In a free country like the United States you're certainly able to carry a gun if you want to, but it's not the smart move.Repeated studies have shown that people who own a handgun are at a high risk of that gun being used against them. Unfortunately, people who perpetrate violent crimes are often more adept at using, and more ready to use, handguns.
The fact is that very few rapes are perpetrated by strangers. We warn our children, our friends and family members to be careful of strangers when we should be warning them about those they know. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, most sexual assaults (approximately two-thirds) are perpetrated by someone the victim knows and trusts.
How willing and able would you be to pull the trigger on your relative, friend, spouse, boyfriend or someone else you know?
The gun-rights extremists love to point out anecdotal situations in which a gun MIGHT have helped, but they reject all the other anecdotal situations in which the gun did more harm than good.
Studies have backed this up, as the article mentioned, but I always prefer to use common sense. Assuming that no negligent discharge ever happens during the entire time you own the gun, and assuming no gun is ever stolen from you, and let's say you never get depressed and take you own life with the gun and that you never go off the deep end over work or economic or relationship stress. Let's say it never happens that on a dark night you mistakenly shoot somebody who didn't need shootin', let's assume all that.
As protection against rape the gun is still practically useless. If your rapist is one of the 75% who know their victims, it'll be too late by the time push comes to shove. If the rapist is one of the 25% who don't know their victim, he'll probably be quicker and better prepared and more willing to use violence than you.
Like all gun ownership and concealed carry, the gun can make you FEEL safer, but that's illusory, ungrounded in facts and irrrational. It's a bad decision to carry a gun when the chances of it saving you are so low and the chances of it causing harm are so high.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
This is not correct.It's made-up BS to fit your side's talking points.
ReplyDeleteRecent findings are that the WORST advice that had been given to women in the past was "be passive, don't fight" . The idea being that as you say some weapons can be turned against a person or the attacker will be come more enraged if you are not a compliant victim.
I can accept that when it comes to weapons that require close contact and superior physical strength to do their work, yes a woman can be over powered. Aaaand so that is the point of a gun. I does NOT require superior physical strength or proximity to be effective. Knives, not so good.
Guns, yeah ladies use what you can to fight back, use what you can to scare an attacker and use what you can to defend yourself or your daughters.
Guns, a girls best friend.
I'd like to see as many do-gooder males writing this much and this often to rapists and abusers. Wriningin their hands and lamenting abou the state of the owrld when so many women are abused dialy. But no this is acccpeted.
It's nomral for Battered Women's shelters to be full. MIraculously you DO have time and effort to implore women to be "passive", and not use guns, becuae "we might get hurt"
LOL women are getting hurt right now. At least if you take a chunk out of your attacker you can feel some pride. Tell your daughters to fight back, to be committed to do what it takes. WE are not the aggressors, we are not the problem. Imploring women not to avail themselves of anything that equalizes the power imbalance, you're just complicit.
Abuse against women is epidemic, why don't you get all up in arms about THAT? Call for reforms?
IN all my years of blog reading, never saw a man worry about it, not once. Never saw a male blogger get all outraged. Never.
The way to prevent the gun form being used by a woman in self-defense is...
for the mutherfucker not to attack reprimanding the victim. That's nuts.
And when I say nuts,
I mean nuts.
In a hurry, therefore many typos, I'm sure you can follow. Except at the end. "Reprimanding the victim" is a new sentence. Oh well, Us gun-toting trailer trash girls
ReplyDeleteWe dumb ya know...
Gun ownership seems to give many people a false sense of security.
ReplyDeleteI have relatives who own small armories of weapons and still live in fear. Their problem is psychological not a lack of security.
When it comes to home invasion, you may think that owning a gun makes you safe, whereas if you own a very large dog, you are safe. Of course,you can own both, but the gun is largely redundant, although it is a great fetish object for show-and-tell-time at Thanksgiving.
Physical assaults, sexual or otherwise, usually happen so quickly that the victim doesn't have much chance to pull a gun. The criminal will end up taking it, at which point the victim can only hope it isn't used on them.
In fact, conceal carry owners may find themselves targeted for assault simply because their weapon has considerable street value. Open carry might be a better deterrent, at least you wouldn't have to take off your mittens, unzip the parka and reach inside for the shoulder holster...at which point you are unconscious.
The law permits you to carry a concealed weapon but it doesn't permit you to whip it out every time you feel threatened or paranoid, for instance when the mere presence of a black man unnerves you. In fact, doing so might give another concealed carry citizen reason to fear for their lives and take what they think is appropriate defensive action. It's Wild West time boys and girls!
The most likely used of these weapons will come during drunken arguments in bar parking lots and settling family disputes. The stats already bear this out.
Plenty of people with repeated misdemeanor assault charges are now permitted to carry weapons. Often the only reason they weren't convicted of a felony is that an overworked D.A. accepted a plea bargain to avoid the cost of a trial. I assume there will be an uptick in shootings in Wisconsin until these people weed themselves out by using their guns on someone. In the meantime, I'll be staying out of bars...and trailer parks.
Good luck to everyone and congratulations to the gun industry on their increased sales.